How Do I Share My iPhoto or iTunes Library With More than One User

From NeilDocs

[edit] Problem Description

I have several user accounts set up on my Mac and would like to share my iPhoto or iTunes libraries between users. How can I accomplish this?

[edit] Solution

The basic idea is to move the iPhoto or iTunes library to a location that is shared by both users and ensure that both users have access to the location. You will then create an alias that is in the original location of the libraries that points to this shared location. You will need to create a crontab task to prevent users from being locked out of the photos or tunes.

1. Using netinfo create a new group duplicating an existing group, changing the gid,
2. Copy iPhoto and/or iTunes Library to the Shared folder
3. Create an alias in the original location of the iPhotos Library and/or iTunes Library pointing to the new location of the libraries.
4. Setup the crontab to change the file permissions and ownership on a regular basis
   1. Login to an account with administrator access
   2. Open the Terminal located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
   3. Type "sudo crontab -u root -e"
   4. Enter the administrators password
   5. Type :e to enter edit mode in VI (a really primitive text editor)
   6. Enter the crontab entries (the commands that need to be run on a regular basis)
   7. Press ESC
   8. Type :wq and press RETURN to save the crontab file and exit.

My crontab entries looks like this:
13 * * * * /usr/sbin/chown -R neil:share_media /Users/Shared/iPhoto*; /bin/chmod -R 775 /Users/Shared/iPhoto*
17 * * * * /usr/sbin/chown -R neil:share_media /Users/Shared/iTunes; /bin/chmod -R 775 /Users/Shared/iTunes
Note: This will change the permissions of the iPhoto library at minute 13 of every hour and the iTunes library at minute 17 of every hour.