digiKam README File

Software digiKam
1

Several beginner questions that come up can be answered in the README text file that is found at the very bottom of the list on the Weekly Snapshots download page,

The README file must be downloaded individually as it is not packaged with the application files.

Once the README file is in your possession, before anything will recognize it and open it for reading, it must have a recognizable File Name Extension; to accomplish this, first, you need to go into File and Folder Options and enable file name extensions to be seen.

Once the file name extensions are enabled, rename the file like so ā€œfilename.txtā€ ; the .txt is the extension; this tells Windows that it is a text file readable by Notepad.

While you are renaming, add some sort of identification within the filename; every sort of program I have ever dealt with that has an informational text file has them named simply README; I suggest you rename the digiKam README file to ā€œdigiKam_READMEā€.

Now, Windows should recognize the file type; select it and click Open and there it is.

As delivered, it is very hard for me to read, with no breaks nor separation to the text.

I tried my best to find all of the sentence ends and separated them into individual lines to be much more reader-friendly.

I did find what I think was a typographical error; I didnā€™t correct the error, but I did make note of it and pointed it out.

I moved the General Information to the top and Windows information just below that, seeing as all of my machines are Windows.

The intro to this README is meant for the Weekly Snapshot builds, but the bulk of the information applies to all versions.

I could not find the README anywhere on the PreRelease or Stable Release download pages.

Here it is; I hope someone benefits from it.

"DIGIKAM WEEKLY PRE-VERSION BUNDLES REPOSITORY FOR TESTING

IMPORTANT: these bundle files, are built weekly and can be used to test new features quickly.

       Do not use these versions in production, unless you know what are you doing.

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        General Information

Notes :

They can be used to verify if bundles files downloaded are corrupted or not.

  • The bundle build-timestamp included in file name follow this ISO scheme : YYYYMMTDDhhmmss <<MyNote:This must be a misprint = T should be between D and h

Y = year
M = month
D = day
T = separator

h = hour
m = minute
s = seconds

  • Bundles name with ā€˜-debugā€™ suffix are compiled with full debug symbols.

File sizes are more heavy
but itā€™s possible to run application in debugger and to report dysfunctions to developpers with a
backtrace to hack and fix quickly the problems.

  • Under Windows, a crash course will generated a backtrace located at C:\Users_user_name_\AppData\Local\digikam_crash.log
    Replace ā€œuser_nameā€ with your Windows login account.

  • The bundles continuous deployment log files compressed with gzip are stored in build.logs sub-directory.

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        Windows

Windows bundle installers:

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-win64.exe for Windows 64 bits.

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-win64-debug.exe for Windows 64 bits with debug symbols.

These bundles are built with MXE cross-compiler environment.

They do not require extra Microsoft run-time libraries and are compatible with Windows 7.

Windows Portable archives:

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-win64.tar.xz for Windows 64 bits.

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-win64-debug.tar.xz for Windows 64 bits with debug symbols.

Self archives of Windows installer contents to make Portable versions of digiKam.

This do not requires admin rights to install digiKam in your Windows home directory as well.

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        Linux

Linux universal AppImage bundles:

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-x86-64.appimage => for Linux 64 bits.

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-x86-64-debug.appimage => for Linux 64 bits with debug symbols.

This bundle is compatible with all Linux distributions which support Fuse file system.

It must be runnable on all distributions older than 3/4 years.
Make file executable and run it as well.
Nothing is installed and do not require root rights.

See here for details : packaging - What is an "AppImage"? How do I install it? - Ask Ubuntu

Bundle executable can take arguments to run:

without option : run digiKam.
: run Showfoto instead digiKam.
: run digiKam into GDB (only suitable with appimage compiled with debug symbols).

: run Showfoto into GDB (only suitable with appimage compiled with debug symbols).

: show these information.

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              MACintosh

MacOS bundle package:

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-MacOS-x86-64.pkg for MacOS 64 bits.

  • digiKam-version-timestamp-MacOS-x86-64-debug.pkg for MacOS 64 bits with debug symbols.

This bundle is built with Macport under BigSur for Intel computers with backward compatibility to macOS 10.13.

They can be used with Apple Silicon based computers with Rosetta 2 emulator.

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