# Migration Issue Around De-duping Poll Votes

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/migration-issue-around-de-duping-poll-votes/269653>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Tags:** polls\
**Created:** [June 26, 2023, 3:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/migration-issue-around-de-duping-poll-votes/269653 "2023-06-26T15:38:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nat/32/235063_2.png) [@nat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nat)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 7:47am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/migration-issue-around-de-duping-poll-votes/269653/7 "2023-07-04T07:47:57Z")

</div>

@sweetbeems here’s a preliminary set of commands which should help restore your data, and I’ve tested out on my site.

I am making an assumption that you are using our docker install and are somewhat familiar with the command line.

You should identify a backup file from `<site>/admin/backups`. It should be one that was done before the data was deleted.

This guide assumes your backups include uploads. The difference is that the backup file would be `.tar.gz` (data+uploads) vs `.sql.gz` (data only)

```plaintext
# enter the app using the default user
docker exec -it app bash

# identify the backup you want is there
ls /var/www/discourse/public/backups/default/

# extract the dump.sql file from compressed backup
cd /var/www/discourse/public/backups
mkdir site-backup-to-restore
tar xfz ./default/=SITE_BACKUP_FILENAME= -C site-backup-to-restore/
cd site-backup-to-restore
gunzip dump.sql.gz

# get the data
# this finds the start of the poll votes data
# to the end of the data (which would be an empty line)
start=$(grep -n "COPY public.poll_votes (poll_id, poll_option_id, user_id, created_at, updated_at) FROM stdin;" dump.sql | sed 's/\([0-9]*\).*/\1/')
end=$(tail -n +$start dump.sql | grep -m 1 -n ^$ | sed 's/\([0-9]*\).*/\1/')
end=$((end-2))
tail -n +$start dump.sql | head -n $end > poll_votes_dump.sql

# here you would want to eyeball poll_votes_dump.sql
cat poll_votes_dump.sql

# change the COPY to an INSERT so that
# we can still add ON CONFLICT
sed -i 's/[0-9]\{4\}-[0-9]\{2\}-[0-9]\{2\} [0-9]\{2\}:[0-9]\{2\}:[0-9]\{2\}\.[0-9]\{6\}/'\''&'\''/g' poll_votes_dump.sql
sed -i '2,$s/\t/,/g' poll_votes_dump.sql
sed -i '2,$s/^/(/; 2,$s/$/),/' poll_votes_dump.sql
sed -i '$ s/,$//' poll_votes_dump.sql
sed -i 's/COPY public.poll_votes (poll_id, poll_option_id, user_id, created_at, updated_at) FROM stdin;/INSERT INTO public.poll_votes (poll_id, poll_option_id, user_id, created_at, updated_at)\nVALUES/' poll_votes_dump.sql
echo "ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING;" >> poll_votes_dump.sql
cat poll_votes_dump.sql

```

> **These are what the results of the \`cat\` commands should look like**
>
> The first one should look like this
> 
> ```plaintext
> COPY public.poll_votes (poll_id, poll_option_id, user_id, created_at, updated_at) FROM stdin;
> 1 1 1 2023-07-04 05:49:17.031031 2023-07-04 05:49:17.031031
> 1 4 1 2023-07-04 05:54:01.281801 2023-07-04 05:54:01.281801
> 
> ```
> 
> and the second one should look like this
> 
> ```plaintext
> INSERT INTO public.poll_votes (poll_id, poll_option_id, user_id, created_at, updated_at)
> VALUES
> (1,1,1,'2023-07-04 05:49:17.031031','2023-07-04 05:49:17.031031'),
> (1,4,1,'2023-07-04 05:54:01.281801','2023-07-04 05:54:01.281801')
> ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING;
> 
> ```

Exit out of the docker instance and into the postgres user – There is a deeper problem which I won’t be addressing here which requires this additional hoop jumping

```plaintext
# from your host, access the app via the postgres user
docker exec --user postgres -it app bash

# insert
psql -U postgres -d discourse -f /var/www/discourse/public/backups/site-backup-to-restore/poll_votes_dump.sql

# you should see `INSERT 0 3928` or the number of poll votes that were restored

```

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/migration-issue-around-de-duping-poll-votes/269653)._