[Evolution-hackers] binary compatibility of on disk information

[Ross Boylan <ross biostat ucsf edu>]

Is it safe to move evo's files between machines with different hardware?
If not, what is the safe way to do such a migration?

http://www.go-evolution.org/FAQ#How_can_I_transfer_all_my_Evolution_data_from_an_old_home_directory_to_a_new_home_directory.3F
says to copy files, and the manual mentions backup/restore (which in the
standard scenario only involves one machine).

However, it looks to me as if it is not safe to copy evolution's disk
files across different hardware architectures, e.g., 32 to 64 bit. It
seems to use Berekeley DB, which I understand to be incompatible across
hardware, as well as incompatible across releases of Berkeley DB.

I don't know if there is other info that is in non-portable binary
format as well, either in .evolution or in gconf or dumps of gconf.

I assume vCard format is portable, though I don't know that for sure.

Is there a way to identify that problematic binary files?  I tried
find . -name '*.db',
but don't know if that's right.  It was also very slow, since I have
large caches.

If my suspicion of non-portability is correct, it might be good to
provide some warning, at least in the FAQ on copying files.

I tried a similar question on the user list, but didn't get a response.
I'm hoping it's more appropriate here.

Thanks.
Ross Boylan

P.S. I'm on Debian Lenny, running evo 2.22.3.1. evolution-data-server
depends on libdb4.6, which is Berkely DB.  The evolution package has no
direct dependencies on Berkeley DB; I'm not sure if any components it
depends on in turn need Berekely DB.