Mastodawn

A few weeks ago I started shifting my #darktable config to the same external SSD that my photos are on, so that I can work on them on both my laptops (macOS and Linux) and main PC depending on where I am.

Fast forward to last week, when I left the SSD plugged into my main PC overnight with darktable running, and it crashed (the PC, not darktable) and corrupted the active, open darktable configuration files on the SSD. I have a lot of custom metadata set up for film scans as well as multiple workspaces for film, digital, and a slide scanning project - so it was a substantial configuration. The photos themselves are periodically backed up (and I still have the negatives which is what I use darktable for the most).

I worked with an LLM (this is one of the acceptable use cases for AI, IMO, as opposed to generating images and deepfakes all that that garbage) because I'm not a #bash expert and wanted a framework to work from/customize/learn from. This was the result - I'm posting it here in case anyone wants to use it, or has any ideas to make it better. Feel free to fork/clone if you like. Also open to ideas/suggestions. I tried to make it friendly enough that someone else can pick it up and run with it for their own use case.

The first script backs up the configuration to a separate location (and keeps 5 rotating backups) and then starts up darktable. The second script allows you to select and restore one of those backups. If you put them in a bin folder in your home directory you can just run them like other terminal commands.

I know that darktable also has a way to "check out" local copies, so maybe I should throw all these photos on a NAS (with a periodic offsite backup) or something, but this little SSD that I can take downstairs with me to work on my laptop while I watch TV with my wife has overall been a great, speedy solution - and a learning opportunity. Some of this will help me improve other simpler bash scripts I have/use.

https://git.kaiserphoto.org/kaiser/darktable-launch

Bonus pic of my parents' cat attached. Film data in alt text.