Subsonic Forum

Hi, I am just setting up my library, but it's very large and I put a lot of effort into digitizing all my CDs with neat tags and artwork etc.

If I allow users to RATE tracks, or to COMMENT or to "create and delete" PLAYLISTS, will this actually affect my precious files or does this all get written into a database? If these things do in fact alter my files (which would mess up my whole hash-sum system), is allowing only playback and downloads SAFE?

Thank you, and thank you Sindre for this amazing tool!

flacflac

flacflac wrote:Hi, I am just setting up my library, but it's very large and I put a lot of effort into digitizing all my CDs with neat tags and artwork etc.

Iv spent months sorting mine out and im still going lol

flacflac wrote:If I allow users to RATE tracks, or to COMMENT or to "create and delete" PLAYLISTS, will this actually affect my precious files or does this all get written into a database?

It save's all the info in to the subsonic database.

flacflac wrote:If these things do in fact alter my files (which would mess up my whole hash-sum system), is allowing only playback and downloads SAFE?

Thank you, and thank you Sindre for this amazing tool!

flacflac

Its all safe for your files.

Well, they can overwrite the playlist files, so those can be updated. That doesn't affect the mp3s but it does affect the files on your hard drive. I don't know about ratings, but you can give users access to edit tags and update album art which will update mp3 tags.
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I'm interrested in what you say about your hash-sum system since I have thought about finding a tool that use a sort of hash or md5 or similar database to keep track of when files unexpectedly changes. Also I have looked for a backup system that could use a hash or md5 or similar system to keep two sets of files mirrored by using a md5 or similar system to determine which file is correct and which one that has unexpectedly been damaged.

I will not loke to have a million md5 files in the song library to do this though.

What system are you using for this? (If you are.)

Anyone else knowing about something like this?

Thank you for your input, Don and mixmaster - your answers are quite different, so I am wondering whether perhaps Sindre could tell us what really happens here. Don, you probably have a lot of experience with this, is there any place where I could see the user-made ratings?

I'm interrested in what you say about your hash-sum system since I have thought about finding a tool that use a sort of hash or md5 or similar database to keep track of when files unexpectedly changes. Also I have looked for a backup system that could use a hash or md5 or similar system to keep two sets of files mirrored by using a md5 or similar system to determine which file is correct and which one that has unexpectedly been damaged.

My 'system' consists of hashsums for quick monthly checks using a tool called hashsum, a windows tool currently developed by a friend of mine. In addition to the hashsums, I keep PAR2 files (about 20% parity) for every album. This way I can reverse any changes that might have occured. That of course is in addition to keeping backups... .

flacflac

flacflac wrote:Thank you for your input, Don and mixmaster - your answers are quite different, so I am wondering whether perhaps Sindre could tell us what really happens here.

No they aren't. I was just putting an ammendment on what Don said. I don't know about how the ratings work, Don pointed out they are saved in the subsonic database. I wanted to make clear that your files can indeed be updated if you give them rights to create & delete playlists, but that has nothing to do with what Don was talking about. Please note the distinction between playlist files and mp3 files in my post.
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Oh okay, sorry for the misunderstanding. I guess playlists are a no-go then, thanks guys!

flacflac

flacflac wrote:My 'system' consists of hashsums for quick monthly checks using a tool called hashsum, a windows tool currently developed by a friend of mine. In addition to the hashsums, I keep PAR2 files (about 20% parity) for every album. This way I can reverse any changes that might have occured. That of course is in addition to keeping backups... .

flacflac

Thanks for the info flacflac. Is that tool a public project? Any URL?

What tool do you use for PAR2 files.

Sure backups is fine, but how do I know when files have been changed from last time I took a backup? That's the question. You cannot easily sit on many backup versions when the music collection goes over 500Gb.

I assume a good way would be to take a base backup, and then use incremental backups to ensure that files that have been corrupted can have a healty backup in the base backup. But then. There is no guarantee that the base backup isn't damaged. Maybe have a duplicate of that base backup.

Just to clarify:

o Playlist files can be added, deleted or modified by authorized users. However, they can be kept separate from the music directory.

o Authorized users can modify album art. This does not modify the mp3 files, but creates files (folder.jpg) inside the album directories.

o Authorized users can modify ID3 tags and thus modify the mp3 files.

sindre_mehus wrote:o Authorized users can modify album art. This does not modify the mp3 files, but creates files (folder.jpg) inside the album directories.

D'oh. That sucks. I assumed they were being saved int he tags since the same checkbox is used in the settings. I just checked and that is correct, but now my collection is all hosed with the extra files lying around that are all the same name. I guess I'll have to file a feature request to be able to save album art to the tags. I'm going to tell my users to stop updating missing album art now.
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Thanks for clarifying, Sindre.

Mixmaster, why would you want that? Imagine you have 5 lossless albums, someone decides to update the album art inside the tags - this requires a complete rewrite of gigabytes of data. Much easier to just put it into the folder and have the file owner decide whether he/she wants to actually embed that, no?

flacflac wrote:Thanks for clarifying, Sindre.

Mixmaster, why would you want that? Imagine you have 5 lossless albums, someone decides to update the album art inside the tags - this requires a complete rewrite of gigabytes of data. Much easier to just put it into the folder and have the file owner decide whether he/she wants to actually embed that, no?

Because then the art moves with the track, not the folder. If you use the folder.jpg method you liter you hard drive with these tiny files all of the same name. In reality, the user cannot decide right now, the user is forced to write these files to their hard drive then, if they want to embed them into the tags, use another tool to do it. Instead I'm going to just use a better tool and tell my users to stop updating art. Unfortunately, I cannot modify their rights because one checkbox is being used for two completely different things. The first is updating tags and the other is saving a jpeg to the folder in which the tracks are. These are very different operations controlled by the same flag. Really we should pull the album art out of that checkbox and give it its own checkbox (the fact that it is the same as the updating tag is what made me assume that art was saved to the tags in the first place). Then we should add two more checkboxes that are used to decide where the album art is saved (tag or folder). Make those checkboxes and not a radio button so the admin can chose to do none, both, one or the other.

FWIW, it shouldn't matter too much how big the files are. The data is not being sent across the internet, it's just a local save. The only data that should be pulled across the network when updating tags is the new information, the art or whatever tag is being modified.
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