m2a.py

This script moves items (files or directories) containing ISO datestamps like ~~YYYY-MM-DD~~ into a directory stucture for the corresponding year.

You define the base directory either in this script (or using the command line argument ~~--archivedir~~). The convention is, e.g.:

#+begin_src bash /2011 /2011/2011-12-20 Meeting Friends at Barleys /2011/2011-12-20 Meeting Friends at Barleys/Tom with Beer.jpeg #+end_src

This script extracts the year from the datestamp of each file and moves it into the corresponding directory for its year:

#+begin_src bash m2a 2010-01-01_Jan2010.txt 2011-02-02_Feb2011.txt #+end_src ... moves ~~2010-01-01_Jan2010.txt~~ to ~~/2010/~~ ... moves ~~2011-02-02_Feb2011.txt~~ to ~~/2011/~~

OPTIONALLY: you can define a sub-directory name with option ~~-d DIR~~. If it contains no datestamp by itself, a datestamp from the first file of the argument list will be used. This datestamp will be put in front of the name:

#+begin_src bash m2a -d "2009-02-15 bar" one two three #+end_src ... moves all items to: ~~/2009/2009-02-15 bar/~~

#+begin_src bash m2a -d bar 2011-10-10_one 2008-01-02_two 2011-10-12_three #+end_src ... moves all items to: ~~/2011/2011-10-10 bar/~~

If you feel uncomfortable you can simulate the behavior using the ~~--dryrun~~ option. You see what would happen without changing anything at all.

For the complete usage help, please use the ~~--help~~ option.

Target group: users who are able to use command line tools and who
are managing photographs and other event-related files in folder
structures.
Hosted on github: https://github.com/novoid/move2archive

** Why

There is no integrated software solution for managing photographs that will (a) provide you all of the features you will ever want, (b) be available for a long period of time, and (c) provide a future-prove, platform-independent work-flow.

This is the reason I came up with this method of organizing archive files (photographs, scanned PDF files, memories, ...) in such a folder structure.

** Installation

Get it from [[https://github.com/novoid/move2archive][GitHub]] or install it via «pip install move2archive».

** Interactive Use :PROPERTIES: :CREATED: [2022-01-06 Thu 11:34] :END:

If you are using =m2a= in an interactive way, you need to know the following behavior difference when you (1) provide a target directory and (2) when no specific target directory is provided by you.

Let's use two example files:

=2020-07-13T13.55 xkcd about PIM.png=
=2022-01-06 screenshot of my editor.png=

Now let's assume those two files are the only PNG files in the current directory and the following command line you're using: =m2a *png=

First, let's take a look at the version (1) where you select or enter a target directory to file to.

*** Selecting a Target Directory

When asked "Please enter directory basename:" in the interactive prompt you're entering "some images".

This will result in both files moved to the one target directory where the oldest date-stamp is used to determine the year:

=/2020/2020-07-13 some images/2020-07-13T13.55 xkcd about PIM.png=.
=/2020/2020-07-13 some images/2022-01-06 screenshot of my editor.png=.

This is because the files are grouped together to be filed to the same spot when one single target directory is given.

A handy feature of =m2a= is that it suggest existing folders in the =archivepath=. So if you already do have a folder like =/2020/2020-07-13 interesting stuff/= and you call =m2a= with any file that starts with =2020-07-13...=, it shows a prompt like:

: One matching target directory found. Enter "1" if you want to use it: : [1] 2020-07-13 interesting stuff

In the case you want to re-use this directory as the target directory for the current files , you simply enter =1= to the prompt and the files are moved to that directory. Isn't that handy?

Now, let's compare with (2) when no target directory is given in the next section.

*** Not Selecting a Target Directory

This time, you do not enter anything in the target directory prompt and you do not select a proposed target by entering a numeric shortcut.

This will result in each file moved to its corresponding yearly archive directory:

=/2020/2020-07-13T13.55 xkcd about PIM.png=
=/2022/2022-01-06 screenshot of my editor.png=

*** On the Difference of Behavior

The reasoning behind this different behavior between a specific target directory is provided and not is that you can use =m2a= to file away a larger group of files to their yearly archive folders without the need of filing each one individually or writing a loop command.

However, when you do provide one single target directory, this is used for all files, independent of their date-stamp (using the oldest date-stamp).

This might irritate at first but makes perfectly sense if you think about it or the alternatives.

** Bonus: integrating into Geeqie (or similar file browsers)

I am using [[http://geeqie.sourceforge.net/][geeqie]] for browsing/presenting image files. For quickly moving files to their folders, I mapped this script to m. This way, I can go through new image files and move event-related photographs very quickly.

Using GNU/Linux, this is quite easy accomplished. The only thing that is not straight forward is the need for a wrapper script. The wrapper script does provide a shell window for entering the tags.

~~vk-m2a-wrapper-with-gnome-terminal.sh~~ looks like: #+begin_src bash #!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --geometry=157x56+330+5 --hide-menubar -x /home/vk/bin/m2a --pauseonexit "${@}"

#end #+end_src

In ~~$HOME/.config/geeqie/applications~~ I wrote a desktop file such that geeqie shows the wrapper script as external editor to its image files:

~~$HOME/.config/geeqie/applications/m2a.desktop~~ looks like: #+begin_src bash [Desktop Entry] Name=m2a GenericName=m2a Comment= Exec=/home/vk/src/misc/vk-m2a-wrapper-with-gnome-terminal.sh %F Icon= Terminal=true Type=Application Categories=Application;Graphics; hidden=false MimeType=image/;video/;image/mpo;image/thm Categories=X-Geeqie; #+end_src

In order to be able to use the keyboard shortcuts m, you can define them in geeqie:

Edit > Preferences > Preferences ... > Keyboard.
Scroll to the bottom of the list.
Double click in the ~~KEY~~-column of ~~m2a~~ and choose
your desired keyboard shortcut accordingly.

I hope this method is as handy for you as it is for me :-)

Related tools and workflows

This tool is part of a tool-set which I use to manage my digital files such as photographs. My work-flows are described in [[http://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/][this blog posting]] you might like to read.

In short:

For tagging, please refer to [[https://github.com/novoid/filetags][filetags]] and its documentation.

See [[https://github.com/novoid/date2name][date2name]] for easily adding ISO time-stamps or date-stamps to files.

For easily naming and tagging files within file browsers that allow integration of external tools, see [[https://github.com/novoid/appendfilename][appendfilename]] (once more) and [[https://github.com/novoid/filetags][filetags]].

Moving to the archive folders is done using [[https://github.com/novoid/move2archive][move2archive]].

Having tagged photographs gives you many advantages. For example, I automatically [[https://github.com/novoid/set_desktop_background_according_to_season][choose my desktop background image according to the current season]].

Files containing an ISO time/date-stamp gets indexed by the filename-module of [[https://github.com/novoid/Memacs][Memacs]].

Here is [[https://glt18-programm.linuxtage.at/events/321.html][a 45 minute talk I gave]] at [[https://glt18.linuxtage.at/][Linuxtage Graz 2018]] presenting the idea of and workflows related to appendfilename and other handy tools for file management:

[[https://media.ccc.de/v/GLT18_-321-en-g_ap147_004-201804281550-the_advantages_of_file_name_conventions_and_tagging-_karl_voit/][bin/2018-05-06 filetags demo slide for video preview with video button -- screenshots.png]]

Other projects with similar features:

https://github.com/velvet-jones/imgfiler/

How to Thank Me

I'm glad you like my tools. If you want to support me:

Send old-fashioned postcard per snailmail - I love personal feedback!
- see [[http://tinyurl.com/j6w8hyo][my address]]
Send feature wishes or improvements as an issue on GitHub
Create issues on GitHub for bugs
Contribute merge requests for bug fixes
Check out my other cool [[https://github.com/novoid][projects on GitHub]]