Skip to content

Move the index folder

The index folder stores the full-text search indexes produced by GoldenDict. For large dictionaries (e.g. Wikipedia, Wiktionary), the size of these indexes can grow very large, potentially filling up your system drive.

There are generally two approaches to deal with the growing index size:

  • Enable Portable Mode so that indexes are kept in a location of your choosing.
  • Move the index folder in place using a symbolic (soft) link or a hard link, keeping the original path intact.

This page explains the latter approach.

Note

By default GoldenDict keeps its configurations and indexes in the user's home directory. To find out the exact location used on your system, see the storage layout in Portable Mode.

Note

The actual config / index directory path depends on your setup. It is usually ~/.goldendict, but in an XDG_BASE_DIRECTORY_COMPLIANCE build it can be located under the XDG cache/data directories instead.

Windows

Note

The mklink command is a built-in tool in Windows and can be used from cmd.

  1. Close GoldenDict.
  2. Open cmd as administrator.
  3. Copy the index folder to another place, take D:\gd-ng\index_new for example.
  4. Delete the original index folder.
  5. Run mklink /D "C:\Users\USERNAME\Application Data\GoldenDict\index" "D:\gd-ng\index_new".
  6. Run GoldenDict.

Alternative: Directory junctions

mklink /D creates a directory symbolic link. If you do not have the privilege to create symbolic links (or are on an older Windows version), you can use a directory junction instead, which does not require administrator privileges.

A junctional link (or directory junction) is a hard link for directories: it points to the location of a directory rather than a named symbol, so it does not suffer the same permission and path-resolution restrictions as symbolic links. Because it is implemented at the NTFS file-system level, it also works on older Windows versions and does not require administrator privileges.

Note

The mklink /J command below still needs to be run from the Command Prompt (cmd), not from PowerShell (PowerShell has a differently-named New-Item -ItemType Junction alternative, shown further down).

To create a directory junction, use the /J switch instead of /D:

mklink /J "C:\Users\USERNAME\Application Data\GoldenDict\index" "D:\gd-ng\index_new"

For example, from an administrator Command Prompt (or a normal one, since no admin rights are required):

  1. Close GoldenDict.
  2. Copy the index folder to another place, take D:\gd-ng\index_new for example.
  3. Delete the original index folder.
  4. Run the mklink /J command above.
  5. Run GoldenDict.

Note

Both mklink /D and mklink /J work identically from a user-application point of view. The /J (junction) form is preferred when you cannot create symbolic links.

Using PowerShell instead of cmd

If you prefer to work in PowerShell, the equivalent of a directory junction is created with the New-Item cmdlet:

New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\USERNAME\Application Data\GoldenDict\index" -Target "D:\gd-ng\index_new"

And to remove a junction later, simply remove the link as you would any folder:

Remove-Item "C:\Users\USERNAME\Application Data\GoldenDict\index"

Warning

Remove-Item on a symbolic link or junction only removes the link itself, not the files/folder it points to, provided you did not previously follow the link. To be safe, check the target before deleting.

Warning

Do not put the target folder (e.g. D:\gd-ng\index_new) inside the folder being linked, otherwise you may create an infinite recursion. Keep them on separate paths.