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Migrating setup.py installs to Version 5.0

This is a guide for migrating V4.x installations that were installed using the setup.py method, to Version 5.0.

Code vs user data

With V5.0, there is now a clean separation between WeeWX code, and user data. They are stored in separate areas, rather than everything under /home/weewx.

WeeWX code

With one exception, the software used by the WeeWX application is now kept in the normal Python directories, rather than under /home/weewx/bin. This software includes:

  • Executables such as weewxd and wee_reports;
  • Their libraries.

User data

By contrast, user data is specific to your station. By default, it is now stored in your home directory in ~/weewx-data, although you may continue to use your old user data located in /home/weewx by following this guide. User data includes:

  • The configuration file, weewx.conf;
  • Skins;
  • Database;
  • Generated HTML files and images; and
  • Extensions (Python code specific to a station).

Using your old /home/weewx

With this in mind, here is how you can continue to use the old user data in /home/weewx. The code will be replaced by new code.

  1. Install V5.0 by using the tool pip. (You can find more details in the document Installation using pip, but note that you are only going to follow step 1. Do not do step 2.)

    python3 -m pip install weewx --user

    When you are done, the new V5.0 executable will be in ~/.local/bin/weewxd, rather than the more familiar V4.x location /home/weewx/bin/weewxd.

  2. You do not have to do Step 2, provision a new station, because you will be simply reusing your old user data in /home/weewx. However, you do need to upgrade your old configuration file, documentation, examples, and daemon utility files:

    weectl station upgrade --config=/home/weewx/weewx.conf

  3. At this point, try running the V5.0 version of weewxd directly, using your old configuration file.

    weewxd --config=/home/weewx/weewx.conf

  4. If that works, then it's time to modify your old daemon configuration file so that it uses the new V5.0 executable. These steps will require root privileges.

    Note

    If you previously used a SysV init.d startup file, you will need to clean up any previous init.d remnants. Please consult the wiki article for how to do so.

    Note

    The resulting daemon will be run using your username. If you prefer to use run as root, you will have to modify the file /etc/systemd/system/weewx.service.

    cd /home/weewx
sudo cp util/systemd/weewx.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable weewx
sudo systemctl start weewx

    Note

    The resulting daemon will be run using your username. If you prefer to use run as root, you will have to modify the file /etc/init.d/weewx.

    # Use the old init.d method if your os is ancient
cd /home/weewx
sudo cp util/init.d/weewx.debian /etc/init.d/weewx
sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/weewx
sudo update-rc.d weewx defaults 98
sudo /etc/init.d/weewx start

    Note

    The resulting daemon will be run using your username. If you prefer to use run as root, you will have to modify the file /etc/systemd/system/weewx.service.

    # If SELinux is enabled, you will need the following command first:
chcon -R --reference /bin/ls ~/.local/bin

# Then proceed as normal:
cd /home/weewx
sudo cp util/systemd/weewx.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable weewx
sudo systemctl start weewx

    Note

    The resulting daemon will be run using your username. If you prefer to use run as root, you will have to modify the file /etc/systemd/system/weewx.service.

    cd /home/weewx
sudo cp util/systemd/weewx.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable weewx
sudo systemctl start weewx

    cd /Users/Shared/weewx
sudo cp util/launchd/com.weewx.weewxd.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.weewx.weewxd.plist

Old code

Note that your old V4.x code will still be under /home/weewx/bin (/Users/Shared/weewx for macOS).

To avoid confusing yourself and any tools that you might use, you should consider moving your old code aside. Unfortunately, you cannot simply rename it, because your user directory is located underneath, so you would lose access to it and any extensions it might contain. Here's how to do it without disturbing the things you want to keep:

cd /home/weewx
mv bin bin.old
mkdir bin
cp -r ./bin.old/user bin 

cd /Users/Shared/weewx
mv bin bin.old
mkdir bin
cp -r ./bin.old/user bin

When you're done, you should have a directory tree that looks something like this:

bin
└── user
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── extensions.py
    └── installer
bin.old
    ├── daemon.py
    ├── schemas
    ... etc