Couldn't detect type of database

[Olly Betts]

On Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 07:29:13AM -0400, Jim Lynch wrote:
> I recently lost a hard drive and after successfully restoring everything, I
> think, I'm getting "Error opening database `current.1':
> DatabaseOpeningError: Couldn't detect type of database"
> 
> The directory current.1 contains the following files:
> 
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 jwl jwl  30064640 Aug 28 23:44 docdata.glass
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 jwl jwl       151 Aug 28 23:44 iamglass
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 jwl jwl 767115264 Aug 28 23:44 position.glass
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 jwl jwl 383213568 Aug 28 23:44 postlist.glass
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 jwl jwl 203341824 Aug 28 23:44 termlist.glass
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 jwl jwl         0 Aug 28 23:44 flintlock

This error just doesn't make sense to me - it should be impossible to
get it when there's a file "current.1/iamglass", as there is here
(unless you were running an ancient Xapian from before glass was
added).

I'd check that the code giving the exception is actually looking at
the same directory your "ls -l" is.

If you think it is, then I'd try "xapian-delve current.1", and
if that fails "xapian-check current.1".

> I know that I was using 1.4.1 before, so I reinstalled that version and now
> delve decided that the db was OK, however when I went to install
> Xapia./XS/WritableDatabase.xs:30:47: error: missing binary operator before
> token "("
>  #if defined XAPIAN_AT_LEAST && XAPIAN_AT_LEAST(1,5,0)
>                                                ^
> ./XS/QueryParser.xs:54:47: error: missing binary operator before token "("
>  #if defined XAPIAN_AT_LEAST && XAPIAN_AT_LEAST(1,5,0)
> n::Search from cpan, it gave me errors.

Unfortunately this construct fails to compile when XAPIAN_AT_LEAST isn't
defined.  I'll fix uses of it, but meanwhile the simple workaround is to
use xapian-core 1.4.2 or newer, as the XAPIAN_AT_LEAST macro was added
in 1.4.2.

> I guess I'll have to upgrade the db to work with a newer version of Xapian
> somehow.  Is that possible?

Generally I'd strongly recommend using the latest version from the
stable release series you're using, i.e. 1.4.7 currently.  Database
formats and ABI are kept compatible across a release series, and any API
changes should be upwardly compatible.

Cheers,
    Olly