Beets: Use paths relative to music directory
This issue was automatically migrated from Google Code.
_Original author: [email protected] (August 30, 2012 00:17:11)_
_Original issue: https://github.com/google-code-export/beets/issues/432_
ghost
All 15 comments
I'm also very interested in relative paths. I have my library on a NAS and share it across several computers; while the path is the same on all computers, it differs from the path on the NAS. Ideally I would use only one beets installation on the NAS, but it has an old ppc cpu, so it's not ideal to compute replaygain info. Also getting gstreamer to compile on it is quite an ordeal.
alucryd
on 22 Jul 2014
I also like beets to store relative path in the database (starting from the library path from the config file). I had to relocate my Music directory sevral times and I haven't found a good way to do this yet as the full path are stored.
As a side effect, it would also probably reduce the size of the database a bit and make network-shared library easier.
PierreRust
on 23 Jul 2014
+1
maxammann
on 10 May 2015
Also interested in this. I recently had to dismantle my NAS, and add its hard drive (with the beets library) on my computer, ie on a different path. I had to import it all again.
Looking back, I should have done a beet move before switching the hard drives, but I had assumed only relative paths were used, since beets knows the library path.
barsanuphe
on 11 May 2015
Also interested in this, was surprised to find out this wasn't the default.
danlamanna
on 12 Feb 2016
@sampsyo : what's your opinion here?
jrobeson
on 19 May 2016
Relative paths would probably be good idea. The problem is that this would be a deceptively large change -- path handling is extremely pervasive in beets, so the changes would not be localized. It's possible the transition would be easier if we did #1409 (pathlib) first.
sampsyo
on 19 May 2016
This would be great, I use syncthing to share music between 4 devices, each with a different directory. It would be nice to be able to share the config and library database.
naggie
on 12 Aug 2017
While it's simple (if you understand SQL) you can change your path like this:
update items set path = '/Newpath' || substr(path, <startposition>) where path like '/Oldpath%' if opening your library file with the CLI sqlite3 (or other sqlite client).
Also for the artpath: update albums set artpath = '/Newpath' || substr(artpath, <startposition>) where artpath like '/Oldpath%'.
First check, if what you're updating to is what you intended: select path, '/Newpath' || substr(path, <startposition>) from items where path like '/Oldpath%'.
The percent sign (%) acts like an asterisk (*) in the file system. Unfortunately, this is only a one-time task. Or you need to run it every time before you execute beets with a different path configuration.
But it would really be great to have relative paths stored.
awenny
on 20 Aug 2017
I think I used a docker container one time to have a "relative path", when organizing the music on a external usb drive, on two computers. The idea was having a layer between the beets and the data.
For example, on Windows, the path was /music = D:\music, but on Linux was /music = /mnt/music
GuilhermeHideki
on 3 Dec 2018
Just ran into this issue after moving to a new computer. Ran beet update and proceeded to have my library database completely wiped as everything was removed. This would be a very welcome change that would make libraries much more portable.
billop
on 8 May 2020
Really surprised to find out that relative paths aren't supported, now as I stumbled at this portability issue myself.
dbogdanov
on 22 May 2020
Since I first noticed about this a few years back I just put all my music at "/media/music/library". Its kind of a pain, but I think switching to relative paths could be quite difficult :/
maxammann
on 23 May 2020
Another possibility might be a second directory config option (let's say server_directory) that is the remote path that maps to the local path (for example local directory might be /mnt/music and the remote or server directory /home/myuser/Music). The DB could still store the path where the files ultimately reside, but could translate that for using beets on a "client" where the DB is on a server. Not sure if that's more or less painful than changing to storing relative paths though :yum: .
austinbutler
on 17 Aug 2020
What has worked for me at the moment is this (make a backup of the DB first of course):
sqlite3 ~/.beets.db "UPDATE items SET path = replace(path, '/mnt/old_folder', '/mnt/new_folder');"
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Most helpful comment
While it's simple (if you understand SQL) you can change your path like this:
update items set path = '/Newpath' || substr(path, <startposition>) where path like '/Oldpath%'if opening your library file with the CLIsqlite3(or other sqlite client).Also for the artpath:
update albums set artpath = '/Newpath' || substr(artpath, <startposition>) where artpath like '/Oldpath%'.First check, if what you're updating to is what you intended:
select path, '/Newpath' || substr(path, <startposition>) from items where path like '/Oldpath%'.The percent sign (%) acts like an asterisk (*) in the file system. Unfortunately, this is only a one-time task. Or you need to run it every time before you execute beets with a different path configuration.
But it would really be great to have relative paths stored.