[mythtv-users] Default Storage Group clarification

[Michael T. Dean]

On 06/11/2012 03:10 PM, Michelle Dupuis wrote:
> From:  Michelle Dupuis
>
>> I'm setting up my first .25 backend and am unclear about the "Default Storage Group".  I read the wiki and I am left unclear about something...hopefully with a good explanation I can update the WIKI too.
>>
>> (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Storage_Groups)
>>
>> 1. What is the location of the folder(s) references by Default Storage Groups?
>> 2. Are there seperate folders for each group (eg: Fanart vs Screenshots) or is everything in one default folder?
> And one more...
>
> there is no RECORDINGS group like there used to be...can I add one...or where do recordings go by default

Note that a Storage Group is simply a user-defined name for a list of 
directories.  There can be any number of directories specified in any 
Storage Group.  Also, there can be any number of Storage Groups 
specified.  Some Storage Groups are "special"--they are "built-in" and 
always exist.  These special Storage Groups include "Default" and 
"Videos" and "Fanart" and such--those whose directory list can be 
created by selecting a button, "(Create <whatever> group)".

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 1) and 2), but I'm thinking that 
it will help to say, "Default" is unrelated to all other Storage 
Groups--it's not some "prefix path" added to the directory paths in 
other Storage Groups.  Remember a Storage Group is just a user-defined 
name for a list of directories.

And the Default Storage Group is--for all practical purposes--better 
called the "Recordings" Storage Group.  There has never been a built-in 
Recordings Storage Group.  Default is the Storage Group used, by 
default, for recordings.  Other users of SGs have their own defined SG 
names, but in some cases, will fall back to using the Default SG if the 
specific SG doesn't exist (for example, if you do not define a DB 
Backups SG, your DB backups will go into a directory in your Default SG).

If you add a Recordings Storage Group, it won't be used for anything, 
unless you specifically set up recording rules to use the Recordings 
Storage Group.  The rule editors, though, will default to using the 
Default Storage Group (well, unless you're using master and create a 
recording rule template that uses a different group, but the default 
template will default to using the Default Storage Group, but that's a 
story for after 0.26 is out).

(Put another way, the entire purpose of Storage Groups is to provide an 
abstraction for physical storage locations such that you can move around 
storage/files without ever needing to change recording rules or 
recording metadata or ...  By using the user-defined SG name 
everywhere--instead of specifying physical location--users can change 
around physical storage as necessary, i.e. when HDDs fail, etc. and, at 
most, need only change the list of directories associated with the SG name.)

Mike