Methods for storing metadata associated with individual files?

Question

Given a collection of files which will have associated metadata, what are the recommended methods for storing this metadata?

Some files formats support storing metad

Answer 1

One option might be a relational database, structured like this:

FILE
f_id
f_location
f_title
f_description

ATTRIBUTE
a_id
a_label

VALUE
v_id
v_label

METADATA
md_file
md_attribute
md_value

This implementation has some unique information (title/description), but is primarily targetted at repetitive groups of data.

For some requirements, other less generic tables may be more useful.

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This has advantages of this being that relational databases are very common, and obviously very good at handling relationships and storing lots of data.

However, for some uses a database server brings an overhead which might not be desirable. Also, the database server is distinct from the files - they do not sit together, and require different methods of interaction.

Databases do not (easily) sit under version control - which may be a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view and specific needs.