[mythtv-users] Storage group question

[Michael T. Dean]

On 01/14/2013 10:15 AM, Paul Stillwell wrote:
> A related question: Can the same directory be mapped into multiple Storage groups? For example, if I have 3 directories for recordings like this:
>
> /srv/mythtv/a/recordings
> /srv/mythtv/b/recordings
> /srv/mythtv/c/recordings
>
> Mapped to the following Storage Groups like this:
>
> Default: /srv/mythtv/a/recordings, /srv/mythtv/b/recordings
> Sports: /srv/mythtv/c/recordings, /srv/mythtv/a/recordings
>
> Will that be ok? I'm trying to come up with a scheme such that the small space I have on /srv/mythtv/c/recordings that I want to use when I record sports will be safe if I accidentally fill that drive up and some other sports show is going to record.

Yes. Directories can appear in any or all Storage Groups.

Note, also, that is the sports shows are really important to you, you 
can simply disable auto-expiration for those recordings.  Changing the 
recording rule (under Storage Options) to disallow auto-expire will 
ensure that no future recordings from that rule will be allowed to 
expire (unless you manually change one or more to allow it).  Changing 
existing recordings simply requires selecting them (i.e. if they're all 
in the Sports /recording/ group--as opposed to a Storage Group--go to 
Watch Recordings and use MENU|Change View Filter|Sports, select Sports 
in the left-hand column, then MENU|Add this Group to Playlist), then (if 
using a playlist to change multiple, MENU|Playlist Options, otherwise 
just MENU followed by) Storage Options|Disable Auto Expire.

Disabling auto-expire for "important shows" is not a problem.  Disabling 
auto-expire for everything is a big problem--or even "everything" on a 
single file system.  So just make sure you have some shows on a file 
system that allow expiration--enough to give a sufficient buffer for you 
to notice that you're out of space and move things around or add more 
space--with Deleted recordings (that could be expired) or auto-expirable 
recordings.

Also, you may want to consider doing things a bit differently.  Since 
(at least from MythTV's perspective) physical location is irrelevant for 
recordings, rather than trying to group all of your Sports recordings 
into a specific set of directories, you may want to "migrate" some of 
the sports recordings to a not-used-for-writing Storage Group once 
they've been recorded to (any) Storage Group directory.  The idea is to 
create a Storage Group, such as "Archive" or "Protected" or "Read Only" 
or whatever that has directories that do not exist in any other Storage 
Group, and never specify the "Archive" Storage Group in any recording 
rules.  The end result is that MythTV would never actually write to 
those directories (and, therefore, would never expire anything from 
those directories), but would still find shows there for playback.  So, 
perhaps you just want to put /srv/mythtv/c/recordings into an Archive 
Storage Group and "manually" move recordings there (manually meaning at 
the command line using mv or whatever, or you could even use a User Job 
to do so, and enable that User Job on your Sports recording rules, so 
it's done for you when a recording completes).

See http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/535888#535888 for 
details.

Mike