Restore doesn't like my zip files

Restore doesn't like my zip files

by David Scotson -
Number of replies: 4

I've tried to anonymize some course content by unzipping a backup, search and replacing through moodle.xml, and then zipping again.

This fails at the first hurdle with the message:

Error checking backup file. Invalid or corrupted.

In investigating this it turns out that simply unzipping and zipping the file (on either Windows XP or Mac OS X) is enough to stop the Moodle restore process from functioning.

I turned on debug but didn't get any more info.

Seaching the forum suggested that using the built in php zip routines might cause problems, switching them to use the ones supplied with Linux didn't seem to help.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions?

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In reply to David Scotson

Re: Restore doesn't like my zip files

by David Scotson -

Looking at the code, all it appears to be doing is reading the first 200 characters and checking that the file starts with:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

and contains:

<MOODLE_BACKUP>

which

  • I'm fairly certain my moodle.xml file does, and
  • I'm not sure why simply unzipping and rezipping a file should change this test from true to false

Pretty much stumped now sad

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In reply to David Scotson

Re: Restore doesn't like my zip files

by David Scotson -

Okay, figured it out.

When I unzipped the backup, a containing folder was magically created for me, when I rezipped this folder was included within the zip file. This meant that when Moodle unzipped it for restoring it was looking in the wrong place for the moodle.xml file.

I think that's what's happening anyway. I will file a bug as this should probably be catered for and not finding the file at all should probably give a different error from finding a file that doesn't suit the expected naming and structure.

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In reply to David Scotson

Re: Restore doesn't like my zip files

by Eloy Lafuente (stronk7) -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Confirmed.

The backup.zip files must contain, in their first level, the moodle.xml file so, if you are going to zip a backup file back you must select all the files at the same level than moodle.xml and create one zip file with them, but without the "container" folder that your unzip utility creates when decompressing.

Thanks for filling Bug 5334. I'll try to difference between errors to make things a bit clearer...ciao smile
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In reply to David Scotson

Re: Restore doesn't like my zip files

by Stephan Becker -
Hello there,

I am not sure if I have the same problem with backing up?

I am trying to move a course backup between 2 different Moodle installations: I backed up my course on www.academy.beautifuloceans.com, downloaded the zip file to my desktop - and then uploaded this backup file vis FTP into the backupdata folder of a different Moodle installation (currently www.beautifuloceans.com/carib) "

Is this actually something I can do? Will the links be reconfigured automatically to take into account the new location www.beautifuloceans.com/carib? Currently, when trying to restore the course from the backup file uploaded via FTP, I get a message error : "Error checking backup file. Invalid or corrupted."

Thank you,
Stephan
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