Tracker

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["AndersWallenquist"] I think tracker is the most relevant place to implement an Ubuntu Time Machine, eg an automatic backup and replication utility. We have already unison, rsync, rdiff-backup and duplicity which all are very good utilities for both backup and replication - but it takes huge of time for these utilities to check the home catalog for changes (when loggin in and out). Tracker acts as soon a file is changed and therefore Tracker its the best place to implement these kind of enhancements.

""Use case 1;"";
Arnold logs in to his office-computer, after a few seconds his local documents are up-to date with his home-catalog at the office server. Later in the afternoon he lends a computer of a teammate and logs in using his home-directory at the office server and finds all of his work done before lunch. Every change he saved on his office-computer where replicated automaticly to the office-server by Tracker. Tracker is also aware of the home-catalog on the office-server and optimize the updating of the Tracker-index-database on the server. Arnold could have configure Tracker to use only the index-database on the office-server, but in this case he wants a local copy so he can work offline.

""Use case 2;"";
Eve is working on a very important document and has also done some work in gimp on some pictures imported in this document. Suddenly she wants to know how these pictures was looking last week in an earlier version of this document. Its an easy task, just right-clicking in Nautilus because Tracker has a log over every change in the files in her home catalog.

""Use case 3;"";
Anna is a heavy user of the tagging system and the new file open dialog in Gnome that is Tracker aware. She is not only using the local tracker-index-database for her local documents in her home-catalog, she has also a prenumeration on several central tracker-index-databases that has indexed remote documents on the office server shares that she regulary mounts when she has her laptop-computer connected on the local office network. Tracker finds automaticly new tracker-index-databases as soon Anna mounts a new remote directory, all changes Anna does on remote documents are tracked down and updates the remote database.

Tracker is a synergy of technologies that are designed to provide a highly sophisticated, innovative and integrated desktop.

For installation, see [https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaTracker MetaTracker on the help.ubuntu.com wiki]

Tracker provides the following:

A nice summary of how tracker can make your desktop rock is given below :

  • Imagine downloading an mp3 file to have it automatically appear in Rhythmbox, complete with artist and track information.
  • Imagine shooting a photo on your digital camera and having it appear in f-spot, without having to be imported.
  • Like tagging? tracker lets you apply tags to files, freeing you from an endless hierarchy of folders.
  • Tracker not only allows you to search for files based upon what's inside them, but also by properties which describe them (metadata).
  • Tracker is smart. By treating files as first class objects it knows that Photos have widths, while Music files have artists. Tracker knows that Documents have authors and Videos have durations.
  • Want to find photos taken with your Nikon digital camera? no problem!.
  • Want to find all Openoffice documents created in December, with more than 10 pages, containing the word "cheese"? no problem. Tracker can do it.
  • Tracker is the glue that helps developers connect GNOME together, and the reason users will love the GNOME and Ubuntu platforms.

Tracker is written in 100% C and is designed to be both fast and efficient with your system's resources. Tracker's performance profile includes:

  • Small - <5mb RAM, great for low-end systems, and easily meets Ubuntu Feisty's RAM usage targets

  • Fast - hundreds of searches per second will not slow your computer, drain your battery or waste your system resources.
  • High-performance indexing - can index your files faster than most other indexers (especially when run with --turbo)
  • Standards compliant - tracker has a dbus interface and utilizes the FDO technologies and specs

Current Plans and integration with Gnome apps:

  • We already provide an excellent and efficient desktop search capability for files with its own tracker-search-tool, nautilus integration (with "Find" tool and "Tag" file option) and deskbar integration but will be expanding on this to include emails, chat logs and applications in the next month or two
  • We will be expanding our T-S-T GUI to provide more advanced searches using specific metadata and extensible metadata/tags
  • We will in the near future provide SLAB, tiles library and a snazzy GTKFileChooser replacement which will all exploit tracker's features including tags
  • RhythmBox already provides tracker as a plug-in but the maintainer is also keen to exploit our first class object technology and extensible metadata capability by utilizing tracker instead of its current XML database

  • Epiphany wants to use tracker's first class objects for bookmarks and history management whilst also providing searches for them
  • Deskbar applet is planning on using tracker's database for storage needs
  • Leaftag maintainer happy to use tracker as a backend for tags
  • Longer term we plan on creating our own file manager for tracker which can fully exploit tracker's full potential

Comments and Discussion

["Warbo"]: I can't wait for this to be fully integrated, and I'm currently using some external packages for tracker, nautilus and deskbar, but I have an issue to raise: How much tagging will be done automatically? The use case of the Nikon digital camera is an obvious example of automatic tagging by whatever tracker-aware photo application is used, but the incredible usefulness of this also comes with concerns about privacy, since so much information is available about a user based on their database. Maybe there should be a preference setting for this level, as some users would love to have loads of information for every file in case they need it later, but others would be concerned with privacy. For example I could imagine a lot of people getting upset at GAIM tagging a received MP3 file with the sender's IM account name. Perhaps the file manager should be given a right-click option "Disable all tagging for this file/folder" (with a confirmation dialogue)?

["Stijngysemans"]: I'm really exited about this project! We need a small adaption to F-spot, the Ubuntu's default Photo Manager, to integrate tracker. The privacy issue is discussed in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=439535. I propose also the following idea: tight integration of "Persons". I've got friends listed on my cellphone, on my contact list in Gaim, in evolution and in f-spot. Why not combine the data of these friends into one peoples database.

""Use case 1:""; Person X on my list in Gaim ask me to send all the pictures I've taken of him. Of course I do tag my pictures so I can easily find those picture in f-spot. Now I need to export those picture to, let's suppose, the desktop. Afterwards I can create an archive file and send that file to my contact. Wouldn't it be easier, if the Gaim list and the f-spot user list where synchronized. Then you could just click on “send all pictures of this contact”.

""Use case 2:""; After a party John received both the cellphone number and Hotmail address of a girl. When John comes home and syncs his cellphone with his laptop, the computer asks if he wants to add the girl to his contact list. After a few hours, pictures of that party are published on a website. He downloads some of them and tags them. Now he doesn't need to create a new tag in F-spot because F-spot already knows the girl.

After a few days, John really wants to date with this girl he just has met. He opens Evolution and sends a mail to the girl. The email address is already in the system. Only a ten minutes later, he receives a new mail from the girl. The picture of the girl is automatically shown when he opens the mail (the one he tagged in F-spot). Right! He finally got a date and he schedules a meeting in Evolution.

On Friday a pop up from Evolution is show, together with a nice picture of the girl: don't forget your date tonight!

["AndersWallenquist"] I think tracker is the most relevant place to implement an Ubuntu Time Machine, eg an automatic backup and replication utility. We have already unison, rsync, rdiff-backup and duplicity which all are very good utilities for both backup and replication - but it takes huge of time for these utilities to check the home catalog for changes (when loggin in and out). Tracker acts as soon a file is changed and therefore Tracker its the best place to implement these kind of enhancements.

""Use case 1;""; Arnold logs in to his office-computer, after a few seconds his local documents are up-to date with his home-catalog at the office server. Later in the afternoon he lends a computer of a teammate and logs in using his home-directory at the office server and finds all of his work done before lunch. Every change he saved on his office-computer where replicated automaticly to the office-server by Tracker. Tracker is also aware of the home-catalog on the office-server and optimize the updating of the Tracker-index-database on the server. Arnold could have configure Tracker to use only the index-database on the office-server, but in this case he wants a local copy so he can work offline.

""Use case 2;""; Eve is working on a very important document and has also done some work in gimp on some pictures imported in this document. Suddenly she wants to know how these pictures was looking last week in an earlier version of this document. Its an easy task, just right-clicking in Nautilus because Tracker has a log over every change in the files in her home catalog.

""Use case 3;""; Anna is a heavy user of the tagging system and the new file open dialog in Gnome that is Tracker aware. She is not only using the local tracker-index-database for her local documents in her home-catalog, she has also a prenumeration on several central tracker-index-databases that has indexed remote documents on the office server shares that she regulary mounts when she has her laptop-computer connected on the local office network. Tracker finds automaticly new tracker-index-databases as soon Anna mounts a new remote directory, all changes Anna does on remote documents are tracked down and updates the remote database.

Tracker (last edited 2009-03-05 12:00:34 by irmik)