Custom location for data

[m3thm4th]

Describe feature

Allowing users to choose the data location would allow flexibility

• it would allow the use of external encryption tools like Cryptomator or Veracrypt
• it would allow putting data on a shared folder and access it from several clients without setting up and managing the server

Additional Information

No response

[contributor]

What about TRILIUM_DATA_DIR env var? It should cover your scenarios.

[m3thm4th]

Yeah, general config can stay where they are, I meant data and metadata.

Another question is how Trilium would handle missing data. For example user forgets to unlock the encrypted volume, does Trilium display empty data or give a "database missing" error?

[eliandoran]

I meant data and metadata.

That's what TRILIUM_DATA_DIR is for. It defines a directory where the database is stored.

it would allow putting data on a shared folder and access it from several clients without setting up and managing the server

That will not be possible. See https://www.sqlite.org/useovernet.html.

[m3thm4th]

That's what TRILIUM_DATA_DIR is for. It defines a directory where the database is stored.

Alright, so that which is in ~/.local/share/trilium-data/ then. Got it.

That will not be possible. See https://www.sqlite.org/useovernet.html.

Oh, I didn't think Trilium could be very I/O intensive. Makes sense.
Choosing data location would still be useful for using third parties encryption tools.

[m3thm4th]

More specifically, the supported way is not good because it's not user-friendly and it doesn't work in most cases. e.g.

1. open Trilium
2. close Trilium
3. run export command and select another folder
4. open Trilium
5. nothing changed

The data directory should be selectable in settings and declared in a plain text file that can be edited while Trilium is closed.

The fine-grained directories should be editable in settings under a submenu of the previous option and declared in the same plain text file

[eliandoran]

The fine-grained directories should be editable in settings under a submenu of the previous option and declared in the same plain text file

Changing the subdirectories is a very advanced usecase so I don't see it being adjustable in the settings. For database, I can understand the necessity.

[Nriver]

More specifically, the supported way is not good because it's not user-friendly and it doesn't work in most cases. e.g.

1. open Trilium
2. close Trilium
3. run export command and select another folder
4. open Trilium
5. nothing changed

It seems that you didn’t set the environment variable correctly. When you run export in a terminal, the change only applies to that terminal session. If you then start Trilium from the Start Menu or another launcher, it won’t inherit the variable you set in the terminal.

To make the environment variable take effect system-wide, you need to add the export command to your shell configuration file (for example, ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile), then reboot your machine. After that, any program you launch should recognize the environment variable properly.

[m3thm4th]

@Nriver I did that, I tried adding that line to ~/.bashrc (I don't have a ~/.bash_profile file) and it doesn't work

[m3thm4th]

There's also another issue, Trilium creates the ~/.local/share/trilium-data/ directory at first launch.

This is an issue for the following reason. If I want to protect the content of the whole folder with an external tool such as Cryptomator it would work like this:

1. Unlock Cryptomator Vault
2. ~/.local/share/trilium-data/ would be filled with files
3. Start Trilium and work normally

If I forget to unlock the vault and launch Trilium, it would start from scratch, asking me to choose between local database or server-client usage, but the folder would be filled with data. This makes this workflow very unreliable. The solution would be to only fill the folder with data AFTER the user has made a choice. In this case this would happen:

1. I forget to unlock the encrypted vault and launch Trilium with an empty trilium-data folder
2. I see the selection menu and realize the mistake
3. Close Trilium (nothing has been written in ~/.local/share/trilium-data/)
4. Unlock the encrypted vault
5. Launch Trilium
6. Resume work

@eliandoran do you think this would be possible?