Knowledge Discovery 26.1
Knowledge Discovery Expert

# Upgrade the Content component

To resolve issues from previous versions, you can update the Content component without needing to reindex or export your data.

To take advantage of new features, you might need to regenerate one or more subindexes, or in some cases you might need to reindex your data. The release notes for a particular feature provide information about when this is required.

For updates that change the major version number (for example 11.x to 12.x), there might be additional changes. See Upgrade your Content component Index to version 12.x.

TIP: OpenText recommends that you back up your index and make a copy of any modified libraries and module files before you upgrade your Content component.

The following procedure describes the basic changes required to upgrade Content.

To upgrade the Content component

1. Stop your Content component.

2. In your Content installation directory, replace the existing `content.exe` with the new `content.exe`.

3. Update the required libraries for your platform:

   - On Microsoft Windows platforms, run any `vcredist` exe files that are included in the Content package to install the required redistributable libraries.
   - On Linux platforms, update the `libgcc_*` and `libstdc++` runtime libraries with the versions included in the Content package.

CAUTION: Do not modify or overwrite the following files:

- your configuration file (usually `content.cfg`)
- the contents of the directories that hold your index data (usually the `index` subfolder of the content directory, but the exact value depends on the `[Paths]` section of your configuration file).

## Other Recommended Updates

When you upgrade the Content executable file, OpenText also recommends that you update some further supporting files as best practice.

These changes are not generally required, unless a particular feature requires it. The release notes for a particular feature provide information about when this is required.

- Language Files. Replace the contents of the `langfiles` folder in your installation with the version from the download package.

  IMPORTANT: If you have made any alterations to the existing stoplist files (for example `english.dat`), preserve your copy of the file. If there are changes to the default stoplist, you might want to compare the differences and merge any appropriate changes. For more information, see Upgrade Language Files.

  OpenText recommends that you update the sentence breaking libraries (the .dll or .so files) even if you are not using them, to ensure that they are matched with the main executable file if you enable them in future.

- Modules. Replace the contents of the `modules` folder in your installation with the version from the download package.

  The modules include document tracking and security functionality. OpenText recommends that you update these files even if you are not using them, to ensure that they are matched with the main executable file if you enable them in future.

- XSL templates. Replace the contents of the `templates` folder, and the `autnxslt.dll` or `libautnxslt.so` file with the versions from the download package.

  IMPORTANT: If you have made any alterations to the existing XSL templates, keep your version.

- Knowledge Discovery Admin and Help Files. Replace the `admin.dat` and `help.dat` files in your installation with the versions from the download package.

  This update ensures that the Knowledge Discovery Admin UI and the Help and Reference files match the version of Content that you are running.

## Upgrade Language Files

Knowledge Discovery Server releases sometimes include updates to language data files, such as the sentence breaking libraries and stop lists.

Most sentence breaking library updates do not require you to reindex your data. In this case, you can just copy the new library over the old one, and update the supporting files. However, in some cases where an update changes the tokenization or stemming rules, you might need to reindex. For more information, refer to the release notes.

In most cases, your customized stop list for a particular language is more suited to your business purposes than the updated default stop list. If you do want to use a new version of a stop list, you might need to reindex data, depending on the changes:

- If the new stop list contains only additional stop word terms, you do not need to reindex your data. Content does not index instances of the new stop words in new documents, and it removes the new stop words from any queries (so it does not match instances of the new stop words in existing documents).

- If the new stop list removes existing stop words, you must usually reindex your data, because the existing index does not include any instances of those terms in the existing content. However, if you only want the changes to take effect for new content, you do not need to reindex.

## Service Scripts

On Windows, if you have installed Content as a service, you do not need to do anything to alter it. The existing service runs the new version.

On Linux, you typically do not need to update any service or init scripts that you already use with a newer version (the files do not generally change between versions).

Copyright 2025 Open Text
Version 26.1 | Last updated January 2026

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Product: Knowledge Discovery 26.1

Topic Title: Upgrade the Content component