Upgrade your ArchiveBox collection to a new versionď
Note: Itâs recommended to only upgrade one major version at a time. e.g. if youâre on v0.4.14
, upgrade to v0.5.6
next, then v0.6.3
, and finally v0.7.1
(as 3 separate steps).
You can specify exact versions with pip like so: pip install archivebox==0.6.3
or with docker docker pull archivebox/archivebox:0.6.3
. Upgrading directly across multiple major versions may work in some cases, but is not recommended for maximum data safety.
â Upgrading checklist:
Find the version you want to upgrade to on https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/releases
Read the release notes carefully for any instructions or extra steps around upgrading for each release youâre skipping or installing
Make a full backup of your
index.sqlite3
andarchive/
content before upgrading!gzip -9 < index.sqlite3 > "index.sqlite3.$(date +%s).bak"
Follow the steps below depending on your setup to run
archivebox init
(repeating as necessary for each major version if upgrading across multiple major versions)Confirm the upgrade succeeded and check for any orphan/corrupted snapshots with
archivebox status
đŹ Open an issue in our bug tracker if you experience any problems with upgrading/merging/modifying collections.
âšď¸ How it works internally:
The same command is used for initializing a new archive and upgrading an existing one. archivebox init
is indempotent and safely be run multiple times. Running it will ensure your collection is on the latest version and all the files are in their correct locations. archivebox status
can be used to check for orphan/corrupted snapshots or invalid index data.
There are three main areas on disk that ArchiveBox modifies during upgrades:
index.sqlite3
contains the SQLite3 DB index that gets upgraded automatically by Django based on the changes inarchivebox/core/models.py
.archive/*/index.json
these files are redundant json exports of the data for each Snapshot inindex.sqlite3
, these files are overwritten on everyarchivebox update
run or anytime the Snapshot is modified from the GUI or CLI. These files will be lazily updated to the latest schema versions as ArchiveBox accesses them, but are usually not modified in bulk duringarchivebox init
when upgrading.archive/*
the Snapshot output files may be moved or renamed by future upgrades (so far they have remained unchanged since v0.1, but future versions reserve the right to change their locations)
The ArchiveBox.conf
file is not modified by upgrades and should remain forward-compatible across future versions (even when config options are renamed, we check the old names internally to maintain compatibility).
As of v0.4 and above, ArchiveBox uses the Django migrations system for deterministic, atomic, safe upgrades, so your DB should always be left in a consistent state in the event of a failure or power outage. If you need help fixing a corrupted collection, open an issue using the link above.
More info:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/migrations/
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Upgrading-or-Merging-Archives#database-migrations-errors-or-upgrade-issues
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Troubleshooting
Upgrading with Docker Compose âď¸ď
Using Docker Compose is recommended because it makes upgrading a breeze! â¨
Pulling and running the latest version automatically upgrades the ArchiveBox collection and all of ArchiveBoxâs internal dependencies.
cd ~/archivebox # or wherever your data folder is
docker-compose down # stop the currently running archivebox containers
docker-compose down # run twice to clear stopped containers
docker-compose pull # pull the latest image version from Docker Hub
docker-compose up # collection will be automatically upgraded as it starts
More info:
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox#%EF%B8%8F-easy-setup
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#docker-compose
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#setup
Upgrading with plain Dockerď
Upgrading with plain Docker is similar to the process with Docker Compose, but you have to run archivebox init
manually at the end to finish the process.
docker ps -a -q --filter ancestor=archivebox/archivebox # find any currently running archivebox containers
docker kill <image> # stop any currently running archivebox versions
docker pull archivebox/archivebox
docker run -v $PWD:/data -it archivebox/archivebox init --setup # upgrade the collection to the latest version
# restart the archivebox server container if needed
docker run -v $PWD:/data -it -p 8000:8000 archivebox/archivebox server 0.0.0.0:8000
More info:
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox#%EF%B8%8F-easy-setup
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#docker
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#setup-1
Upgrading with a package managerď
Package manager releases take a lot of effort to maintain (contributions welcome!) and sometimes lag behind the Docker releases. We make a best effort to have the latest release available through all channels within a reasonable timeframe.
cd ~/archivebox # or wherever your data folder is
killall archivebox # stop the currently running archivebox version
# upgrade ArchiveBox using the package manager you originally used to install it
pip install --upgrade archivebox
# or
brew upgrade archivebox
# or
apt install --upgrade archivebox
# or with the optional auto-installer script
curl -sSL 'https://get.archivebox.io' | sh
archivebox init # run init to upgrade the collection to the latest version
archivebox update --index-only # optionally force an update of the snapshot index files (normally done lazily, see issue #962 for more info)
archivebox status # check that everything succeeded
More info:
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox#-package-manager-setup
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Install#manual-setup
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/pip-archivebox
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/homebrew-archivebox
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/docker-archivebox
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/debian-archivebox
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/electron-archivebox
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/archivebox
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/applications/misc/archivebox/default.nix
Merge two or more existing archivesď
Two or more existing ArchiveBox collection dirs can be merged together by simply combining the contents of archive/*
and re-running archivebox init
to pull the new Snapshots into the index.
Upgrade both old collections to the most recent ArchiveBox version (following instructions above)
pip install --upgrade archivebox # or follow instructions above for upgrading w/ Docker
cd /path/to/archivebox1/data
archivebox init --setup
archivebox status
cd /path/to/archivebox2/data
archivebox init --setup
archivebox status
# ... repeat the same for each collection if merging more than two
Create a new empty archivebox collection in a new folder somewhere, this will hold the new merged collection
mkdir /path/to/archivebox_new
cd /path/to/archivebox_new
archivebox init --setup
Copy everything under
./archive/*
in each old collection into the new collectionâs./archive/
folder
rsync --archive --info=progress2 /path/to/archivebox1/data/archive/ /path/to/archivebox_new/data/archive
rsync --archive --info=progress2 /path/to/archivebox2/data/archive/ /path/to/archivebox_new/data/archive
# ...repeat the same for each collection if merging more than two
Run
archivebox init
in the new merged collection to regenerate the new index
cd /path/to/archivebox_new
archivebox init --setup
The new collection should now contain all the entries from the old collections combined
cd /path/to/archivebox_new
archivebox status
# optionally force an update of the snapshot index files (normally done lazily)
archivebox update --index-only
For more information about why Snapshot index files are usually updated lazily, see: https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/962
Modify the ArchiveBox SQLite3 DB directlyď
If you need to automate changes to the ArchiveBox DB (for example adding a User from an Ansible script), you can modify the SQLite3 DB directly.
Note, this is often unnecessary for modifying ArchiveBox on a host that doesnât have the CLI installed, as you can also copy the index.sqlite3
to a local machine that has it, do the modifications locally, then copy the modified db back into place on the host. (Docker/CLI/GUI/Web ArchiveBox all share the same DB schema/format)
cd ~/archivebox # cd into your archivebox collection dir
sqlite3 index.sqlite3 # open the db with sqlite3 shell
Example: Modifying an existing userâs emailď
UPDATE auth_user
SET email = 'someNewEmail@example.com', is_superuser = 1
WHERE username = 'someUsernameHere';
Example: Adding a new user with a hashed passwordď
Note: this is just an example to demonstrate direct database usage. If you are trying to create a user on initial setup, use the ADMIN_USERNAME
& ADMIN_PASSWORD
configuration options.
First, generate the hashed password in a Python shell using Djangoâs
make_password
function.
This can be done on any machine with Python 3+, it doesnât have to have ArchiveBox installed.
pip3 install django==3.1.3 # install the django version used by ArchiveBox
python3 # open any python shell with django available, doesn't have to be the archivebox shell
>>> from django.contrib.auth.hashers import make_password
>>> make_password('somePasswordHere', 'someSaltHere', 'pbkdf2_sha256') # choose a password and a salt (can be anything 12 chars long)
'pbkdf2_sha256$216000$someSaltHere$styW1Uoy8SHp3zbSwGRp20C9mPjOHVjP9rl5a8/UOVE='
Use the generated hashed password to insert a new User row in the SQLite3 database directly:
cd ~/archivebox # cd into your archivebox collection dir
sqlite3 index.sqlite3 # open the db with sqlite3 shell
INSERT INTO "auth_user" ("password", "last_login", "is_superuser", "username", "first_name", "last_name", "email", "is_staff", "is_active", "date_joined")
VALUES ('pbkdf2_sha256$216000$someSaltHere$+2beZufc3JUXnmn0tG+2peJEBh7MjxPYmT3YfIFzEl0=', NULL, 0, 'someUsername', '', '', 'someEmail@example.com', 0, 1, '2022-03-22 23:34:02.333042')
Replace the values above with the desired username, email, and password hash from python output^.
Log in using the new generated user to confirm it works https://localhost:8000/admin/login/ user:
someUsername
pass:somePasswordHere
More info:
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#python-shell-usage
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#sql-shell-usage
Database Troubleshootingď
Database and filesystem issues are uncommon but do come up from time to time (especially when using networked storage, large archives, or multiple ArchiveBox processes for a single collection).
âšď¸ Generally, these commands can help you resolve most issues:
archivebox init # upgrade the archivebox collection
archivebox init --setup # upgrade the archivebox collection and all dependencies
archivebox update --index-only # force an upgrade of some of the archivebox index/collection files
archivebox server --debug # run the server with more verbose debug log output
archivebox shell # access the Python API / Django management shell
sqlite3 index.sqlite3 # access the SQLite3 SQL database shell
Donât be scared by the volume of content here. Almost all of these issues linked below are duplicates or old resolved bugs, but they contain valuable context and troubleshooting steps if youâre trying to figure out the cause of a problem with your setup.
Filesystem doesnât support FSYNC (e.g. network mounts)ď
The index.sqlite3
file must be stored on a filesystem that supports FSYNC (most local filesystems) in order to ensure SQLite3 database integrity when multiple ArchiveBox processes may be accessing it simultaneously. However, the ./archive
folder can be on a NAS or other filesystem that does not support FSYNC.
Archivebox hangs when initializing collection on network drive that doesnât support FSYNC #742
Question: How to run AB on localhost but store data on NAS? #894
Question: Docker on Windows archiving to an SMB path that doesnât support FSYNC #722
Support for network drives or filesystems that donât implement FSYNC #456
More info:
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-os-fsync-method/
https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/fdatasync.2.html
https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/current/man-html/smb.conf.5.html
https://eclecticlight.co/2022/02/18/how-can-you-trust-a-disk-to-write-data/
Database and filesystem contention issues when running multiple ArchiveBox processesď
ArchiveBox can sometimes struggle when archiving many links in parallel with multiple ArchiveBox processes trying to write to the database at the same time, leading to errors like this:
Unable to create the django_migrations table (database is locked)
These errors can also be encountered when there are permissions, network, or filesystem issues preventing writes to the index.sqlite3
file.
Question: âŚUnable to create the django_migrations table (database is locked) #880
Database is locked and other weird behavior when doing simultaneous adds #781
Bugfix: Retry on âdatabase lockedâ error (or add support for PostgreSQL/MySQL DB backend) #601
Architecture: Use multiple cores to run link archiving in parallel #91
ArchiveBox index corruption when running multiple import processes on v0.5.0 #454
Database is locked and other weird behavior when doing simultaneous adds #781
Bugfix: Retry on âdatabase lockedâ error (or add support for PostgreSQL/MySQL DB backend) #601
More info:
https://www.sqlite.org/lockingv3.html
https://charlesleifer.com/blog/going-fast-with-sqlite-and-python/
https://victoria.dev/blog/sqlite-in-production-with-wal/
https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/29280
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47761570/how-can-i-avoid-database-is-locked-sqlite3-errors-in-django
Database migrations errors or upgrade issuesď
Migration or upgrade issues happen occasionally with some niche setups or when skipping major versions during archiving.
Always backup your archive before upgrading, but know that migrations are deterministic and atomic using Djangoâs migration system, so a failed migration does not mean your archive is unrecoverable, you just have to downgrade to the previous stable major version then continue upgrading.
archivebox init # this usually applies any necesary migrations (atomically and indempotently, safe to run multiple times)
Error: django.db.utils.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: core_tag.slug #596
Bugfix: django.db.utils.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: core_snapshot.timestamp #412
Bug: Running archivebox update âindex-only doesnât upgrade Snapshot index.{html,json} files #962
More info:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/migrations/
https://realpython.com/django-migrations-a-primer/
https://realpython.com/digging-deeper-into-migrations/
https://www.kite.com/blog/python/django-database-migrations-overview/
https://markusholtermann.eu/2021/06/writing-safe-database-migrations-in-django/
Repairing a corrupted SQLite3 database fileď
A corrupted database file can theoretically only happen if an external process or filesystem error corrupts the SQLite3 database (there has only been one report of a user encountering this in real life). If you ever need to repair a corrupted ArchiveBox index you can run the following steps.
Note this is specific to this error, these steps do not apply to other migrations/db errors (see below for other issues):
sqlite3.DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed
Generally all index issues should be fixable by running archivebox init
.
You can see the status of Snapshots and find any invalid/orphan/missing snapshots with archivebox status
.
Error output:
[i] [2022-03-24 20:37:27] ArchiveBox v0.6.2: archivebox init
> /data
[^] Verifying and updating existing ArchiveBox collection to v0.6.2...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[*] Verifying archive folder structure...
+ ./archive, ./sources, ./logs...
+ ./ArchiveBox.conf...
[*] Verifying main SQL index and running any migrations needed...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 82, in _execute
return self.cursor.execute(sql)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py", line 411, in execute
return Database.Cursor.execute(self, query)
sqlite3.DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed
Steps to fix:
cd ~/archivebox
echo '.dump' | sqlite3 index.sqlite3 | sqlite3 repaired_index.sqlite3
mv index.sqlite3 corrupt_index.sqlite3
mv repaired_index.sqlite3 index.sqlite3
More info:
https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/955
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5274202/sqlite3-database-or-disk-is-full-the-database-disk-image-is-malformed