Getting started · Chapter 5

Folders and naming.

nexcrate files into folders it can see inside its container, and you choose them from a list. You never type a path. This chapter sets the default folder for each version, explains how hardlinks save space, shows the naming and the library rules, and says what to do when nexcrate turns a folder down.

Choosing the default folder

Every version has a default folder. That is where nexcrate files new titles of the version. Titles that are already there stay in their folder. Without a default folder a version downloads nothing. Only folders that are mounted into the container are on offer. How that works is on the Self-host page.

1. Open the page

   Open “Settings › Folders and naming”. At the top choose the type, “Movies”, “Shows” or “Music”, and then the topic “Folders”. Under “Mounted folders” you see what nexcrate can see, with the free space.

2. “Choose default folder”

   Each version has a row with this button. If it already has one, the button says “Change default folder”. The window “Default folder for Full HD” opens.

3. Go to the folder

   You start at the mounted folders, open subfolders and go back with “One level up”. A folder without subfolders can still be taken.

4. “Take this folder”

   After that it says: “Full HD now files new movies under …”.

Settings › Folders and naming

For music nexcrate makes a folder per artist and a folder per album below the folder. Albums that already lie elsewhere stay there.

If nexcrate sees no folder yet, it says “nexcrate does not see a folder for media yet”. Then a line under volumes is missing in the compose file. After a new mount the container needs a restart.

When nexcrate turns a folder down

Since nexcrate 0.9.3 the reason stands above the buttons of the window, so you see it even with many subfolders, and it no longer looks as if “Take this folder” did nothing. The log under “Settings › System › Log” also names every refusal with its reason. There are three:

• “nexcrate does not see this folder. Only folders mounted into the container can be chosen.” The folder is missing under volumes, or the container was not restarted after you added it.
• “nexcrate cannot write into this folder. Please check the rights of the mount.” To test, nexcrate briefly creates a hidden test file and deletes it again. If that fails, the folder belongs to another user. On the host you set the rights so that the user from PUID and PGID may write.
• “This folder is already the default folder of the version …, or lies inside or around it.” Every version needs a folder of its own. It must not be the same as the folder of another version, and neither may lie inside the other. Put /media/movies and /media/movies-4k side by side, not /media/movies/4k inside /media/movies.

Hardlinks instead of copies

A torrent has to keep being shared even when the movie is already in your library. So nexcrate gives the movie in the movie folder a second name for the same file, a hardlink. Both names point to one place on the disk, and the history says “Shares the file with the torrent, no extra space”. Usenet downloads nexcrate moves. For music with “Write tags” switched on, a torrent is copied instead of linked, so that it keeps seeding unchanged.

That only works inside one mount. Put the downloads of your download clients and your media folders below one folder on the host and mount that one folder. With two mounts, even of the same disk, nexcrate copies the movie, and every torrent takes its space twice.

volumes:
  - ./data:/data
  - /srv/data:/media

Below /srv/data you would then have, for example, torrents, usenet and movies. /data belongs to nexcrate itself and is never offered as a media folder. If your download clients see the same folder under another path, that is no problem. The chapter Download clients shows how to tell nexcrate once.

Naming

Under the topic “Naming” you see how nexcrate names folders and files when it files them. The tokens in curly braces are named as in Radarr, Sonarr and Lidarr, so patterns from there can be taken over.

• Movies. Under “Default naming” are “Movie folder” and “Movie file”. “Use the recommendation” puts in the patterns of the TRaSH Guides, and the “Preview with a made-up movie” shows what comes out. “Replace umlauts” turns ä into ae and ß into ss; it applies to movies and series. Each version uses the default naming or has an “Own naming” under “Naming per version”. If you have a connection to Radarr, “Take from Radarr” takes its patterns for that version.
• Series. “Naming of series” knows “Series folder”, “Season folder”, “Specials folder” and a file each for an episode, a daily show and an anime series. Then there is the “Id for your media server” for Plex, Jellyfin or Emby, which is added to the series folder. “Number episodes” chooses “like TMDB” or “like TVDB”, and “Several episodes in one file” the style, such as S01E01-E03. Here too there is “Take it from Sonarr”.
• Music. “Artist folder”, “Album folder” and the files “File, one medium” and “File, several media”. Out of the box it is flat: one folder per album. “Take it from Lidarr” exists here as well.

A new pattern applies from the next filing. nexcrate does not rename existing files by itself. The topic “Rename” does that: you work out with “Compute preview” what would change, choose the titles and start with “Rename the chosen ones”. The preview only reads and changes nothing, and under “Last run” the button “Undo” takes a run back as long as nothing has changed for those titles since.

Library rules

If children's films or anime should end up in a folder of their own, you do not need a version of their own. Under the topic “Folders” there are “Library rules” for movies and series. The first rule that fits decides where a new title of that version goes; otherwise the default folder applies.

A rule has the form “When genre, age rating, tag or kind of series … then folder”. For series the kind is “Standard”, “Daily” or “Anime”. You change the order with the arrows. For the age rating, the country set under “Calendar” counts, such as “0, 6” for children's films. Titles that are already there stay where they are. If you want to move them, choose “Move by the rules” and first see which titles would go where. A title moves with its whole folder, and only on the same disk. There are no rules for music.

With a folder nexcrate can file, but it cannot find anything yet. For that it needs sources: Indexers.