I have been using a long time dt with database :memory: because I don’t need the DAM functionality and I have been happy with the edits in the .xmp files. For some time I have wondered why dt shows my recent filmrolls / folders in the lighttable after I have restarted dt as earlier the lighttable was empty.
I started to investigate, and noticed that my darktablerc has database=library.db
I changed the line to database=:memory:
and restarted dt. But the images were still there, and the database line in darktablerc had change back to refer to library.db.
I tried to search the forum and Github but I didn’t find anything. Has anyone else experienced the same and what has changed? I’m on Windows and running 5.3.0-837.
You must edit darktablerc when darktabe is not running
dt reads it when it starts up. it writes it back (with any changes you made within darktable) when it exits. if you edited the file while darktable was running, the edits will be lost.
That’s not the reason. I stopped dt, checked with Task Manager that nothing starting dark is running, edited and saved darktablerc, even checked that after saving database refererred to :memory:, started dt, and exited. Result: darktablerc has database=library.db
So, I did some debugging and it seems to me that this has been introduced as a “side effect” with the new support for multiple workspaces coming in 5.4.
I took the liberty to create an issue on Github. (Entry in darktablerc for database ignored · Issue #19860 · darktable-org/darktable · GitHub). But maybe the safer way to use the in-memory database is via the command line parameter “–library :memory:”.
