Hi Mukund,I am regularly synchronizing using Synchronize Pro (http://www.qdea.com/) between my MacBook Air and my main machine (incidentally also only a laptop). I synchronize not only the BibDesk (.bib) files, but also the pdf repository folder, but I don't use different file systems on the two machines (BTW, I fully concur with Christiaan that unless you should have very strong reasons, using a case sensitive Mac file systems generally means only calling for trouble. Unix CLI is anyway already case sensitive and available when you need it, why making the Mac system even case sensitive?). As is typical for a MacBook Air, this type of synchronization is only possible by mounting the bigger Mac as afp host (file sharing) during synchronization.
I have encountered several difficulties of the kind that perhaps are similar to what you describe and can offer perhaps several remedies. At least I have been able to overcome all the difficulties I have encountered when synchronizing files between machines in the aforementioned manner.
First my repository folder is not located at the same point in the file systems tree on the two machines. The pdf repository folder even has a different folder name on the two machines. Only within the folder everything is exactly the same (given synchronization was successful).
1) As a result of a synchronization, all pdf links are broken and need repairing unless I create on both machines a pseudo path including empty folders and symbolic links, so that every path as contained in a file URL, regardless of where it was created, is always fully accessible on both machines. Then I no longer get the red missing linked file icons. I used following little shell script to create the needed paths emulations:
#!/bin/sh # # Purpose I'm regularly synchronizing my pdf repository folder among two # Macs: grandeur (MacBook Pro, 17") and air-andreas (MacBook Air)# # The repository folders differ and are: # - grandeur '/Volumes/HD/uaf/Data Bases/AFEles/afEles_AFCD100' # - air-andreas '/Users/afischli/Documents/DataBases/AFEles/afEles_AFCD100-Air' # # BibDesk, EndNote, and/or LiteratureMY linked pdf's can
# easily be accessed on both machines, if both paths are valid # via some symbolic links and emulation directories and point # to the physical repository folder# # Usage Run this script once after having installed the actual repository folder
# after initial installation of the operating system# # af, ETH Zurich / 1.Sep.2009
theMac=`uname -n` if [ "$theMac" == "grandeur.local" ]; then # emulate path from Air on grandeur cd cd Documents/ ln -s /Volumes/HD/uaf/Data\ Bases DataBases cd DataBases/AFEles/ ln -s afEles_AFCD100 afEles_AFCD100-Air elif [ "$theMac" == "air-andreas.local" ]; then # emulate path from grandeur on Air cd /Volumes mkdir HD cd HD mkdir uaf cd uaf ln -s /Users/afischli/Documents/DataBases "Data Bases" cd "Data Bases"/AFEles/ ln -s afEles_AFCD100-Air afEles_AFCD100 else echo "Sorry, the Mac '$theMac' is not supported by this script" fi2) In case something goes wrong, I wrote an AppleScript "Fix PDF and URL Links" that can fix many things, e.g. repairing broken links and/or adding missing linked file URLs in the right-side pane by searching within the pdf repository folder for files satisfying my naming rules. I'm happy to provide this AppleScript should you be interested, since I anyway plan to offer my set of AppleScripts for other users on the BD wiki sometimes in the future.
3) The only difficulty I have not been able to overcome in an elegant manners is the attempt by BibDesk on my MacBook Air to access the other big machine during launch. When I am not connected to the internet -, as soon as I launch a newly transferred .bib file, my Air makes attempts to access my other Mac. AFAIK reason being: The file links point to the folder on the other machine, that was available during synchronization, not the just synchronized repository folder on the Air. Therefore BibDesk tries to establish a connection through the internet to the big Mac and tries to mount the disk where the partner repository folder resides. When I want to avoid this auto-mounting, I disconnect the Air from the internet. When no internet is available or the other Mac is anyway not available, I can even leave AirPort on. In all these cases, on the Air I have to wait till the time-out is reached and the system tells me that it could not connect the two machines (I'm not yet working with Snow Leopard, only Leopard). Then I save the BD file from within BD and all is fine afterwards. Perhaps someone knows a more elegant solution for this 3rd problem (Christiaan?). However, the awkward my remedy may be, at least it works.
Regards, Andreas ________________________________________________________________________ ETH Zurich Prof. Dr. Andreas Fischlin Systems Ecology - Institute of Integrative Biology CHN E 21.1 Universitaetstrasse 16 8092 Zurich SWITZERLAND [email protected] www.sysecol.ethz.ch/staff/af +41 44 633-6090 phone +41 44 633-1136 fax Make it as simple as possible, but distrust it! ________________________________________________________________________ * * Christiaan Hofman wrote:
On Sep 17, 2009, at 23:31, Mukund Rangamani wrote:Hello Christiaan, Thanks for the explanation. I understand how the file links work a bit better now and hopefully have an idea of how to implement the changes. I will let you know how things go, but this might not be for a while.What do you mean by messed up?Ah, just that when I open the bib file in my laptop the linked files can't be found i.e. they are highlighted as being missing.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 iscase insensitive as it's standard.Well, now I know. I could reinstall 10.6 with the drive formatted differently had I a bit more time…If you use a case sensitive file system anywhere you should definitelyuse a consistent casing for this.The curious thing is that I do have a consistent system on my laptop which is case sensitive. What I can't understand is how the system picked up the different casing by itself?That may be a quirk of the synchronization/copy tool you're using.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.Good that explains what is happening at every save. Each time I sync back to my laptop I see that the file links are missing simply because I guess they are pointing to a non-existent directory.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.Indeed; my plan was to name the folder something completely different so that it has a chance of getting around this confusion. As I say it will be a while before I do it, but I will let you know how it goes. Thanks! MukundI'd do it like this (on your desktop): 1. open the .bib file 2. save it again (so the links are consistent and complete)3. in Finder, rename "Papers" to "papers", perhaps through an intermediate name 4. save the .bib file again (so the links are updated to use the new name)5. synchronize the .bib file to your laptop 6. make sure you use "papers" in your prefs for the papers folder I think that after this the links on your laptop should work. Christiaan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart yourdeveloping 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
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