See the linked page for information about how it works, limitations, etc. and I’ll of course answer any questions below!
As I have stated in the release section, this software is alpha so please don’t be afraid to report bugs!
Releases are here: https://github.com/CMahaff/lasim/releases
Right now the program only supports Lemmy BE 0.18.1-rc9, but new releases will try to support new versions as they are released. The Lemmy API is changing a ton right now, but I’ll try to keep up.
The culture appearing in the Lemmy/Kbin universe reminds me of some gaming communities where people help each other, some by giving advice or tips they’ve learned, others by using their skills to create addon tools to solve a problem.
For sure! The whole reason I made this was because I saw so many posts asking for a way to do this.
That said, it’s obviously a stop-gap until the devs add an official way to do this via Lemmy itself, but the last time I saw them talk about that it was (understandably) pretty low on their priority list - and I’m not nearly comfortable enough in rust or databases to make a PR to Lemmy itself - at least not yet.
I got stuck on step #2:
Run LASIM.
How?? There isn’t an executable file!
Which platform are you using?
I know for Ubuntu (Linux) I have to chmod the binary after unzipping it (that is, use the terminal set the binary to execute with “chmod 755 lasim”).
Mac OS X is untested - I don’t have a Mac to try it out, but it might have a similar problem.
AH I see, the zip file, I was looking at the repo
MacOS. Literally has no extension or anything. I have no idea how to run this thing.
Yeah I can use GitHub to generate Mac OS X artifacts but I can’t test them, so maybe it doesn’t even work.
I suspect it’s just a permissions thing on the binary though, and running into the same issues as Ubuntu. I assume nothing happens if you just double click it? Or an error message?
This is what I get if I double click it (after all the security prompts).
Yeah it’s not treating it as an app, it’s trying to open it as a text file haha. But I don’t own a Mac, so I can’t debug the steps one would need to take to make OS X treat it as an application.
I think it’s just a permissions thing, but again I’m not sure. I think a terminal call to mark it as executable or changing the extension might do it.
I guess I’ll have to find someone in my life with a Mac hahaha.
I hope I never have to use this since I really like my instance, but thanks a bunch for making it! I curate my feed by blocking all communities I have zero interest in, which results in a gigantic blocklist that would not really be feasible to migrate manually, so having a tool to do it is a lifesaver.
Edit: just because I’m curious and I know next to nothing about programming- would it be possible to port this to Android too?
Unfortunately not super easy to port to mobile because of the language I wrote it in - which in my defense, I chose because it’s the same language as the Lemmy back-end and “official” API.
You are the second person to ask though so I guess I should have thought more about that!
We’ll see how long the project lasts and maybe I’ll consider it in the future, but the hope is that this is a stop-gap until Lemmy has an official method for transferring this data.
I’m trying to use it, but I keep getting an error, “missing field infinite_scroll_enabled”
I have no idea what’s going on lol
If you give me the instance I can confirm, but that field was added in Lemmy 0.18.3, and I suspect the instance you are trying to use doesn’t support that yet. You can see the Lemmy version at the bottom of the page.
LASIM 0.2.0 only supports Lemmy 0.18.3.
LASIM 0.1.2 only supports Lemmy 0.18.2.
So you can wait for your instance to upgrade and then use LASIM 0.2.0, or you can use the older LASIM 0.1.2.
Note: if say your old instance is Lemmy 0.18.2, and the new one is Lemmy 0.18.3, you can use LASIM 0.1.2 to download, then use LASIM 0.2.0 to upload.
Yeah, I eventually realized that. I’m an idiot. I knew there were two versions, but my dumb ass didn’t bother to check both instances.
Thank you very much for the help, and the tool itself
Amazing, this will help users move to smaller instances!
I’ve not used this, but wanted to say thanks for making it! I’m sure it’ll be indispensable to some.
Crossposted to BestOf@Kbin.Social
