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After Andrew Hurvitz moved Here in Van Nuys from Blogger to WordPress, something I've never done (moving a blog from one platform to another), I decided to do a test.

I made a backup of a Movable Type blog, which generates a giant text file, and then uploaded that file into WordPress.

It took a couple of passes to get all the entries (the operation timed out), but I had a huge WordPress blog in mere minutes.

Since the Movable Type blog was archived in a text file, all of the image links referred back to the old blog, and the images displayed in the WordPress blog were still on the old system.

But as far as entries, categories and tags go, everything moved over perfectly.

The ability to take your blog with you gives the user quite a bit of power. Aside from the problem with hosted images, it's extremely easy to move years' worth of blog entries between platforms like WordPress, Movable Type/Typepad and Blogger.

The whole concept of storing blog entries in database format and using protocols such as XML (I'm guessing) to enable data portability is a truly great thing.

I've blogged a bit recently on how hard it is to install Movable Type and have it actually work on your own server. After getting and configuring Apache and MySQL (or PostgreSQL or SQlite), making sure you get the static files in the right place and the CGI/Perl files in the other right place, then making sure everything has the proper permissions ... I found it to be way beyond my capabilities.

And the instructions are rudimentary at best. I think the people at Six Apart pretty much want you to hire time to configure your Movable Type setup. In a way, I don't blame them, but they've also got to think about WordPress breathing down their necks.

To be fair, I haven't yet tried to install WordPress, but I recently found out something very interesting:

There are WordPress packages available in many of the major Linux and BSD distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu and even OpenBSD.

Luckily, the same thing is now happening for Movable Type.

So if you're using the Debian GNU/Linux distribution -- and I strongly suggest you do -- you can now install Movable Type as a Debian package.

Read about it at the Movable Type site, and find out more about the package at the Debian site.

And for those using -- or about to use -- Debian, since the Movable Type package is new, it's not in the Stable distribution, which is named Etch. Instead, you need to install or upgrade to the Testing distribution of Debian, named Lenny. I'm already using Lenny in one of my desktop installs, where it happens to work better than Etch, but my Debian server still runs with Etch, and I'm loathe to change that.

I'm not sure how either of these packages -- WordPress or Movable Type -- handles dependencies as far as Apache and MySQL are concerned (e.g. whether or not you have to install the Web server and database software before you install the blog software), but I plan to find out very soon.

After two unsuccessful attempts at rolling out my own MT installations, I'm cautiously guarded about these packages actually working without a lot of post-installation tweaking (and I hope the man pages provide considerable insight).

Since it looks harder than hell to get PHP, CGI and all that working in the chrooted Apache environment of OpenBSD, I've been looking around for tutorials that will help me roll out a Movable Type installation in the security-conscious operating system.

While it's not "How to install MT in OpenBSD 4.x," I did find this interesting how-to on installing Wordpress in OpenBSD 4.1.

At any rate, it's a starting point in getting all the services going in the locked-down world of OpenBSD. And considering the beating that MT servers take, I think an OpenBSD environment would be a very good one for such a task.

I started over again with a clean Debian Etch install on my test box, with the goal being a working Movable Type-enabled Web server on the local network.

Getting a working Apache Web server in Debian is as easy as checking the Web Server box during the tasksel portion of the install. The default settings in Apache 2.2 have the static-files directory at /var/www/apache2-default/ and the cgi-bin directory at /usr/lib/cgi-bin. I previously succeeded at changing the static files directory so I didn't need to have apache2-default as part of my path, but this time I wasn't even going to screw with that.

I also selected SQL Server during tasksel. I thought I might try PostgreSQL instead of MySQL, since the former is the default in the Debian installer.

Again, doing the Debian install, and getting Apache and PostgreSQL on the box is easy. Just let the install run. I even let Debian partition the drive for me. I chose separate partitions for everything and let the installer handle the sizes.

Once I had the system installed, I needed to set up the database. With PostgreSQL, I couldn't even create a user. Yeah, I didn't do a lot of reading, but the feeble instructions at the Movable Type site were of no help. I couldn't even figure it out from the docs at the PostgreSQL site.

I admit that I have no experience with database software. None. I don't know what made me think that PostgreSQL had better documentation than MySQL, but at first glance I was pretty disappointed.

So I went back to MySQL. I also installed SQLite, which also works with Movable Type, just in case.

The last time I configured a MySQL database, I used phpMyAdmin, but this time I wanted to do it all at the command line.

Database software is very complicated. Did I say that already?

I managed to create passwords for the root accounts in MySQL, to create a new database user and to create the database for Movable Type. That's all I needed to do, and I did it.

So I had Apache and MySQL. Now I needed Movable Type.

Most of the MT installs I've read about have been done over FTP. I did have an FTP server on the Debian box (pro-ftpd), but I just wanted to install Movable Type from the local machine.

So I downloaded the software, extracted it and started trying to figure out what goes where.

It went OK. Not great. I had some trouble with permissions. One thing I'd like to see from Six Apart -- the company that produces Movable Type -- is a detailed list of what the permissions need to be on each and every file in the application. I know that different sysadmins like to do things their own way, but I'd like somewhere to start.

Anyhow, I did manage to get Movable Type 4.1 Open Source installed, but I think my configuration was a bit screwed up. I initially thought I had some bad permissions on the .css files, but my problem instead stemmed from some confusion in the Movable Type configuration that gave half my blog elements a numerical address on the local network (right) or a localhost address on the box itself (wrong).

I only figured this out after changing permissions on a ton of files and directories -- something it turns out that I didn't need to do.

I want to start over again ... with the Movable Type portion of the install, anyway. I took care not to screw with Apache, so I already have a working Apache 2.2 installation, with all the configurations in their default state, which means I have the Debian-set directories for static files and CGI scripts.

Just to see if I could do it, I also deleted the Movable Type database from MySQL. Have I mentioned recently how foreign and difficult database management is? I'd sure like to figure it out. I really need to get deep into some books.

I need a big, thick Apache book (O'Reilly's newish "Apache Cookbook"?

I also need a book or three on SQL databases, specifically MySQL and PostgreSQL. I like "PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites," but am at a loss mostly.

Who am I kidding? I really need "PHP & MySQL for Dummies." Those "Dummies" books are better than you think. I really like "C for Dummies"

So now I've made my first FTP connection to the server from my Windows box, and I'm already managing the server over SSH (remember, this is all on the local network).

I'll start again. My mantra will be "backup all configuration files before breaking them." I might try Wordpress first. It can't be as hard as Movable Type. And the instructions have to be better. Or so you'd think ...