Veronica Berglyd Olsen
161 lines
7.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
161 lines
7.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_storage:
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******************
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How Data is Stored
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******************
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.. _documentation: https://docs.novelwriter.io/
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This chapter contains details of how novelWriter stores and handles the project data.
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Project Structure
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=================
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All novelWriter files are written with utf-8 encoding. Since Python automatically converts Unix
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line endings to Windows line endings on Windows systems, novelWriter does not make any adaptations
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to the formatting on Windows systems. This is handled entirely by the Python standard library.
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Python also handles this when working on the same files on both Windows and Unix-based operating
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systems.
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Main Project File
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-----------------
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The project itself requires a dedicated folder for storing its files, where novelWriter will create
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its own "file system" where the project's folder and file hierarchy is described in a project XML
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file. This is the main project file in the project's root folder with the name ``nwProject.nwx``.
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This file also contains all the meta data required for the project (except the index data), and a
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number of related project settings.
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If this file is lost or corrupted, the structure of the project is lost, although not the text
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itself. It is important to keep this file backed up, either through the built-in backup tool, or
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your own backup solution.
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The project XML file is indent-formatted, and is suitable for diff tools and version control since
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most of the file will stay static, although a timestamp is set in the meta section on line 2, and
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various meta data entries incremented, on each save.
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.. only:: not html
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A full project file format specification is available in the online documentation_.
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.. only:: html
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A full description of the current file format is available in the
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:download:`File Format Spec 1.5 <fileformatspec15.pdf>` document, available as a PDF.
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Project Documents
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=================
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All the project documents are saved in a subfolder of the main project folder named ``content``.
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Each document has a file handle based on a 52 bit random number, represented as a hexadecimal
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string. The documents are saved with a filename assembled from this handle and the file extension
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``.nwd``.
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If you wish to find the file system location of a document in the project, you can either look it
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up in the project XML file, select :guilabel:`Show File Details` from the :guilabel:`Document` menu
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when having the document open in the editor, or look in the ``ToC.txt`` file in the root of the
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project folder. The ``ToC.txt`` file has a list of all documents in the project, referenced by
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their label, and where they are saved.
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The reason for this cryptic file naming is to avoid issues with file naming conventions and
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restrictions on different operating systems, and also to have a file name that does not depend on
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what you name the document within the project, or changes it to. This is particularly useful when
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using a versioning system.
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Each document file contains a plain text version of the text from the editor. The file can in
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principle be edited in any text editor, and is suitable for diffing and version control if so
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desired. Just make sure the file remains in utf-8 encoding, otherwise unicode characters may
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become mangled when the file is opened in novelWriter again.
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Editing these files is generally not recommended. The reason for this is that the index will not be
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automatically updated when doing so, which means novelWriter doesn't know you've altered the file.
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If you *do* edit a file in this manner, you should rebuild the index when you next open the project
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in novelWriter.
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The first lines of the file may contain some meta data starting with the characters ``%%~``. These
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lines are mainly there to restore some information if the file is lost from the main project file,
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and the information may be helpful if you do open the file in an external editor as it contains the
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document label and the document class and layout. The lines can be deleted without any consequences
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to the rest of the content of the file, and will be added back the next time the document is saved
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in novelWriter.
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The File Saving Process
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-----------------------
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When saving the project file, or any of the documents, the data is first saved to a temporary file.
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If successful, the old data file is then removed, and the temporary file replaces it. This ensures
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that the previously saved data is only replaced when the new data has been successfully saved to
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the storage medium.
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Project Meta Data
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=================
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The project folder contains a subfolder named ``meta``, containing a number of files. The meta
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folder contains semi-important files. That is, they can be lost with only minor impact to the
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project. All files in this folder are JSON or JSON Lines files, although some other files may
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remain from earlier versions of novelWriter as they haven't all been JSON files in the past.
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If you use version control software on your project, you can exclude this folder, although you may
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want to track the session log file and the custom words list.
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The Project Index
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-----------------
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Between writing sessions, the project index is saved in a JSON file in ``meta/index.json``.
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This file is not critical. If it is lost, it can be completely rebuilt from within novelWriter from
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the :guilabel:`Tools` menu.
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The index is maintained and updated whenever a document or note is saved in the editor. It contains
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all references and tags in documents and notes, as well as the location of all headers in the
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project, and the word counts within each header section.
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The integrity of the index is checked when the file is loaded. It is possible to corrupt the index
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if the file is manually edited and manipulated, so the check is important to avoid sudden crashes
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of novelWriter. If the file contains errors, novelWriter will automatically build it anew. If the
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check somehow fails and novelWriter keeps crashing, you can delete the file manually and rebuild
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the index. If this too fails, you have likely encountered a bug.
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Build Definitions
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-----------------
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The build definitions from the :guilabel:`Manuscript Build` tool are kept in the
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``meta/builds.json`` file. If this file is lost, all custom build definitions are lost too.
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Cached GUI Options
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------------------
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A file named ``meta/options.json`` contains the latest state of various GUI buttons, switches,
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dialog window sizes, column sizes, etc, from the GUI. These are the GUI settings that are specific
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to the project. Global GUI settings are stored in the main config file.
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The file is not critical, but if it is lost, all such GUI options will revert back to their default
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settings.
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Custom Word List
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----------------
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A file named ``meta/userdict.json`` contains all the custom words you've added to the project for
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spell checking purposes. The content of the file can be edited from the :guilabel:`Tools` menu. If
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you lose this file, all your custom spell check words will be lost too.
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Session Stats
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-------------
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The writing progress is saved in the ``meta/sessions.jsonl`` file. This file records the length
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and word counts of each writing session on the given project. The file is used by the
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:guilabel:`Writing Statistics` tool. If this file is lost, the history it contains is also lost,
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but it has otherwise no impact on the project.
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Each session is recorded as a JSON object on a single line of the file. Each session record is
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appended tot he file.
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