• filetag.py
  • Why
  • Usage
• Contribute!

## Time-stamp: <2013-05-09 17:42:06 vk> ## -- coding: utf-8 -- ## This file is best viewed with GNU Emacs Org-mode: http://orgmode.org/

filetag.py

This Python script adds or removes tags to file names in the following form:

2013-05-09 a file name with ISO date stamp in name -- tag1.jpg
different file without time stamp in name -- tag2.txt
2013-05-09T16.17 file name with time stamp -- tag3.csv
file name with several tags -- tag1 tag2.jpeg
another example file name with multiple example tags -- fun videos kids.mpeg

The script accepts an arbitrary number of files (see your shell for possible length limitations).

• Target group: users who are able to use command line tools and who are using tags in file names.
• Hosted on github: (FIXXME: add repos URL)

Why

Besides the fact that I am using ISO dates and times in file names (as shown in examples above), I am using tags with file names. To separate tags from the file name, I am using the separator " – " (space dash dash space).

For people familiar with Regular Expressions:

(<ISO date/time stamp>)? <descriptive file name> -- <list of tags separated by spaces>.extension

Tagging files this way requires a file renaming process. Adding (or removing) tag(s) to a set of file results in multiple renaming processes. Despite advanced renaming tools like vidir (from moreutils) it's handy to have a tool that makes adding and removing tags as simple as possible.

You may like to add this tool to your image or file manager of choice. I added mine to geeqie which is my favorite image viewer on GNU/Linux.

Usage

FIXXME: usage

filetag.py --tag foo a_file_name.txt

… adds tag "foo" such that it results in foo a_file_name -- foo.txt

filetag.py --tag "foo bar" "file name 1.jpg" "file name 2 -- foo.txt" "file name 3 -- bar.csv"

… adds tag "foo" such that it results in …

"file name 1 -- foo bar.jpg" "file name 2 -- foo bar.txt" "file name 3 -- bar foo.csv"

filetag.py --remove --tag foo "foo a_file_name -- foo.txt"

… removes tag "foo" such that it results in foo a_file_name.txt

Contribute!

I am looking for your ideas!

If you want to contribute to this cool project, please fork and contribute!