Darktable 5.2.1 installed on macOS 15.6.1 by means of ‘brew install darktable’. Linux’s directory .config/darktable copied verbatim and darktablerc edited to correct directory paths. Is there something else besides darktablerc that needs manual porting?
Under those conditions when darktable is started I get only skulls on the lighttable.
Thanks.
ensure that the images are in the same directories as imported on linux.
It would be easier to first ensure all your images have the xmp up to date in the Mac (in case you turned off xmp writing). Then from the other OS, in dt, use add to library. The new database will be created with all the images using the xmp data.
The names of network directories on macOS and Linux are different. (The mac ones all start with /Volumes/[directoryname]). So you’ll need to fix this, either by editing the path names, or as @g-man suggests.
as long as all the images in your library have the same organization, like you rsync the top folder to your linux box, you can use the dt gui to refind all your images and update their location.
thanks, for the follow ups.
what about groups and tags? are they preserved from the sidecars?
those are in the database
Isn’t he going from linux to mac? Sorry, just trying to be clear on the steps here.
yeah. I read this wrong. Going from Linux to mac feels backwards. 
No worries - figured. How does one make sure that all the XMPs are updated?
Select all images, press write sidecar files.
After copying the ./config/darktable directory, start darktable, switch collection Filter to folder, and change the top level directories to their new location.
After rsync-ing from linux to macos the directory where the image files are
located, and the .config/darktable directory as well (no edits to darktablerc) I started
darktable.
Note: absolute paths are different between linux and macos. The version of
darktable is the same (5.2.1)
The lighttable view says that there are no images in this collection.
Then in the collections module the filter was changed to folders with the
following value: /Users/ramestica/personal/photos/darktable/library|%
Which is where the files are locate in macos.
After typing that value on the folder filter and pressing ‘return’
then nothing happens. Lighttable remains the same.
Saved the folder filter as a new preset, exited darktable and started it
again. The situation is still the same (‘there are no images in this
collection’).
Many, many thanks for the suggestions and clarifications.
You’ll want to follow the instructions here: darktable user manual - collections