Possible to let different OS's on same computer share the same database?

bothide

I have a mlutiple-boot laptop with several different OS's on it. Files from any OS can be read by any other OS on the laptop. Do I need a separate zotero database for each of these OS's or is it possible to use say a Linux zotero tree in Windows? Something like a UNIX symlink solution. Having several physically different databases with identical content in different partitions on the common hard disk uses up a lot of space...

adamsmith

I haven't tried this but since you can point to the zotero data folder anywhere on your HD (zotero preferences advanced tab) I think that should work just like that.
If that doesn't work, I guess symlinks would be the way to go.

ajlyon

I used to use the Windows copy from Linux, but eventually I got fed up with the slower file access for NTFS and switched to keeping separate directories and using Zotero syncing to keep them lined up (and rsync locally to keep the storage directories in sync).

Jon Rubin

Don't use symlinks - I haven't tried it in Firefox 4, but there's an old bug that meant firefox and symlinks in profiles didn't work in Firefox 3.6x; like I said, I haven't checked to see if it's fixed for 4.
Adamsmith & ajlyon's suggestion, if disk space is really such a worry, is the best one.

yourwelcome

Hello and thank you for supporting Zotero!

I'm gonna try the simulink suggestion, and will report back about any performance issues. I too want to avoid having duplicate databases on a dual-booting machine with a shared data partition.

fbennett

I'm running a configuration like that mentioned by ajlyon, with a single Zotero data folder under NTFS on a dual-boot machine. The Zotero on both the Linux and Windows sides of the machine are set up to use that folder, and it seems to work just fine. Like ajlyon, I've noticed that it's a bit slower than it would be on a native Linux filesystem, when run from Linux.

yourwelcome

I agree it works fine for me to share a single database & attachments. I don't notice any unusual performance issues. I created a symbolic link in my Linux home directory to the NTFS partition where I keep the Windows data and attachments, then declare this link to be my custom data directory in Zotero preferences.

The only issue I'm having is a Ubuntu issue: there is some odd delay in mounting of the NTFS partition, and if I open firefox before the mount occurs then Zotero reverts the data directory back to the Mozilla profile directory and syncs like mad. Just means I have to get the mounting smooth and reliable, but no data loss!

If only interfacing getting things back and forth to andriod were this easy!

fbennett

Why not just directly set the folder on the NTFS partition as a custom data directory in the Linux Zotero? That might avoid the mounting/sync issue.

adamsmith

it sounds like if Zotero doesn't find the specified custom directory (i.e. when the NTFS isn't mounted in this case) it reverts to the default directory, which makes a lot of sense for most other scenarios.

yourwelcome

Everything is working great now. I just had to explicitly mount my ntfs data partition through ftab and a ntfs-3g driver, whereas earlier it was being automatically mounted through gnome-volume-manager as an external device, which would be fine for most users (certainly great to have it just pop up without learning about mounts) but it wasn't being mounted until I explicitly browsed for it in a file manager. Ftab allows zotero, dropbox, etc, to access the partition immediately.

I'm using a symbolic link because I actually had a local Zotero database and attachments on my Linux OS that was being maintained through webdav syncing. I was worried that a wholesale change of the data directory would break the attachment links or cause poor behaviour. It sounds like it was perhaps unnecessary...