Guide to adding hist: (Database directory) and still keeping all your old tags.

[GamerBossHarmon]

Long story short I wanted to remove the .hist files right next to my data and move them to their own directory.

Now at first I added hist: /app/config/hist to my copyparty.conf and that works if that's all you wanted to do... But unfortunately for me, it also removed all the tags from the files (such as who uploaded it, from what IP, at what time).

I didn't like that as I wanted to keep all the history so after a bit of poking I found out that old .hist are the exact same as the new ones with just a new name and an owner.txt file

What this Guide does

This guide explains how to move copyparty .hist folders to a separate directory while preserving existing tags (upload user Up_by, IP address Up_ip, and timestamp up_at).

Simply setting hist: <directory> in the config creates new history files but does not automatically migrate existing tags. This guide explains how to migrate your old .hist folders data safely.

Back up your existing .hist folders before starting.

At the very end of this guide there are a few sudo rm -r commands that will be run right next to your data. Double check it's running in the right place

Expectation

This is going to be a very simple guide as my setup is probably different from your setup.
This will be written assuming you are using Linux (my case Ubuntu) and are comfortable with using the terminal.
This was done on the official copyparty-sfx.py and with version 1.20.10.
I run copyparty in a docker, Not the official docker image given out, but one I build myself using the .py file.
Below is a part of my compose.yaml showing my directories binding

    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: /srv/copyparty/data
        target: /app/data
      - type: bind
        source: /srv/copyparty/config
        target: /app/config

Below is also a few relevant pieces of my Dockerfile

...
WORKDIR /app
...
COPY copyparty-sfx.py ./
COPY copyparty.conf ./
CMD ["python", "copyparty-sfx.py", "-c", "copyparty.conf"]

Guide

1. Add hist: <YourNew.histFolder> to your config and start up copyparty.
2. Let copyparty hash all the files. (This might take some time based on how many you have) You will know it's done when you go to the admin panel and see that the status of every volume no longer says busy (hashing files) but something else like online (reading tags) or online, idle.
3. Verify that you no longer see Up_by, Up_ip, up_at tags. If you still see them your config did not apply, double-check everything and make sure your changes are in place. (This is only temporary! It confirms that copyparty is using the new hist directory and not the old ones)
4. Stop copyparty and navigate to the new directory. (Example: cd <YourNew.histFolder>)
5. Run ls in my case I got this 7 b j p y. (If you see nothing make sure you are 1. In the right spot and 2. That your config is working and you gave copyparty time to re-index your files)
6. Append OLD to the name of each directory. Running ls again should show something like this 7OLD bOLD jOLD pOLD yOLD. (Example: sudo mv 7/ 7OLD/ This is so we know what the auto-generated directories are compared to the ones we are migrating over.)
7. Repeat the following for each OLD directory (My example will be using my 7OLD)
   1. Open the OLD directory and read owner.txt. (Example: My owner.txt file for 7OLD said /app/data/public)
   2. Copy the corresponding volume .hist directory into your <YourNew.histFolder>. The destination folder name should match the owner.txt path, just without the OLD suffix. (Example: sudo cp -r /srv/copyparty/data/public/.hist/ 7/ Here, 7/ is used because owner.txt pointed to /app/data/public, and 7OLD was the directory holding that owner file. Also should note here that due to my set up /srv/copyparty/data/public/ maps to /app/data/public)
   3. Copy owner.txt from the OLD directory to the new directory (Example: sudo cp 7OLD/owner.txt 7/owner.txt)
   4. Repeat the above for each directory.
8. That's it! Start up copyparty and allow it a moment to scan all your volumes and you should see that you still have your Up_by, Up_ip, up_at tags.
9. Clean up time! Remove all your OLD directories in <YourNew.histFolder> (Example: sudo rm -r 7OLD/)
   1. As well as the .hist folders next to your data directory. Note: Below is the fast way but is way risker. After that is a safer method to do this.
      1. Example: sudo rm -r /srv/copyparty/data/public/.hist/ Make sure this command is run in the right place
      2. It should be the old .hist folder next to your data.
      3. It should end in .hist/.
   2. If you would like to be a bit more safe do:
      1. cd in to the .hist (Example: cd /srv/copyparty/data/public/.hist/)
      2. Run ls and verify you see only db files, not your actual data. (Mine looked something like this th up2k.db up2k.db.bak.691578ca.v5 up2k.db-shm up2k.db-wal note the .db files)
      3. Remove the files/folders individually, (Example: sudo rm up2k.db) then remove the now empty .hist folder using rmdir. (Example: sudo rmdir /srv/copyparty/data/public/.hist/)

Ending

I hope that this little guide helped you if you need it! If you still need help don't hesitate to reach out and comment on this post or message me directly, and I will try to help you the best that I can!