Use templates to automatically move files into directories
Project description
autofile
Automatically move or copy files based on metadata associated with the files. For example, file your photos based on EXIF metadata or use MP3 tags to file your music files.
autofile uses a template system to specify the target directory and/or filename based on the file's metadata. For example:
autofile *.mp3 --target ~/Music --directory "{audio:artist}/{audio:album}"
Will move all mp3 files to new folders with Artist/Album naming scheme.
The template system is very flexible and powerful allowing you to perform transforms on the metadata fields and use conditional logic.
autofile understands metadata about audio files (MP3, OPP, etc), photo & video files, macOS specific metadata such as Finder tags as well as various filesystem related metadata.
Photo and video metadata (EXIF, IPTC, XMP, etc.) requires that the third-party exiftool command line utility be installed. All other metadata works with no additional dependencies.
Examples
File image files into directory structure with format "Camera Make/Year/Month/file.jpg":
$ ls -l ~/Pictures/NewPhotos
total 12160
-rw-r--r--@ 1 user staff 3449684 Oct 24 07:10 IMG_1234.jpeg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 user staff 2771656 Oct 23 12:53 IMG_1235.jpg
$ autofile --target ~/Pictures/FiledPhotos \
--directory "{exiftool:Make}/{exiftool:created.year}/{exiftool:created.month}" \
~/Pictures/NewPhotos/*
Processing 2 files
Moving /Users/user/Pictures/NewPhotos/IMG_1234.jpeg to /Users/user/Pictures/FiledPhotos/Apple/2021/October/IMG_1234.jpeg
Moving /Users/user/Pictures/NewPhotos/IMG_1235.jpg to /Users/user/Pictures/FiledPhotos/Apple/2021/October/IMG_1235.jpg
Done. Processed 2 files.
Done.
$ tree ~/Pictures/FiledPhotos
/Users/user/Pictures/FiledPhotos
└── Apple
└── 2021
└── October
├── IMG_1234.jpeg
└── IMG_1235.jpg
File MP3 files into directory with with format "Artist/Album" and rename files with format "Track number - Track title.mp3" (and format track to be 2 digits with leading zeros):
$ls -1 ~/Music/Unfiled
file1.mp3
file10.mp3
file11.mp3
file12.mp3
file2.mp3
file3.mp3
file4.mp3
file5.mp3
file6.mp3
file7.mp3
file8.mp3
file9.mp3
$ autofile --target ~/Music/Filed \
--directory "{audio:artist}/{audio:album}" \
--filename "{format:int:02d,{audio:track}} - {audio:title}.mp3" \
~/Music/Unfiled/*.mp3
Processing 12 files
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file1.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/01 - Story of My Life.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file10.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/10 - The Mission : How Great Thou
Art.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file11.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/11 - Because of You.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file12.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/12 - Pictures at an Exhibition.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file2.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/02 - Let It Go.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file3.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/03 - Ants Marching : Ode to Joy.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file4.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/04 - Fathers' Eyes.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file5.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/05 - Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file6.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/06 - Summer Jam.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file7.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/07 - Batman Evolution.mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file8.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/08 - Don't You Worry Child (feat. Shweta
Subram).mp3
Moving /Users/user/Music/Unfiled/file9.mp3 to /Users/user/Music/Filed/The Piano Guys/Wonders/09 - Home.mp3
Done. Processed 12 files.
Done.
$ tree ~/Music/Filed
/Users/user/Music/Filed
└── The\ Piano\ Guys
└── Wonders
├── 01\ -\ Story\ of\ My\ Life.mp3
├── 02\ -\ Let\ It\ Go.mp3
├── 03\ -\ Ants\ Marching\ :\ Ode\ to\ Joy.mp3
├── 04\ -\ Fathers'\ Eyes.mp3
├── 05\ -\ Kung\ Fu\ Piano:\ Cello\ Ascends.mp3
├── 06\ -\ Summer\ Jam.mp3
├── 07\ -\ Batman\ Evolution.mp3
├── 08\ -\ Don't\ You\ Worry\ Child\ (feat.\ Shweta\ Subram).mp3
├── 09\ -\ Home.mp3
├── 10\ -\ The\ Mission\ :\ How\ Great\ Thou\ Art.mp3
├── 11\ -\ Because\ of\ You.mp3
└── 12\ -\ Pictures\ at\ an\ Exhibition.mp3
Supported Platforms
Currently macOS only. Tested on macOS 10.15.7 (Catalina) but should work fine on newer versions. With the exception of macOS specific metadata like Finder tags, this could be ported to linux fairly easily but I don't have a use case for this.
Copy and move use native macOS calls to take advantage of advanced features copy-on-write that are not available with the standard python system calls.
Cautions and Warnings
This software is feature complete but not yet fully tested. No warranty of any kind is implied or provided. Please ensure you have a backup before using this software as it can rename and move your files with no undo feature. I recommend you always run autofile with the --dry-run flag first to ensure you understand exactly what it will do.
Command Line Reference
$ autofile --help
Usage: autofile [OPTIONS] FILES...
move or copy files into directories based on a template string
Required: [all required]
-t, --target TARGET_DIRECTORY Target destination directory.
Filing templates: [at least 1 required]
-D, --directory DIRECTORY_TEMPLATE
Directory template for exporting files.
-F, --filename FILENAME_TEMPLATE
Filename template for exporting files.
Filter Options:
-g, --glob PATTERN Filter files to process with a glob pattern,
e.g. '--glob "*.jpg"' --glob may be repeated
to use more than one pattern. Multiple
patterns treated as "OR", that is, a file that
matches one or more patterns will be
processed.
-r, --regex PATTERN Filter files to process with a regex pattern,
e.g. '--regex "IMG_[1-3].*"' --regex may be
repeated to use more than one pattern.
Multiple patterns treated as "OR", that is, a
file that matches one or more patterns will be
processed. Any valid python regular express
may be used.
-f, --filter TEMPLATE_PATTERN Filter files to process that match a metadata
template pattern, e.g. '--filter
"{mdls:kMDItemKind contains image}"'. --filter
matches the file if TEMPLATE_PATTERN evaluates
to a non-null value. --filter may be repeated
to use more than one pattern. Multiple
patterns treated as "OR", that is, a file that
matches one or more patterns will be
processed.
Options:
-w, --walk Recursively walk directories.
-Q, --quiet Turn off verbose output.
-c, --copy Copy files instead of moving them.
-h, --hardlink Hardlink files instead of moving them.
-d, --dry-run Dry run mode; do not actually move/copy any
files.
Other options:
--version Show the version and exit.
--help Show this message and exit.
Template System
autofile contains a rich templating system which allows fine-grained control
over the output format of metadata. The templating system converts one or
template statements, written in autofile templating language, to one or more
rendered values using metadata information from the file being processed.
In its simplest form, a template statement has the form: "{template_field}",
for example "{size}" which resolves to the size of the file. Template fields
may also have subfields delineated by a : as in "{audio:artist}" which resolves
to the artist name for an audio file (e.g. mp3). In this example, the field is
audio and the subfield is artist. Template fields may also have attributes
delineated by a . as in "{created.year}" which resolves to the 4-digit year of
the file creation date. In this example, the field is created and the attribute
is year.
Template statements may contain one or more modifiers. The full syntax is:
"pretext{delim+template_field:subfield|filter[find,replace]
conditional?bool_value,default}posttext"
Template statements are white-space sensitive meaning that white space (spaces,
tabs) changes the meaning of the template statement.
pretext and posttext are free form text. For example, if an image file has
Title (e.g. XMP:Title) "My file Title". the template statement "The title of
the file is {exiftool:Title}", resolves to "The title of the file is My file
Title". The pretext in this example is "The title if the file is " and the
template_field is {Title}. Note: some punctuation such as commas cannot be
used in the pretext or posttext. For this reason, the template system provides
special punctuation templates like {comma} to insert punctuation where needed.
For example: {exiftool:Make}{comma}{exiftool:Model} could resolve to
Apple,iPhone SE.
delim: optional delimiter string to use when expanding multi-valued template
values in-place
+: If present before template name, expands the template in place. If delim
not provided, values are joined with no delimiter.
e.g. if image file keywords are ["foo","bar"]:
• "{exiftool:Keywords}" renders to "foo", "bar"
• "{,+exiftool:Keywords}" renders to: "foo,bar"
• "{; +exiftool:Keywords}" renders to: "foo; bar"
• "{+exiftool:Keywords}" renders to "foobar"
template_field: The template field to resolve.
:subfield: Templates may have sub-fields; reserved for future use.
|filter: You may optionally append one or more filter commands to the end of
the template field using the vertical pipe ('|') symbol. Filters may be
combined, separated by '|' as in: {user|capitalize|parens}.
Valid filters are:
• lower: Convert value to lower case, e.g. 'Value' => 'value'.
• upper: Convert value to upper case, e.g. 'Value' => 'VALUE'.
• strip: Strip whitespace from beginning/end of value, e.g. ' Value ' =>
'Value'.
• titlecase: Convert value to title case, e.g. 'my value' => 'My Value'.
• capitalize: Capitalize first word of value and convert other words to lower
case, e.g. 'MY VALUE' => 'My value'.
• braces: Enclose value in curly braces, e.g. 'value => '{value}'.
• parens: Enclose value in parentheses, e.g. 'value' => '(value')
• brackets: Enclose value in brackets, e.g. 'value' => '[value]'
e.g. if file keywords are ["FOO","bar"]:
• "{exiftool:Keywords|lower}" renders to "foo", "bar"
• "{exiftool:Keywords|upper}" renders to: "FOO", "BAR"
• "{exiftool:Keywords|capitalize}" renders to: "Foo", "Bar"
• "{exiftool:Keywords|lower|parens}" renders to: "(foo)", "(bar)"
e.g. if an image file description is "my description":
• "{exiftool:Description|titlecase}" renders to: "My Description"
[find,replace]: optional text replacement to perform on rendered template
value. For example, to replace "/" in a a keyword, you could use the template
"{exiftool:Keywords[/,-]}". Multiple replacements can be made by appending "|"
and adding another find|replace pair. e.g. to replace both "/" and ":" in
keywords: "{exiftool:Keywords[/,-|:,-]}". find/replace pairs are not limited
to single characters. The "|" character cannot be used in a find/replace pair.
conditional: optional conditional expression that is evaluated as boolean
(True/False) for use with the ?bool_value modifier. Conditional expressions
take the form ' not operator value' where not is an optional modifier that
negates the operator. Note: the space before the conditional expression is
required if you use a conditional expression. Valid comparison operators are:
• contains: template field contains value, similar to python's in
• matches: template field contains exactly value, unlike contains: does not
match partial matches
• startswith: template field starts with value
• endswith: template field ends with value
• <=: template field is less than or equal to value
• >=: template field is greater than or equal to value
• <: template field is less than value
• >: template field is greater than value
• ==: template field equals value
• !=: template field does not equal value
The value part of the conditional expression is treated as a bare (unquoted)
word/phrase. Multiple values may be separated by '|' (the pipe symbol). value
is itself a template statement so you can use one or more template fields in
value which will be resolved before the comparison occurs.
For example:
• {exiftool:Keywords matches Beach} resolves to True if 'Beach' is a keyword.
It would not match keyword 'BeachDay'.
• {exiftool:Keywords contains Beach} resolves to True if any keyword contains
the word 'Beach' so it would match both 'Beach' and 'BeachDay'.
• {ISO < 100} resolves to True if the file's ISO is < 100.
• {exiftool:Keywords|lower contains beach} uses the lower case filter to do
case-insensitive matching to match any keyword that contains the word
'beach'.
• {exiftool:Keywords|lower not contains beach} uses the not modifier to negate
the comparison so this resolves to True if there is no keyword that matches
'beach'.
?bool_value: Template fields may be evaluated as boolean (True/False) by
appending "?" after the field name or "[find/replace]". If a field is True or
has any value, the value following the "?" will be used to render the template
instead of the actual field value. If the template field evaluates to False or
has no value (e.g. file has no title and field is "{audio:title}") then the
default value following a "," will be used.
e.g. if file has a title
• "{audio:title?I have a title,I do not have a title}" renders to "I have a
title"
and if it does not have a title:
• "{audio:title?I have a title,I do not have a title}" renders to "I do not
have a title"
,default: optional default value to use if the template name has no value.
This modifier is also used for the value if False for boolean-type fields (see
above) as well as to hold a sub-template for values like {created.strftime}.
If no default value provided and the field is null, autofile will use a default
value of '_' (underscore character).
Template fields such as created.strftime use the default value to pass the
template to use for strftime.
e.g., if file date is 4 February 2020, 19:07:38,
• "{created.strftime,%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S}" renders to "2020-02-04-190738"
If you want to include "{" or "}" in the output, use "{openbrace}" or
"{closebrace}" template substitution.
e.g. "{created.year}/{openbrace}{audio.title}{closebrace}" would result in
"2020/{file Title}".
Some templates have additional modifiers that can be appended to the template
name to access specific attributes of the template field. For example, the
{filepath} template returns the path of the file being processed and
{filepath.parent} returns the parent directory.
File Information Fields
Field Description
{size} Size of file in bytes
{uid} User identifier of the file owner
{gid} Group identifier of the file owner
{user} User name of the file owner
{group} Group name of the file owner
Date/Time Fields
Field Description
{created} File creation date/time
{modified} File modification date/time
{accessed} File last accessed date/time
Date/time fields may be formatted using "dot notation" attributes which are
appended to the field name following a . (period). For example, {created.month}
resolves to the month name of the file's creation date in the user's locale,
e.g. December.
The following attributes are available:
Attribute Description
date ISO date, e.g. 2020-03-22
year 4-digit year, e.g. 2021
yy 2-digit year, e.g. 21
month Month name as locale's full name, e.g. December
mon Month as locale's abbreviated name, e.g. Dec
mm 2-digit month, e.g. 12
dd 2-digit day of the month, e.g. 22
dow Day of the week as locale's full name, e.g. Tuesday
doy Julian day of year starting from 001
hour 2-digit hour, e.g. 10
min 2-digit minute, e.g. 15
sec 2-digit second, e.g. 30
strftime Apply strftime template to date/time. Should be used in form
{created.strftime,TEMPLATE} where TEMPLATE is a valid strftime
template, e.g. {created.strftime,%Y-%U} would result in year-week
number of year: '2020-23'. If used with no template will return null
value. See https://strftime.org/ for help on strftime templates.
File Path Fields
Field Description
{filepath} The full path to the file being processed
The {filepath} fields returns the full path to the source file being processed.
Various attributes of the path can be accessed using "dot notation" (appended
to the filepath field with a '.'). For example, {filepath.name} returns just
the name of the file without the full path. {filepath.parent} returns the
parent directory of the file.
Path attributes can be chained, for example {filepath.parent.name} returns just
the name of the immediate parent directory without the full directory path.
For example, if the field {filepath} is '/Shared/files/IMG_1234.JPG':
• {filepath.parent} is '/Shared/files'
• {filepath.name} is 'IMG_1234.JPG'
• {filepath.stem} is 'IMG_1234'
• {filepath.suffix} is '.JPG'
The following attributes are available:
Subfield Description
name The name of the file
stem The name of the file without the suffix (extension)
suffix The suffix (extension) of the file, including the leading `.`
parent The parent directory of the file
String Formatting Fields
Field Description
{strip} Use in form '{strip,TEMPLATE}'; strips whitespace from begining and
end of rendered TEMPLATE value(s).
{format} Use in form, '{format:TYPE:FORMAT,TEMPLATE}'; converts TEMPLATE value
to TYPE then formats the value using python string formatting codes
specified by FORMAT; TYPE is one of: 'int', 'float', or 'str'.
The {strip} and {format} fields are used to format strings. {strip,TEMPLATE}
strips whitespace from TEMPLATE. For example, {strip,{exiftool:Title}} will
strip any excess whitespace from the title of an image file.
{format:TYPE:FORMAT,TEMPLATE} formats TEMPLATE using python string formatting
codes. For example:
• {format:int:02d,{audio:track}} will format the track number of an audio file
to two digits with leading zeros.
• {format:str:-^30,{audio.title}} will center the title of an audio file and
pad it to 30 characters with '-'.
TYPE must be one of 'int', 'float', or 'str'. See
https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/string.html#formatspec for more information
on valid FORMAT values.
macOS Metadata Fields
Field Description
{mdls} Get metadata attributes for file as returned by mdls command; use in
form '{mdls:ATTRIBUTE}', for example, '{mdls:kMDItemContentType}'
{mdls:ATTRIBUTE} returns the value of the metadata ATTRIBUTE as returned by the
macOS mdls command. For example, {mdls:kMDItemContentType} returns the content
type of the file, e.g. public.python-script or public.mp3 and
{mdls:kMDItemKind} returns a description of file type, e.g. Python Script or
MP3 Audio.
Finder Metadata
Field Description
{finder} Get metadata managed by macOS Finder such as tags and comments; use
in form '{finder:SUBFIELD}', e.g. '{finder:tags}'
{finder} provides access to Finder metadata. It must be used in the form
{finder:SUBFIELD} where SUBFIELD is one of the following:
Subfield Description
tags Finder tags (keywords)
comment Finder comment
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) Fields
Field Description
{uti} Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) for file
The {uti} template returns the macOS Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) for the
file. For example, {uti} for a file with extension .pdf would return
com.adobe.pdf.
Audio Files
Field Description
{audio} Use in form '{audio:TAG}'; Returns tag value for various audio types
include mp3,
The {audio} field provides access to audio-file related tags for audio files.
The following formats are supported:
• MP3 (ID3 v1, v1.1, v2.2, v2.3+)
• Wave/RIFF
• OGG
• OPUS
• FLAC
• WMA
• MP4/M4A/M4B
• AIFF/AIFF-C
The {audio} field must be used with one or more the following subfields in the
form: {audio:SUBFIELD}, for example: {audio:title} or {audio:artist}.
Subfield Description
album album as string
albumartist album artist as string
artist artist name as string
audio_offset number of bytes before audio data begins
bitrate bitrate in kBits/s
comment file comment as string
composer composer as string
disc disc number
disc_total the total number of discs
duration duration of the song in seconds
filesize file size in bytes
genre genre as string
samplerate samples per second
title title of the song
track track number as string
track_total total number of tracks as string
year year or data as string
Photo and Video Files
Field Description
{exiftool} Format: '{exiftool:GROUP:TAGNAME}'; use exiftool
(https://exiftool.org) to extract metadata, in form GROUP:TAGNAME
or TAGNAME, from image. E.g. '{exiftool:Make}' to get camera make,
or {exiftool:IPTC:Keywords} to extract keywords. See
https://exiftool.org/TagNames/ for list of valid tag names. Group
name is optional (e.g. EXIF, IPTC, etc) but if specified, should be
the same as used in `exiftool -G`, e.g. '{exiftool:EXIF:Make}'.
exiftool must be installed in the path to use this template field
(https://exiftool.org/).
The {exiftool} template uses the third-party exiftool app
(https://exiftool.org) to extract metadata from photo and video files.
It must be used with one or more subfields which are exiftool tags, for
example: {exiftool:EXIF:Make} for camera make, or {exiftool:IPTC:Keywords} for
keywords. The exiftool Group name (e.g. IPTC) is optional.
There are two derived subfields: created and modified which represent the
created date or the modified date, respectively. These subfields are datetime
values and you can access the various attributes of the datetime by using an
attribute name following a period, e.g. {exiftool:created.year} for the 4-digit
year.
The following attributes are supported:
Attribute Description
date ISO date, e.g. 2020-03-22
year 4-digit year, e.g. 2021
yy 2-digit year, e.g. 21
month Month name as locale's full name, e.g. December
mon Month as locale's abbreviated name, e.g. Dec
mm 2-digit month, e.g. 12
dd 2-digit day of the month, e.g. 22
dow Day of the week as locale's full name, e.g. Tuesday
doy Julian day of year starting from 001
hour 2-digit hour, e.g. 10
min 2-digit minute, e.g. 15
sec 2-digit second, e.g. 30
strftime Apply strftime template to date/time. Should be used in form
{created.strftime,TEMPLATE} where TEMPLATE is a valid strftime
template, e.g. {created.strftime,%Y-%U} would result in year-week
number of year: '2020-23'. If used with no template will return null
value. See https://strftime.org/ for help on strftime templates.
Punctuation Fields
Field Description
{comma} A comma: ','
{semicolon} A semicolon: ';'
{questionmark} A question mark: '?'
{pipe} A vertical pipe: '|'
{openbrace} An open brace: '{'
{closebrace} A close brace: '}'
{openparens} An open parentheses: '('
{closeparens} A close parentheses: ')'
{openbracket} An open bracket: '['
{closebracket} A close bracket: ']'
{newline} A newline: '\n'
{lf} A line feed: '\n', alias for {newline}
{cr} A carriage return: '\r'
{crlf} a carriage return + line feed: '\r\n'
Within the template system, many punctuation characters have special meaning,
e.g. {} indicates a template field and this means that some punctuation
characters cannot be inserted into the template. Thus, if you want to insert
punctuation into the rendered template value, you can use these punctuation
fields to do so. For example, {openbrace}value{closebrace} will render to
{value}.
Contributions
Contributions of all kinds are welcome! If you find a bug or have an idea to improve autofile, please open an issue!
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