Prune Users not working

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stevemaury
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by stevemaury »

Tables that now have orphaned entries from your queries:

user_group, user_notifications

Your queries, other than creating those orphans, will probably not affect anything else, as long as limited to 0 post users. However, better to use and adequate Q&A CAPTCHA to prevent registration than remove them after the fact.
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david63
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by david63 »

stevemaury wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:44 pm user_group, user_notifications
possibly acl_users, login_attempts, cpf tables to name the ones that come to mind.

To do what you want I would make a guess that you will need something in the region of 10 -12 queries (possibly more) and that is all before you even consider what extensions might be doing - although that is probably something for another discussion.

You started this topic 30 hours ago - using ACP it could be all done by now, but you are still discussing it and still have no concept of what is involved.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by bipolarmorgan »

david63 wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:53 pm possibly acl_users, login_attempts, cpf tables to name the ones that come to mind.

To do what you want I would make a guess that you will need something in the region of 10 -12 queries (possibly more) and that is all before you even consider what extensions might be doing - although that is probably something for another discussion.

You started this topic 30 hours ago - using ACP it could be all done by now, but you are still discussing it and still have no concept of what is involved.

No it couldn't have been done by now.... jfc, the pruning system wasn't working for that many users. it's also possible that I could care less about the orphaned entries in other tables... and shouldn't this functionality be built into the CLI anyway!?
Last edited by bipolarmorgan on Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by bipolarmorgan »

stevemaury wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:44 pm Tables that now have orphaned entries from your queries:

user_group, user_notifications

Your queries, other than creating those orphans, will probably not affect anything else, as long as limited to 0 post users. However, better to use and adequate Q&A CAPTCHA to prevent registration than remove them after the fact.
Why would I have orphaned entries in the user_group table? And even if I have orphans, it didn't break anything. I'm using an adequate Q&A CAPTCHA, however, I have a lot of users ... many just don't post and I want them removed. And the prune users function wouldn't delete more than 10 at a time, so I'd still be clicking and waiting right now...
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stevemaury
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by stevemaury »

bipolarmorgan wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:31 pm
Why would I have orphaned entries in the user_group table?
Because every user has to be in some group upon registration and that group is stored in the user_group table, which your queries do not affect.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by bipolarmorgan »

how are they stored in the group table? by id? so i just have to compare existing ids with those in the group table, sounds like another quick query or two... except that they aren't stored in any way in the group table...

There might be some orphaned entries in the notifications table, but not that many to worry about ...

the real question is why doesn't the prune users function work properly?!
Last edited by bipolarmorgan on Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by david63 »

bipolarmorgan wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:15 pm except that they aren't stored in any way in the group table
Nobody has mentioned the groups (there is no group) table - it is user_groups, but obviously you know the phpBB database structure better than anyone else so I will just leave you to it.
bipolarmorgan wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:31 pm And even if I have orphans, it didn't break anything
Not that you have noticed but given time it will
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by bipolarmorgan »

david63 wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:25 pm
bipolarmorgan wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:15 pm except that they aren't stored in any way in the group table
Nobody has mentioned the groups (there is no group) table - it is user_groups, but obviously you know the phpBB database structure better than anyone else so I will just leave you to it.
bipolarmorgan wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:31 pm And even if I have orphans, it didn't break anything
Not that you have noticed but given time it will

yes I was referring to the user_groups table, you are thick headed aren't you.

And no it won't break anything long term, how the hell could it? You guys talk a lot without proper explanation.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by Kailey »

OK, everyone needs to settle down.

bipolarmorgan, you are free to do with the software what you want, including running mysql queries to achieve your goal. However, the fact that the prune user function works for every other phpBB installation except yours should tell you something that you're doing wrong. As has been explained, all the tables in phpBB are interlinked and you run the risk of breaking your board by running those queries manually.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by bipolarmorgan »

kinerity wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 11:05 pm OK, everyone needs to settle down.

bipolarmorgan, you are free to do with the software what you want, including running mysql queries to achieve your goal. However, the fact that the prune user function works for every other phpBB installation except yours should tell you something that you're doing wrong. As has been explained, all the tables in phpBB are interlinked and you run the risk of breaking your board by running those queries manually.
how is it going to break my site? and how are all the tables interlinked?
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by warmweer »

bipolarmorgan wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 11:39 pm how is it going to break my site? and how are all the tables interlinked?
It depends on what you consider breaking your site. At the moment I can't think of anything which would prevent your site from working. But then again, I'm not confident that I know phpBB thorougly enough - actually I AM condident that I do NOT know phpBB thoroughly enough, despite using it since sometime end 2002. The risks are there for the taking, but if something does go wrong, you shouldn't expect support from the instance whose advice you decided to ignore.

The way phpBB works inherently implies a relational database model, except that the relations aren't forced. And I'm not even sure whether the relationships can be forced considering phpBB can use many database types. Perhaps they can but it would require a lot of extra code and should something go wrong somewhere, repairing would be a lot most difficult.

As long as you know what you are doing, all is (should be) fine but you (experienced as you are) should know that working on the database directly is risky, but for simple and necessary things like creating a recovery admin, disabling all extensions at once, recreating the anonymous user, etc..., things that can be corrected easily if something goes wrong.
When multiple tables are involved the risks aren't hypothetical anymore and then I'm 100% in agreement with the stance that no public support should be given. As to private support, nobody can stop that.
The fact is the users you want to remove were activated but did not post. But they may have sent PMs and received PMs, set notifications, friends and foes, and lots of other things I can''t think of immediately (lack of sleep). I don't see the need for any rush - they're not active anyway so they could be removed in sections over a period of time.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by rxu »

Back to the 1st post of this topic...
The symptoms look for me like post_max_size was exceeded.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by stevemaury »

Which is a php setting outside the control of phpBB.
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by bipolarmorgan »

rxu wrote: Sat Aug 10, 2019 1:22 pm Back to the 1st post of this topic...
The symptoms look for me like post_max_size was exceeded.
How large do I need to make my post_max_size to prune 1000 users or 100000 users ??
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Re: Prune Users not working

Post by rxu »

I guess nobody measured that ever. You can try to catch it by experience (f.e. by increasing the parameter's to a comparably big value) or to measure the POST size in your case somehow 1st.
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