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EZproxy 5.1 New Filenames

In EZproxy 5.1, three of the files used by EZproxy were given new names:

Old name
5.0 or earlier		New name
5.1 or later		Purpose
ezproxy.cfgconfig.txtThis user editable text file contains configuration directives, including information on licensed databases.
ezproxy.msgmessages.txtThis text file is a record of certain informational and error conditions that occurred while EZproxy was running.
ezproxy.usruser.txtThis user editable text file contains user authentication information.

These files are the key files used to maintain the EZproxy software. During the transition from the old names to the new names, you may encounter either the old names or new names in documentation. When maintaining your EZproxy server, you should use the name that is appropriate for the version of EZproxy on your server.

Using the old names with new versions

When upgrading an existing EZproxy server to 5.1 or later, EZproxy will automatically offer to rename these files from the old names to the new names during the "missing file replacement" (ezproxy -m) step of the upgrade.

If you have a local procedure that requires that you continue to use one or more of the old names, you should perform one or more of these steps before you performing the "missing file replacement" step:

  1. For ezproxy.cfg, create a file named config.txt containing the line:

    IncludeFile ezproxy.cfg

  2. For ezproxy.msg, create a file named messages.txt containing the line:

    MessagesFile ezproxy.msg

  3. For ezproxy.usr, create a file named user.txt containing the line:

    ::File=ezproxy.usr

Downgrading EZproxy

If you need to downgrade EZproxy from 5.1 or later to 5.0 or earlier, you will have to manually rename these files from their new names to their old names.

On Windows, you can right-click on each file, select rename, and then type the old name.

On Linux or Solaris, you will need to access a shell prompt and then issue commands similar to:

cd /usr/local/ezproxy
mv config.txt ezproxy.cfg
mv messages.txt ezproxy.msg
mv user.txt ezproxy.usr

replacing /usr/local/ezproxy with the directory where EZproxy is installed.

The reason for the change

Each of these files is used extensively during the installation and ongoing maintenance of an EZproxy server. Changing these files to use the standard text file extension of .txt simplifies the process by which these files can be accessed, edited, and emailed.

On Windows, these file types were often associated to programs other than EZproxy, leading to problems if they were double-clicked or causing multiple files to appear with just the name "ezproxy" if file extension hiding was active. In most instances, these files can now be edited by a simple double-click on the file.

The original file extensions caused some mail systems to strip these files when they were sent as attachments either to support or back from support. Mail clients also tend to handle operating system variations in the handling of newlines in text files automatically, simplifying the transmission of these files between different systems.