OpenSim Archives

Introduction

This is currently a highly experimental function. Basically, it does a similar job to load-xml2/save-xml2 in that it saves prims so that they can be later reloaded. However, OpenSim archives go a step further in that they can save all the necessary asset data to fully restore the terrain, the textures of objects and their inventories when loaded onto a completely different system using a different asset database.

Usage

From the region console, one can type

save-oar [<filename>]

to save an OpenSim archive. If no filename is given, then the name scene_oar.tar.gz is used

To load an archive, type

load-oar [<filename>]

at the console. Currently by default, loading an archive will delete all the objects in the scene and replace them with the archive contents.

Examples

FAQ

1. What is this .tar.gz format you are using? Why not zip?

.tar.gz is the standard unix way of zipping up files into a single larger compressed file for distribution. Windows users should be able to open these files using freeware programs such as 7-zip.

I'm using .tar.gz because all the zip (and tar) libraries for .net are licensed either under the GPL (with exception) or under the MSPL. Unfortunately, not all members of the OpenSim development team are comfortable with the MSPL, so these libaries are not currently an option. It is also significantly easier to write code to create and read tar archives than zip archives.

At the moment the only tar archive type that can be read is the original unix tar format (not USTAR).

2. What is the layout of an OpenSim archive?

More details on this soon.

3. Can you load and save multiple regions to an archive?

Not yet.

4. Can you load and save parts of a region to an archive?

Not yet.

Notes

Due to a possible bug in the Mono 1.2.4 libraries, this feature may cause a debug dump when used (the problem appears to be in writing out a compressed stream). Mono 1.2.6 is okay. Since Mono 1.2.4 is fairly old now, I don't intend to address this bug.

Current Status

Highly experimental. I've (justincc) only tried it myself in very limited situations, so Mantis feedback and suggests would be appreciated.

Please don't rely on these archives to permanently backup your regions, though if they are in sufficient use, I hope to maintain compatibility with older archive versions.