Re: [Gramps-devel] better data portability

[Benny M. <ben...@gm...>]

2009/11/20 Duncan Lithgow <dun...@gm...>:
> Nick sent this only to me by mistake:
>
> I'm not sure but think that Duncan and Benny may be talking at
> cross-purposes here...
>
> Benny, as I'm reading it, is talking about the concepts relating to
> several people working into the same data, and the concepts of
> synchronisation of the files, etc - a very complex issue indeed...
>
> Duncan, I believe, is only talking about the capability of 'copying' a
> database and taking it to another machine to work on, with the
> capability of later bringing it back to the original machine.
>
> That second is possible - each day I take a copy of the .gramps folder
> on my home PC and copy it (rsync it, in fact) to a portable data
> storage device.  (I also take a folder that contains my media...)
>
> I take that device to work and mount it on my work PC.  And work on it
> there, then take it back and rsync it back onto the home PC.  If that
> is what you, Duncan, are describing as data portability, it works OK -
> but I'm sure it can break if you're not methodical (heh, heh...)
>

Yes, you need to be methodical, and also take regular backups for
should it go wrong. The new family tree system makes this possible by
moving the entire directory (as the log files are in the same place
where the database is, contrary to the old grdb format), but the
problems would start when different versions of the embedded database
software (bsddb) are used, as we have not investigated what moving
between different versions of bsddb would imply for your family tree
database (or god forbid, different operating systems). We do not have
the resources to investigate this issue.

Due to this, it is not something we can advertise to users, but if you
know what you are doing, it should work fine. The
gramps -l
command gives you the directory of the family tree you want, and you
can copy that wherever you want.
There are people who run from two computers with their family tree on
an NFS share.

Benny

> Hope I haven't mis-represented either of you!
>
> Nick Walling
>