On Sep 17, 2009, at 20:47, Mukund Rangamani wrote: > Hello, > > I have a curious problem with Bibdesk 1.3.21 on OSX 10.6.1. I have a > single bib file which I use for my papers collection and this is > synchronized between my desktop at work and my laptop via unison. > > In the last couple of days after getting a new machine at work, I find > that when I open the bib file on my laptop the File links are all > messed up. These are Auto-Filed under ~/Documents/papers.
What do you mean by messed up? > In investigating this discrepancy I noticed is that the laptop and the > desktop are formatted differently; the former is a case-sensitive file > system, while the latter isn't. Generally I think it's a bad idea to use a case sensitive file system. It gives various problems, and many programs assume the file system is case insensitive as it's standard. > This by itself should not be a problem, since I copied over the entire > directory structure into my desktop. > > Now I do know that the default auto-file location used by Bibdesk is > ~/Documents/Papers; despite me also copying over the Bibdesk > preferences file to the desktop, somewhere the system seems to think > that the files are located in the folder "Papers" as opposed to > "papers" (I ran into this doing a spotlight search). If you use a case sensitive file system anywhere you should definitely use a consistent casing for this. > > What I don't understand is why does Bibdesk changed the file links > each time it saves? Once there is an absolute reference to the file > shouldn't that remain unchanged? Or do I misunderstand how the File > field works? > You misunderstand how they work. The linked files are really pretty complex, they are definitely not just a simple path. They try to follow files using various references (at least 3), so that the references are more robust. For instance, this allows you to copy the whole file structure to another machine, or a different location, or you may be moving either linked files or the main .bib file, without losing the file references. This allows a lot of use cases, including your situation of synchronizing in different locations. However, to make this possible the various reference forms needs to be synchronized and updated at every save. > To solve this problem I presume that I could change the Auto-File > directory and re-link everything (by having Bibdesk move the files). > But I wanted to explore if there is a way out without doing so since > it involves moving over 2gigs of pdf files. Could I get away by just > renaming the folder and changing the default auto-file location? > > Thanks and best wishes, > Mukund That depends on what you really have. I think you can get away with simply renaming the folders, but it depends on what has been saved in various places. Most important is that you use a consistent (default) casing, in both locations and for the papers folder pref. It's probably best to change things on your case insensitive system, because it has less chance of losing file references. When you rename the papers folder on your case insensitive system you may best first rename it to some arbitrary title, because the file system (Finder) will probably just ignore you changing the casing. Also, make sure that you save the .bib file in between making changes to your paper folder, so that all the 3 file references are properly updated. Christiaan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf _______________________________________________ Bibdesk-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bibdesk-users
