DBUPGRADE(nged)

💾 DBUPGRADE(nged) — the dbupgrade glow-up manual for nged 💾

BRL-CAD User Commands, but make it group chat. No cap, this page is literally about upgrading your currently open mged database and keeping the backup file around. 🫶

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

dbupgrade — upgrades the currently open BRL-CAD mged geometry database to the current geometry database format version. Periodt. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dbupgrade

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so dbupgrade operates on the currently open input geometry database file in MGED. After dbupgrade is complete, the working database will be upgraded, and a backup file will be saved preserving the original "pre-upgrade" version of the .g file. Obsessed with a safety net. 🫶

Keep the backup file until it is clear all necessary information was successfully preserved. Do not delete it immediately, bestie — that is not the vibe. 😭

Starting with v5, the geometry file format is platform independent. Highkey iconic. But for v4 .g files, there is a potential problem: the floating point storage format within the file is platform dependent. So the safest way to upgrade a v4 file is to run dbupgrade on the file before transferring it from the platform on which it was created. 🌍✨

If that system is no longer available, dbupgrade will attempt to automatically 'fix' an existing (v4 format) binary database that was transferred from a binary-incompatible platform. It is giving cleanup era, ngl. 🛠️

The older process of running g2asc(1) and asc2g(1) on a database to preserve a text version as a work-around for platform specific binary files is no longer necessary. We love a retired workaround, fr fr. 💀

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

🌟 Example 1. Start an interactive database upgrade. 🌟

mged> dbupgrade

Prompts to upgrade the currently open database and writes a backup with the original pre-upgrade file contents. Slay. 💖

🌈 Example 2. Request upgrade help. 🌈

mged> dbupgrade help

Prints the upgrade explanation and command usage without changing the database. Just info, zero database drama. ✨

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

mged(1), g2asc(1), asc2g(1).

💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

Numerous error conditions are possible, usually due to errors in the geometry database. In the case of a binary-incompatible v4 file, some errors may reflect incomplete conversion code. Descriptive messages are printed on standard error (file descriptor 2). 🚨

🧚 Example 3. Binary Incompatible v4 .g File Upgrade from MGED 🧚

bash4.0$ mged -c -a nu model.g
BRL-CAD Release 7.22.1  Geometry Editor (MGED)
    Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:36:52 -0500, Compilation 0
    user@machine:/usr/brlcad/dev-7.22.1

WARNING: Binary-incompatible v4 geometry database detected.
Endianness flipped. Converting to READ ONLY.
Opened in READ ONLY mode
/home/user/model.g: READ ONLY
Historical Model (units=in)

mged> dbupgrade
upgrade, cancel, or help? [default: help] upgrade
mged> q
bash4.0$ ls
model.g model.g.R4.g

👑 AUTHOR 👑

BRL-CAD Team. Icons only. 💅

⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

This software is Copyright (c) 2006-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory. 🫡

🍓 BUG REPORTS 🍓

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org. Do not gatekeep the bug reports, bestie. 📬

---

Signed, sealed, upgraded: BRL-CAD — DBUPGRADE(nged) 💖✨