Custom Entries Duplicated

[W4JEW]

What is the best practice for adding DMR Master servers to Pi-Star?

I added a server to the custom DMR_Hosts.txt file (/root/DMR_Hosts.txt) and ran pistar-update which adds the server to the list (/usr/local/etc/DMR_Hosts.txt) without any issues.

But...any time that pistar-update runs in the future, the same server continues to get appended to the list (/usr/local/etc/DMR_Hosts.txt) over and over and over again.

Should we be adding the server to the custom list (/root/DMR_Hosts.txt), running pistar-update, then removing the server from the custom list to prevent it from getting duplicated?

[MW0MWZ]

The host file update process downloads the DMR_Hosts.txt from the update server, and then adds your host to the end of the file, the only way your host should show up twice is if for some reason the update process is unable to download a new version of the DMR_Hosts.txt from the update server.

[W4JEW]

Thank you for your response. If I look in /usr/local/etc, I see two DMR_Hosts.txt:

DMR_Hosts.txt (52761 bytes) - 2020/05/06 - 03:27
DMR_Hosts.txt.20200506 (52809) - 2020/05/06 - 03:25

Wouldn't this indicate that Pi-Star isn't having an issue with downloading the latest version of the file?

If I look at APRSHosts.txt, DCS_Hosts.txt, DExtra_Hosts.txt, etc. most of them were also updated this morning at 03:25 but some were not. I would think that's because there were no updates to those file between this morning and the previous update.

I've run pistar-update manually via an SSH session and never see any complaints about not being able to access the files.

I found some documentation written by others that talked about the process of editing /root/DMR_Hosts.txt file.

In their examples, they added the custom server after the last row of hash marks, as follows:

Code: Select all

##############################################################################################
#
#                               Custom DMR Hosts
#
##############################################################################################
# Name                          DMR-ID  IP/Hostname                     Password        Port #
##############################################################################################
#BM_Custom_01                   1234    1.2.3.4                         passw0rd        62031
#DMR+_Custom_01                 1234    1.2.3.4                         PASSWORD        55555
##############################################################################################
HB_MY_SERVER            0000    192.168.1.10                     passw0rd       62040

When I was configuring /root/DMR_Hosts.txt, I added my server right before the last row of hash marks, as follows (I am using TAB between the columns - not spaces):

Code: Select all

##############################################################################################
#
#                               Custom DMR Hosts
#
##############################################################################################
# Name                          DMR-ID  IP/Hostname                     Password        Port #
##############################################################################################
#BM_Custom_01                     1234    1.2.3.4                         passw0rd        62031
#DMR+_Custom_01                 1234    1.2.3.4                         PASSWORD     55555
HB_MY_SERVER                       0000   192.168.1.10                 passw0rd       62040
##############################################################################################

The TABs in my DMR_Hosts.txt file follow the examples in the file. The text editor on the forum doesn't permit the use of TAB, so I approximated using the space key. When I "preview" the post, they don't line up correctly, but they are correct in the file.

I also tried creating the entry as "MY_SERVER". Yesterday, I looked at the other HBlink servers in /usr/local/etc/DMR_Hosts.txt and noticed they had HB_ before the server name. The example doesn't mention having to do that, but I decided to give it a try to see if it made a difference.

Is there a possibility that might be the cause?

Thus far, I haven't seen a duplicate entry. I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days. Maybe changing the entry to be after the last row of hash marks was what was required?

FYI - I am currently running Pi-Star:4.1.1 / Dashboard: 20200505

73,

-JeffH

[MW0MWZ]

Jeff,

from the looks of it you have it all right.

Before or after the hash marks makes no difference, it will get pulled in either way.

The extra file is there as a backup for you, just in case the update server blows up, you have yesterday's file too, its replaced every day as part of the update process.