Can I use the same database file using either Windows or Linux (dual booting)?

[pvdvegte@…]

I want a program like Photovault, which runs on both Windows XP and Linux-Ubuntu. However I want to be able to access the same database file no matter what operating system I am using. I have several other types of applications that can do this. Is it possible with Photovault?

Also will Photovault index CD's and keep the info. once the CD is shelved?

Pieter

[harri]

Database compatibility between operationg systems has not been extensively tested. In principle, the Derby database format is the same between different operating systems, and of course the image file formats are the same in both Windows and Linux.

In practice, I can think of 2 problems, both related to storing paths in native format (Windows and Linux have different path separators):

• If you are using external volumes, Photovault stores path to image file in the native format of the OS used - i.e. in Windows it uses backslash as path separator and in Linux/MacOS a forward slash. So most likely it will not find the files in the other OS (actually, Windows should understand also forward slash as path separator but Linux definitely doesn't understand backslash. So you MIGHT be OK if you always index the external volumes in Linux and never in Windows...)<br/> Note that this applies only to external volumes, if you don't use them (i.e. add new images using File->Import) this should not be an issue.

• Similarly, the configuration file has paths in native format, but as it is stored inside your home directory this won't be as big problem if you have different home directory in different platforms. So you can copy $HOME/.photovault/photovault_config.xml to your home directory in other OS and edit the paths to match your system. If you have same home directory in both, you can manually set the config file by using adding -Dphotovault.configfile=<path-to-file> to java command line in startup script.

I am aware of these problems and plan to fix them in the upcoming 0.6 release. It will have major redesign of database format so it is possible to introduce a new OS independent storage format for paths.

For the other question: not currently. It is possible to index CD as an external volume. But unfortunately Photovault recognizes an external volume based on its mount point so if you have many CDs that you use in the same drive (or mount in same location) Photovault gets confused. This is another of the improvements planned for 0.6.