BIRCH - Updating an existing installation

The update process involves deleting a subset of the existing BIRCH directories and downloading and reconfiguring new ones. All other directories are retained, particularly $BIRCH/local. Since $BIRCH/local contains all local settings and locally-installed software, when the new version of BIRCH is installed, it will be configured according to existing settings.

Special Notes for upgrading from previous versions

If you are upgrading from BIRCH A1.97 or earlier, or a Development Version dated prior to April 10, 2006, you may need to do the following, one-time steps:

If you have previously created any GDE menu items in $BIRCH/local, they will need to be modified to comply with the new "openitem:" syntax for displaying help files. See
http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~birch/birchadmin/addprog/binaries.html#GDE

If you are upgrading from BIRCH A1.8 or earlier, or a Development Version dated prior to July 22, 2005, you first need to do a few additional, one-time steps:

Run $birch/admin/nobirch to temporarily remove BIRCH access for your account. It will automatically be reactivated when you updat BIRCH.
Uninstall using UNINSTALL-birch.csh. The birchconfig Uninstall method will not work on older versions of BIRCH
Save the BIRCH.properties file to your $BIRCH/local/admin directory. Edit BIRCH.properties to include the correct values, for your system, of the following:

BIRCH home directory
BIRCH Administrator's userid
BIRCH Administrator's email address
default platform.

Delete line 7 from $BIRCH/local/admin/newstr.param:
```
http://www.umanitoba.ca/campus/acn/support/cde
```
(May vary from system to system). This line gives the URL for local desktop documentation. It is no longer used and will prevent customdoc.py from working. You may wish to copy it to your $BIRCH/local/public_html/localdesktop.html file.
NOW - go to step 2 above and proceed with the BIRCH update.

Please send suggestions of comments regarding this page to frist@cc.umanitoba.ca