4 ms·

Not quite. You can move Mastodon server, but you can't move _software_ on the same server.

vidarh 4y ago
Yes, you can. You will need to have both running at the same time if you want to use the built in migration mechanism in Mastodon (assuming the new software supports it), and so will need to ensure the URL space does not collide, e.g. by giving one of them a different hostname and adding an alias to the webfinger response. If you are going to migrate software on the same server you'd likely be in a better place if you just generate static pages from the Mastodon export for the actual posts after doing the follower migration. If you're outright replacing the Mastodon server you might get away with just importing the followers as well, as long as the software you're interacting with is well behaved and do webfinger lookups. You can improve on that by ensuring the inbox url stays the same, worst case with a redirect.
- danpalmer 4y ago
  Sorry, by "same server" what I actually meant was the same domain. As far as I can tell there's no support for migrating Activity Pub content between software on the same domain. Mastodon can move accounts only, and requires different domains. Mastodon's import/export can help with content assuming you're moving to another Mastodon instance, but won't do anything to update the URIs of content objects in other instances databases. Webfinger redirects can be used to move accounts across domains too. However as far as I can tell there's no way to move arbitrary Activity Pub objects across domains.
  - vidarh 4y ago
    > Sorry, by "same server" what I actually meant was the same domain. There's nothing stopping it on the same domain either, as long as there's no conflicting URLs. It'll be harder to do "online", and may result in a bunch of redirect rules, and it definitely ought to be easier, but nothing prevents you from doing it. But there's little reason to do that, because what users interact with your account by is the webfinger address, which can point to whichever hostnames you like. So you can migrate to a server on a different hostname, and then redirect the webfinger from your main domain name to the new host name, no problem at all. > Mastodon can move accounts only, and requires different domains. Using the built in move functionality, you'd run into that if you insist on never having the servers referenced by different hostnames. But if you're keeping it on the same domain that you control, you can "just" migrate the data. It could absolutely be made more convenient, sure. > However as far as I can tell there's no way to move arbitrary Activity Pub objects across domains. Define "move" here. You can't cause other instances to update their references, so if you can you'd want to leave redirects in place. You can however just move the objects over. It'd be nice if you could announce an update for the links as well, but since you can't avoid "external" links from places that don't federate at all, this will never be perfect. That said, the Note activities are signed, so can be served up from another domain and can still be verified as long as the old pub-key can be obtained from the original URL or is cached by a trusted third party. But this is not a problem for the hypothetical scenario I replied to, as whether you keep it on the same hostname as you clarified you meant, or put it on another hostname as I suggested, nothing prevents you from maintaining the old posts as static content on the original hostname, so you don't need to move those objects. You can at least conceptually include them in your outbox so they're visible as part of the timeline (though I suspect that would either require a change to Mastodon if you insist on running Mastodon, or including them as "boosts"/ "Announce" activities instead of posts if you change the hostname)

Yes, you can. You will need to have both running at the same time if you want to use the built in migration mechanism in Mastodon (assuming the new software supports it), and so will need to ensure the URL space does not collide, e.g. by giving one of them a different hostname and adding an alias to the webfinger response. If you are going to migrate software on the same server you'd likely be in a better place if you just generate static pages from the Mastodon export for the actual posts after doing the follower migration. If you're outright replacing the Mastodon server you might get away with just importing the followers as well, as long as the software you're interacting with is well behaved and do webfinger lookups. You can improve on that by ensuring the inbox url stays the same, worst case with a redirect.

danpalmer 4y ago
Sorry, by "same server" what I actually meant was the same domain. As far as I can tell there's no support for migrating Activity Pub content between software on the same domain. Mastodon can move accounts only, and requires different domains. Mastodon's import/export can help with content assuming you're moving to another Mastodon instance, but won't do anything to update the URIs of content objects in other instances databases. Webfinger redirects can be used to move accounts across domains too. However as far as I can tell there's no way to move arbitrary Activity Pub objects across domains.
- vidarh 4y ago
  > Sorry, by "same server" what I actually meant was the same domain. There's nothing stopping it on the same domain either, as long as there's no conflicting URLs. It'll be harder to do "online", and may result in a bunch of redirect rules, and it definitely ought to be easier, but nothing prevents you from doing it. But there's little reason to do that, because what users interact with your account by is the webfinger address, which can point to whichever hostnames you like. So you can migrate to a server on a different hostname, and then redirect the webfinger from your main domain name to the new host name, no problem at all. > Mastodon can move accounts only, and requires different domains. Using the built in move functionality, you'd run into that if you insist on never having the servers referenced by different hostnames. But if you're keeping it on the same domain that you control, you can "just" migrate the data. It could absolutely be made more convenient, sure. > However as far as I can tell there's no way to move arbitrary Activity Pub objects across domains. Define "move" here. You can't cause other instances to update their references, so if you can you'd want to leave redirects in place. You can however just move the objects over. It'd be nice if you could announce an update for the links as well, but since you can't avoid "external" links from places that don't federate at all, this will never be perfect. That said, the Note activities are signed, so can be served up from another domain and can still be verified as long as the old pub-key can be obtained from the original URL or is cached by a trusted third party. But this is not a problem for the hypothetical scenario I replied to, as whether you keep it on the same hostname as you clarified you meant, or put it on another hostname as I suggested, nothing prevents you from maintaining the old posts as static content on the original hostname, so you don't need to move those objects. You can at least conceptually include them in your outbox so they're visible as part of the timeline (though I suspect that would either require a change to Mastodon if you insist on running Mastodon, or including them as "boosts"/ "Announce" activities instead of posts if you change the hostname)