[mythtv-users] Is there an approved may to remove frontend settings?

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Sun, Feb 2, 2014 at 5:09 PM, Mike Perkins
<mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> wrote:
.....
> Whenever this question is asked, the answer is always in terms of the space
> used. That is almost always /never/ why the question is asked. More like, it
> is an attempt by the user to clean out the table(s) so that fault finding
> becomes less of an exercise in hacking one's way through a jungle.
>
> Over the lifetime of a system like mine[1] the settings table gets filled
> with various test systems, retired hosts and rebuilds where the hostname
> suddenly changes from a single name to fully qualified domain name - or vice
> versa.

The OP question did not state that the question was only about
the settings table.

One of the issues is that in some tables, the hostname is "suggestive"
and not "definitive".  And the role of a host might have changed over
time ([S]BEs sometimes turn into FEs, or vice versa, and as many
note, "localhost" can end up in interesting places).

I personally like cleanliness.  But unless you really really understand
the business logic of the MythTV application, and how it uses the DB
info, deleting or modifying the DB directly is likely to result in "something
bad happening" at some point.

And, since this list is archived, any recommendations that are
made today may be followed by someone in the future without
understanding that everything has changed.

When it comes to direct DB manipulation, "Just say no"
(at least on-list; what you do in the privacy of your own
PC is your business).