# Merging Collections

Two or more existing ArchiveBox collection dirs can be merged together by simply combining the contents of `archive/*` and re-running `archivebox init` to pull the new Snapshots into the index.

> [!WARNING]
> Snapshot folders are identified by their timestamp (in milliseconds), this is normally not a problem for archives collected on one machine, but when merging archives from two different instances that ran at the same time it means there is a small chance of conflicts. Check the contents of `archive/` before merging, and backup any directories that may conflict before proceeding.

1. Upgrade both old collections to the most recent ArchiveBox version (following instructions above)
  ```bash
  pip install --upgrade archivebox   # or follow instructions above for upgrading w/ Docker

  cd /path/to/archivebox1/data
  archivebox init
  archivebox status

  cd /path/to/archivebox2/data
  archivebox init
  archivebox status

  # ... repeat the same for each collection if merging more than two
  ```

2. Create a new empty archivebox collection in a new folder somewhere, this will hold the new merged collection
  ```bash
  mkdir /path/to/archivebox_new
  cd /path/to/archivebox_new
  archivebox init
  ```

3. Copy everything under `./archive/*` in each old collection into the new collection's `./archive/` folder
  ```bash
  rsync --archive --info=progress2 /path/to/archivebox1/data/archive/ /path/to/archivebox_new/data/archive
  rsync --archive --info=progress2 /path/to/archivebox2/data/archive/ /path/to/archivebox_new/data/archive
  # ...repeat the same for each collection if merging more than two
  ```

4. Run `archivebox init` in the new merged collection to regenerate the new index
  ```bash
  cd /path/to/archivebox_new
  archivebox init
  ```

5. The new collection should now contain all the entries from the old collections combined
  ```bash
  cd /path/to/archivebox_new
  archivebox status

  # optionally force an update of the snapshot index files (normally done lazily)
  archivebox update --index-only
  ```
  For more information about why Snapshot index files are usually updated lazily, see: https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/962

After you've confirmed your Snapshots are present in the new index, the old `index.sqlite3`, `index.json`, `index.html`, etc. main index files from the old archives can be safely deleted. You can optionally merge the contents of `ArchiveBox.conf` (your ArchiveBox config options), `sources/` (copies of all URLs imported in their original format), `logs/` (ArchiveBox error logs and debug info), and other root-level items yourself if that data is important to you.

---

## Modify the ArchiveBox SQLite3 DB directly

If you need to automate changes to the ArchiveBox DB (for example adding a User from an Ansible script), you can modify the SQLite3 DB directly.

Note, this is often unnecessary for modifying ArchiveBox on a host that doesn't have the CLI installed, as you can also copy the `index.sqlite3` to a local machine that has it, do the modifications locally, then copy the modified db back into place on the host. (Docker/CLI/GUI/Web ArchiveBox all share the same DB schema/format)

```bash
cd ~/archivebox/data    # cd into your archivebox collection dir
sqlite3 index.sqlite3   # open the db with sqlite3 shell
```

#### Example: Modifying an existing user's email

```sql
UPDATE auth_user
SET email = 'someNewEmail@example.com', is_superuser = 1
WHERE username = 'someUsernameHere';
```

#### Example: Adding a new user with a hashed password

*Note: this is just an example to demonstrate direct database usage. If you are trying to create a user on initial setup, use the [`ADMIN_USERNAME` & `ADMIN_PASSWORD`](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Configuration#admin_username--admin_password) configuration options.*

1. First, generate the hashed password in a Python shell using Django's `make_password` function.

This can be done on any machine with Python 3+, it doesn't have to have ArchiveBox installed.
  ```bash
pip3 install django==3.1.3   # install the django version used by ArchiveBox
python3                      # open any python shell with django available, doesn't have to be the archivebox shell
```
```python3
>>> from django.contrib.auth.hashers import make_password
>>> make_password('somePasswordHere', 'someSaltHere', 'pbkdf2_sha256')         # choose a password and a salt (can be anything 12 chars long)
'pbkdf2_sha256$216000$someSaltHere$styW1Uoy8SHp3zbSwGRp20C9mPjOHVjP9rl5a8/UOVE='
```
2. Use the generated hashed password to insert a new User row in the SQLite3 database directly:
  ```bash
cd ~/archivebox/data    # cd into your archivebox collection dir
sqlite3 index.sqlite3   # open the db with sqlite3 shell
```
```sql
INSERT INTO "auth_user" ("password", "last_login", "is_superuser", "username", "first_name", "last_name", "email", "is_staff", "is_active", "date_joined")
VALUES ('pbkdf2_sha256$216000$someSaltHere$+2beZufc3JUXnmn0tG+2peJEBh7MjxPYmT3YfIFzEl0=', NULL, 0, 'someUsername', '', '', 'someEmail@example.com', 0, 1, '2022-03-22 23:34:02.333042')
```
  Replace the values above with the desired username, email, and password hash from python output^.

3. Log in using the new generated user to confirm it works
    https://localhost:8000/admin/login/ user: `someUsername` pass:`somePasswordHere`

More info:
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#python-shell-usage
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#sql-shell-usage

---

## Database Troubleshooting

See here [Troubleshooting: Database](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Troubleshooting#database)...

---

## Related Documents

- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#disk-layout
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#large-archives
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Security-Overview#output-folder
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#python-shell-usage
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Usage#sql-shell-usage