Converting a normal collection to a capped collection

This recipe will demonstrate the process of converting a normal collection to a capped collection.

Getting ready

Look at the recipe Installing single node MongoDB in Chapter 1, Installing and Starting the Server and start a single instance of Mongo. That is the only prerequisite for this recipe. Start a mongo shell and connect to the started server.

How to do it…

1. Execute the following to ensure you are in the test database:

   > use test
   

2. Create a normal collection as follows. We will be adding 100 documents to it, type/copy the following code snippet on to the mongo shell and execute it. The command is as follows:

   for(i = 1 ; i <= 100 ; i++) {
     db.normalCollection.insert({'i': i, val :'Some Text Content'})
   }
   

3. Query the collection as follows to confirm it contains the data:

   > db.normalCollection.find()
   

4. Now, query the collection system.namespaces as follows and note the result document:

   > db.system.namespaces.find({name : 'test.normalCollection...