Upgrading to new dt version: how to deal with darktablerc

Software darktable
1

Hi all,

every time I upgrade to a new version of dt, I feel I should clear the old configuration so that I don’t carry over some old parameter values from the old version, that maybe have been changed for better performance in the new version. So, what I do is usually moving the darktablerc file to darktable.OLD and start darktable so that a new darktablerc is created.

In doing so, however, I am losing many custom settings that I have then to recreate manually (e.g., the import specifications from the exif data, etc.).

What do people usually do? Is there a way to easily select out some settings to preserve or do you have to diff the two files (darktablerc old and new)?

thanks for any suggestion
giuseppe

2

On my serious editing machine, which only sees the released version of darktable, I’ve never whole sale replaced that file. I did delete the openCL bits from it a few versions ago.

I don’t think you should need to redo your config every version; only if you notice some issue, and that should be rare if you’re using the release version.

If you’re using the Dev version you may need to fiddle more, but that’s to be expected.

3

Do nothing – keep your existing darktablerc file. If the defaults have changed you can just review the preferences dialog and see which of your settings differ from the default (the updated settings have a little bullet symbol next to them).

I don’t think I’ve completely reset my darktablerc for years and that would have been to work around a temporary bug.

4

Other than that, yep, a diff/merge tool is the only option if you want to fiddle with it.

5

I’m on windows and update from the master branch often… I run DT always from a shortcut that refers to folders that I have set up and direct DT to use with the shortcut…

Then I just install DT. It goes in the default directories. I select the uninstall option when installing…

When I run a newly installed version for the first time it sometimes will request I allow the database to be updated which I do…

I think I have left it on defaults so I have about 10 backups in that directory…

I have two config folders one for configdir and then one to use for the cache so then I know where everything is and my config folder is versioned on OneDrive as well…

Basically with this setup I run the exe install for a new version…allow it to uninstall…then I run DT using my shortcut the first time… and it runs fine or updates the database if needed…

1 Like
6

My method may be wrong, but I install the weekly builds for windows and just uninstall the old DT as the default during setup. It keeps my presets, styles and all that. The DB never gets corrupted so I don’t bother backing that up, but I know it it is the safest and wisest move to backup your DB. But my DB is not important to me because I export tiff files of all my edits and loosing the DB would not be an issue to me.

7

Thank you all for your comments. This time I went the diff way, but I guess the next one I will just keep my old dartablerc, perhaps checking the opencl bits as @paperdigits suggested.

8

Normally, not even that is needed. There is one property that changes relatively often, a somewhat cryptic setting called cldevice_... (the next part is based on the name of the GPU), but darktable takes care of migrating that. It does leave old version behind, which can be removed (see the v4 and v5 sections below), but they cause no trouble:

cldevice_v4_intelruhdgraphics=0 250 0 16 16 128 0 0 0.100795 0.000
cldevice_v4_intelruhdgraphics_building=
cldevice_v4_intelruhdgraphics_id0=400
cldevice_v5_intelropenclhdgraphicsintelruhdgraphics=0 250 0 16 16 128 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.250
cldevice_v5_intelropenclhdgraphicsintelruhdgraphics_building=
cldevice_v5_intelropenclhdgraphicsintelruhdgraphics_id0=400
9

Thank you @kofa, good to know.