Dealing with multiple wallet.dat files

[mackminer]

Hi,
My problem is having to copy another dat file into the application folder and swapping back then again.

Is there a better method than this?

Thanks.

[Drifter]

You could always rename the wallet.dat file something else and keep it in the app folder. Then you just need to rename it back to wallet.dat when you want to use it and restart bitcoin.
Still a bit of useless work, but I believe future clients are working on wallet swaps.

[dancupid]

Hi,
My problem is having to copy another dat file into the application folder and swapping back then again.

Is there a better method than this?

Thanks.

There doesn't appear to be.
file->open wallet and file->save wallet would be nice at the very least (with some sort of sensible naming protocol). 'Add wallet to current wallet' would be useful too.

[Raoul Duke]

Why don't you just create another application data dir and start the client with the -datadir=<wallet2dir> param when you wish to use that other wallet.dat? You can even create shortcuts for your 2 wallets.
Maybe you could symlink the blockchain(and all files that don't change) to the main data dir.
It will take some minutes to setup, but you'll only do it once

[Gabi]

There isn't, at least, so far

A "open wallet" button would be helpful but so far...nothing

[mackminer]

Thanks for the replies. I'll create the client that's directed to another .dat file then.

[ovidiusoft]

Maybe you could symlink the blockchain(and all files that don't change) to the main data dir.

OP didn't specify if he's using a symlink-capable OS. Even if he is, I'm pretty sure the client won't like the blockchain being updated from another process. Having multiple datadirs seems the best solution, but it will use a lot more disk space.

[Raoul Duke]

Maybe you could symlink the blockchain(and all files that don't change) to the main data dir.

OP didn't specify if he's using a symlink-capable OS. Even if he is, I'm pretty sure the client won't like the blockchain being updated from another process. Having multiple datadirs seems the best solution, but it will use a lot more disk space.

That's why I said "Maybe". But almost(?) all Linux flavors support them, MacOS also, hell, even Windows Vista and 7 support symlinks. There is a good chance that the OP is using a symlink capable OS
About the blockchain being updated from another process, it won't be. He shuts down wallet1 bitcoin client and starts the same bitcoin client pointing to the data dir that contains wallet2. No need to run 2 clients at the same time. 1 binary - 2 data dirs.
Hope I made myself clear now.

[kjj]

Can I ask what you hope to gain by having multiple wallets?  Whatever it is, multiple wallets is almost certainly the wrong answer.

[Raoul Duke]

Can I ask what you hope to gain by having multiple wallets?  Whatever it is, multiple wallets is almost certainly the wrong answer.

2 business/uses that the OP want in no way to get linked to eachother without having to worry much

[notme]

Right, I wouldn't run two daemons with symlinked blockchains at the same time, but it should be fine if you only run one.  Personally, I use separate datadirs on BTRFS.  Occasionally, I shut down everything and do a 'cp --reflink=always' of the blockchain to use Copy-On-Write.  This shares the common data between the two sets of files.  I've got way too much disk space though, so I don't have to do this very often.

[dancupid]

Can I ask what you hope to gain by having multiple wallets?  Whatever it is, multiple wallets is almost certainly the wrong answer.

I have about 10 wallets - I had no intention to create 10 wallets but I have 10 wallets.
I back up one, then there is a new client so a create another, then I create an encrypted wallet then I hear that the encryption didn't work properly so I create another with the next version then I back that up, then I lose track of which wallet is the correct wallet, and worry that I created it in Windows rather than my virtualized Ubuntu so I create another (my final one) and then ....

[Gabi]

Can I ask what you hope to gain by having multiple wallets?  Whatever it is, multiple wallets is almost certainly the wrong answer.

You keep most of your btc on the safer wallet and less on the wallet you use daily...