[roach9]

I'm just wondering what will happen if XBMC decides to clean while the server is inaccessible? It won't wipe my database... will it?

---

Moreover, what's the favoured add-on for keeping my library up to date? Watchdog apparently doesn't support unmounted network shares... so what's out there that will work for me?

[artrafael]

I'm just wondering what will happen if XBMC decides to clean while the server is inaccessible? It won't wipe my database... will it?

Yes, it will. You should disable "Update library on startup" for both the "Video" and "Music" in System/Settings before taking down your server. And, obviously, don't run "Update library" or "Clean library" manually while your server is inaccessible.

And, just to be safe, you may also want to export both libraries so that if they get clobbered, you can restore them to the previous state.

[roach9]

Jesus.

That's scary.
Is there an alternative? Would mounting an NFS share be more appropriate?

[artrafael]

Same thing. If the source is not available and you're telling XBMC to update the library, it'll remove entries for items it cannot find. There may be other options to avoid this problem, but these two come to mind:

• Don't tell XBMC to update the library at startup while you're doing maintenance on the server
  
• Leave XBMC off while you're doing maintenance on the server
  

[roach9]

I just did that.

As far as add-ons on... is there any add-on that's Samba friendly? Or anyway I can set up a times to update/clean libraries?

[artrafael]

I'm assuming you are referring to add-ons that are used to keep libraries updated? I don't use any of them so I don't know how they behave if a media source is missing, but you should probably disable these before you take down your server.

[roach9]

So, you just update your library manually?

[JustSomeGuy]

Same thing. If the source is not available and you're telling XBMC to update the library, it'll remove entries for items it cannot find. There may be other options to avoid this problem, but these two come to mind:

• Don't tell XBMC to update the library at startup while you're doing maintenance on the server
  
• Leave XBMC off while you're doing maintenance on the server
  

I don't don't find artrafael 's assertion to be true. Using Linux XBMC Edan and Frodo Beta 2, when I update my library with some sources offline, the entries for those videos are not deleted. That only happens when I clean the library -- per the doc's and my experience. If you should try to play these unavailable files, XBMC will note the file no longer exists and ask if it should delete the entry from the library; select cancel.

This means you really needn't worry about leaving update on start-up enabled.

So, you just update your library manually?

No (as above) or yes, and there is more than one way to update manually when update on startup is off:

I just retested Eden and find that the movie info statys intact when off-line paths are scanned; I'd previously found the movi file info got lost; so my new opinion is just leave scan on startup enabled. However, there are ways to prevent off-line paths from being scanned:

1. Make sure all the shares are on-line and select update library from the Movies menu.
2. Go to the source (Movies->Files->source name) to which you just made additions and select change content or edit. You have to mess with something to get XBMC to ask if you'd like to rescan that path. I think you can scan just the updated source this way and preserve data for off-line files.
3. Browse to the files you just added and refresh them individually, so the off-line paths never get scanned.

I only add a file or two at a time, so I use #3.