[mythtv] Recordings in subdirectories

[Michael T. Dean]

The attached patch adds the ability to store MythTV recordings in 
subdirectories of the RecordFilePrefix (or its subdirectories).  
Although the patch could be used to sort files (and make for smaller 
directories to improve filesystem performance), moving files to 
subdirectories is most useful when mounting additional filesystems 
(either local or network) beneath the RecordFilePrefix.

Note that even with this patch, Myth will only record into the 
RecordFilePrefix.  The user must manually move recordings into 
subdirectories and update the basename field of the recorded table to 
include the subdirectory information (i.e. "subdir/recording.mpg" or 
"sub1/sub2/recording.mpg").

I've been running my Myth system with recordings in subdirectories since 
November 2.  I've been running the current (better) implementation of 
the patch for about 2 weeks.  Both patches (see below for details) have 
been very stable.  I've been able to successfully play, delete, 
transcode, and commflag recordings with the patch applied.  Also, links 
created by mythrename.pl work fine for recordings in subdirectories.  
(Without the patch, deleting and commflagging (at least with "-f") 
recordings in subdirectories fails to work.  I never tested transcoding, 
but I think it would also fail without the patch.)

Note that the patch does not update the auto-expire code to be aware of 
multiple filesystems.  Therefore, if you store auto-expire-enabled 
recordings on other filesystems mounted beneath your RecordFilePrefix, 
Myth's deleting those files will not affect the free space on the 
filesystem containing your RecordFilePrefix.  In other words, Myth may 
delete every auto-expire-enabled recording on other filesystems before 
finally deleting a recording from and making room on the recording 
filesystem.  So, if you move files to other filesystems, you should 
disable auto-expire on those recordings.

Testing (especially by users with slave backends or remote frontends) 
and comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike


Patch Implementation Details:

Originally, I tried modifying GetRecordBasename to no longer attempt to 
derive the basename and instead always query the database.  However, 
this approach created a noticeable lag.  Therefore, I rewrote the patch 
to add a new field, basename, to ProgramInfo.  The basename is always 
the value stored in the basename field in the database.  The pathname, 
however, as before could be an absolute pathname (i.e. 
/var/video/recording.mpg), a "myth://" URI, or the same value as the 
basename.

I did not change the serialization format for ProgramInfo (since a 
ProgramInfo with an empty basename field simply queries the database 
when GetRecordBasename is called), however, a final version of the patch 
should probably do so.  I assume doing so would involve incrementing the 
protocol version, but was unsure, so I left it off until I could get 
more information.  Also, I didn't modify the binary version, as I don't 
think it's required for these changes.

I'm posting here (instead of Trac) to get more information on the 
serialization/version issue I mentioned above and because I'm hoping I 
can get someone with remote machines (slave backends and/or remote 
frontends) to test the patch.
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