Can i use dark-table without importing/catalogue? Just with file browser and side-car?

[guille2306 (Guillermo Rozas)]

@spid

Perhaps slightly off-topic but I think I remember a case where I updated an XMP file outside of darktable, and darktable overwrote it with its old data from the database. darktable may have been open while the XMP file was modified, but it’s still an unfortunate thing to happen. Is there any way to make sure that darktable not only writes to the XMP file but also reads back from it when appropriate? Does it automatically do it on startup, or must the folder be imported again?

It’s in core options. However, it does not take into account modifications while darktable is running. You should not concurrently modify them, darktable will overwrite them every time you change something about the image.

Edit: checking external modifications while darktable is running is probably hard, as currently it does it by checking that the modification time of the file is newer than the database, and while running darktable is constantly modifying both the database and the files.

[csponge (Cryptographic Sponge)]

@guille2306

Edit: checking external modifications while darktable is running is probably hard

It’s actually very easy with inotify

[guille2306 (Guillermo Rozas)]

@PhilipB

Also, I think my initial assumptions about Darktables functioning were wrong. I had thought that my raw images were imported to a darktable database, and therefore duplicated and stored there. But it does seem to access the files directly in their folders and using a sidecar file. I open my files using the folder button rather than the import button. Maybe that is the difference?

Am i understanding this correctly?

darktable will never copy the files into a ‘private’ database. ‘Import’ them means ‘read the metadata and put it into a database’ to support the DAM features, and for fast(er) access to the processing status. The only moment darktable copies files at import is when importing from a camera, but it does so to a folder defined by you and not to its own folder. It then ‘imports’ them into the database in the sense described before. (Note aside: maybe we need a different word for the two? It’s a recurrent question).

The best way to use darktable as you want is to define the option database=:memory: in the configuration file darktablerc, and make sure you have activated the option to save the xmp files. That way darktable will always open with an empty database. You can even open a series of files from the context menu in the file explorer and all of them will end up in the lighttable (and disappear once you close the program). If you ever want to use the DAM features for a particular case, you can override the :memory: option passing the library file on the command line.

[betazoid (Anna)]

ok. thanks.