Combined Linux-Windows support

daveh · June 17, 2008

My Firefox profile is stored on a partition that is accessible from both Windows and Linux on my computer. This is so that I only need one set of bookmarks, add-ons, etc for my two copies of Firefox. I would like to store my Zotero database in a folder outside my profile directory, but on this same partition, so it is easier to backup and bring home on an external drive. Is it possible for you to store the address of the Zotero installation in a format that is readable to both the Linux and Windows versions of Firefox running Zotero? At present I can only run Zotero from my profile directory as if I use a custom directory its address is stored in the directory formatting of the host operating system and when I switch to the other operating system Zotero fails to load.

Thanks for a really great piece of software.

dstillman · June 17, 2008

Do you have a suggestion? An absolute path isn't likely to be very useful across OSes, and while we could use a relative path (from the Firefox profile directory), this doesn't work on Windows if the data directory is on a different volume. One option might be to use a relative path for all other cases and revert to an absolute path on Windows when necessary...

daveh · June 25, 2008

I can think of a couple of approaches (all are similar to your suggestion):
1) The zotero software detects whether a different volume is being used for the database from the profile directory in Windows. If both are on the same volume we use relative addressing. If they're on different volumes either:
a)Display a message warning this won't work with the users Linux installation and revert to absolute addressing, or
b)Perhaps it's possible to put a check in the software when the database is being accessed as to what the current OS is. If it is possible we store two address variables instead of the current one. Both variables are absolute addresses, one for Linux and the other for Windows.

2)We just implement option b above and that would cover us.

What do you think? I think this is an important feature for technically literate researchers, although if your server version is nearly ready I guess it obviates the need for this.

Dave.