[MOTHERWELL]

I use both a Powerbook and a G4 Tower for work. I try to rip all CDs on my tower becuase my music is on an external HD connected to it.

I would like to be able to plug the HD into the powerbook, open itunes and see the exact same song library I see on the tower.

They only way I can make this work is by deleting my entire library and adding all the songs all over again. This takes about 10 minutes becuase my library is large.

Is the file I am looking for a preference file? Or is there no solution to this dilemma?

[Goldfinger]

Your iTunes database file is located in your Music folder in your home directory. Copying that will give you the same database on both computers. If you add songs just be sure to copy the database to the other computer which has the outdated database. This should work.

[MOTHERWELL]

Is the iTunes music library ALWAYS stored in my ~/Music folder? I keep my library set to my external HD.

[Mithras]

Well, there's the library database file, and the 'Library', i.e. the folder containing the music. iTunes lets you set the 'Library' to anywhere you choose, but by default keeps the database file in the same place: "~/Music/iTunes/iTunes 4 Music Library". (and "~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml".)

The database file actually contains a pointer to the 'Library' folder.

That said, while iTunes always searches that path for the file, you can use any combination of aliases or symlinks to keep the file someplace else, including your external drive. That's what I do -- I replace my ~/Music/iTunes folder with a symlink pointing to the external drive, so I keep both the database file and the 'Library' of music there.

Be careful if you put the database file on a network drive, though -- you don't want two machines trying to write to it at the same time.

[MOTHERWELL]

Very cool. Thank you.