AFTRIMGE

Documentation

Portable mode

The Windows portable release runs from a folder without being installed, and keeps its archive inside that folder.

How AFTRIMGE decides it is portable

A copy of AFTRIMGE is portable when a file named aftrimge.portable sits next to the executable. The portable release includes that file; the installer does not. Nothing else is checked.

AFTRIMGE-0.2.0-Windows-x64-Portable/
  AFTRIMGE.exe
  aftrimge.portable          presence alone selects portable mode
  README-PORTABLE.txt
  THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt
  AFTRIMGE Data/             created on first launch
    aftrimge.db              the temporal index (SQLite)
    aftrimge.lock            held while AFTRIMGE is open; do not delete
    objects/                 content-addressed snapshots
    backups/                 database copies made before a format upgrade
    thumbnails/  diffs/      caches, safe to delete
    metadata/                reserved
    logs/                    one log file per day
    webview/                 the embedded browser's own cache

The location of AFTRIMGE Data is worked out from the executable's location every time AFTRIMGE starts. Moving or renaming the portable folder moves the archive with it.

The status bar reads Portable instead of Local in a portable copy.

What stays outside the folder

  • Your project folders. AFTRIMGE records each watched folder by the full path it had when you added it. If a project folder moves, or sits on a removable drive that comes back with a different drive letter, AFTRIMGE will not find it at the old path. Add it again from its new location.
  • Restores and exports write where you choose, which is usually inside a project folder.
  • The WebView2 runtime is part of Windows, not of AFTRIMGE. It must already be installed.

Portable and installed copies together

They do not share anything. An installed copy uses %APPDATA%\com.aftrimge.desktop; a portable copy uses its own AFTRIMGE Data folder. Running both at once is fine, but each sees only its own archive.

Only one copy of AFTRIMGE can have a given archive open. Starting a second copy of the same portable folder while the first is open shows AFTRIMGE is already open with this archive and exits. See Recovery and restore.

Deleting aftrimge.portable turns a portable copy into one that uses the installed location. Do not do that unless that is what you want: the archive in AFTRIMGE Data stays where it is and is no longer opened.

Watching the folder that holds the archive

AFTRIMGE refuses to watch a folder that contains its own archive, for example the root of the drive the portable copy lives on. If it did, it would record its own database writes as changes to your project, which would cause more writes.

Upgrading a portable copy

Replace AFTRIMGE.exe with the newer one and keep AFTRIMGE Data. Copy AFTRIMGE Data somewhere safe first: a newer version upgrades the archive in place and an older version will then refuse to open it.

When a newer release uses a newer database format, AFTRIMGE first writes a checked copy of the database to AFTRIMGE Data\backups\ and does not upgrade if that copy cannot be made. That copy covers the database only, not objects/, so copying the whole of AFTRIMGE Data is still the complete backup. See Installing AFTRIMGE.

Backing up

Close AFTRIMGE and copy the whole portable folder. That copy is complete.

What has been tested

On Windows 11 (x64): a portable copy created an archive, recorded a project, was closed, was moved to a different path, was reopened, and found the same archive intact. The installed location was checked before and after and was not written to. Running from a physical removable drive and moving to a second machine have not been tested.

Source: docs/PORTABLE.md