Upgrading

Recommended path

sudo anetbbs-upgrade /tmp/anetbbs-rebuilt-vXX.tar.gz

The wizard:

1. Extracts the tarball to a temp dir.
2. Asks "have you taken your own backup?" — answers yes to continue.
3. Snapshots data/, .env, logs/ to a timestamped backup
   directory next to your install.
4. Stops anetbbs-web, anetbbs-telnet, anetbbs-ssh,
   anetbbs-rlogin, anetbbs-mrc-bridge.
5. Rsync's the new code over (preserves data/, .env, venv/,
   *.db, logs/).
6. pip install -e . to pick up new modules.
7. Runs create_app('production') which fires
   db.create_all() plus _lightweight_migrate() to add new
   columns/tables.
8. Restarts services.
9. Probes /healthz for 10 seconds.
10. Refreshes /usr/local/bin/ symlinks.

If the health check fails, the wizard offers to roll back —
restoring .env and data/ from the snapshot, then restarting.

Manual rollback

If you need to undo a bad upgrade later, the wizard prints the exact
commands:

sudo systemctl stop anetbbs-web anetbbs-telnet anetbbs-ssh anetbbs-rlogin
sudo cp -a /home/stingray/anetbbs.backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS/.env /home/stingray/anetbbs/.env
sudo rsync -a --delete /home/stingray/anetbbs.backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS/data/ /home/stingray/anetbbs/data/
sudo systemctl start anetbbs-web anetbbs-telnet anetbbs-ssh anetbbs-rlogin

Manual upgrade fallback

If the wizard breaks for any reason:

sudo systemctl stop anetbbs-web anetbbs-telnet anetbbs-ssh anetbbs-rlogin
sudo pkill -9 -f gunicorn
sleep 2
cd /tmp && rm -rf anetbbs-vNNN
tar xzf anetbbs-rebuilt-vNNN.tar.gz
mv anetbbs-rebuilt anetbbs-vNNN
sudo rsync -a \
    --exclude='data/' --exclude='.env' --exclude='venv/' \
    --exclude='*.db' --exclude='logs/' \
    /tmp/anetbbs-vNNN/ /home/stingray/anetbbs/
sudo -u stingray /home/stingray/anetbbs/venv/bin/pip install -e /home/stingray/anetbbs --quiet
sudo systemctl start anetbbs-web anetbbs-telnet anetbbs-ssh anetbbs-rlogin

What's safe to skip

• data/ — your uploads, avatars, file queue, personal pages.
  Never overwritten by an upgrade.
• .env — your config + secrets. Never overwritten.
• venv/ — kept; only pip install -e runs to pick up new modules.
• logs/ — kept.
• *.db — kept. Schema migrated forward only.

Upgrade frequency

Versions ship roughly weekly. Every release adds either:

• A bug fix (always safe to deploy)
• A new feature (additive, no migration of data)
• A schema change (handled by _lightweight_migrate)

Read the release notes if anything mentions a destructive migration
(rare).