cs-fstags 20250528

Simple filesystem based file tagging and the associated `fstags` command line tool.

Simple filesystem based file tagging and the associated fstags command line tool.

Latest release 20250528:

• New TaggedPathSet implementing a set of TaggedPaths.
• FSTags.mv: link then remove to avoid tromping dstpath.

Many basic tasks can be performed with the fstags command line utility, documented under the FSTagsCommand class below.

Why fstags? By storing the tags in a separate file we:

• can store tags without modifying a file
• do not need to know the file's format, or even whether that format supports metadata
• can process tags on any kind of file
• because tags are inherited from parent directories, tags can be automatically acquired merely by arranging your file tree

Tags are stored in the file .fstags in each directory; there is a line for each entry in the directory consisting of the directory entry name and its associated tags.

Programmatically one creates an FSTags instance and accesses the TagSets for whichever filesystem paths are of interest:

with FSTags() as fstags:
    tagged = fstags['/path/to/some/file']
    tagged['foo']=9 # set the tag foo=9

In a .fstags tag file tags may be "bare", or have a value. If there is a value it is expressed with an equals ('=') followed by the JSON encoding of the value.

The inherited tags for a file are the union of its direct tags and all relevant ancestor tags, with priority given to tags closer to the file.

For example, a media file for a television episode with the pathname /path/to/series-name/season-02/episode-name--s02e03--something.mp4 might have the tags:

series_title="Series Full Name"
season=2
sf
episode=3
episode_title="Full Episode Title"

obtained from the following .fstags entries:

• tag file /path/to/.fstags:

  series-name sf series_title="Series Full Name"
  

• tag file /path/to/series-name/.fstags:

  season-02 season=2
  

• tag file /path/to/series-name/season-02/.fstags:

  episode-name--s02e03--something.mp4 episode=3 episode_title="Full Episode Title"
  

fstags Examples

Backing up a media tree too big for the removable drives

Walk the media tree for files tagged for backup to archive2:

fstags find /path/to/media backup=archive2

Walk the media tree for files not assigned to a backup archive:

fstags find /path/to/media -backup

Backup the archive2 files using rsync:

fstags find --for-rsync /path/to/media backup=archive2 \
| rsync -ia --include-from=- /path/to/media /path/to/backup_archive2

Short summary:

• CachedValue: Manage a cached value stored in a TaggedPath. The value and the validity state are stored in a prefixed subsection of the tags.
• CascadeRule: A cascade rule of possible source tag names to provide a target tag.
• DEFAULT_FSTAGS: A class to examine filesystem tags.
• FSTags: A class to examine filesystem tags.
• FSTagsCommand: Usage: {cmd} [-o ontology] [-P] subcommand [...] Work with fstags.
• FSTagsConfig: A configuration for fstags.
• FSTagsTagFile: A FSTagsTagFile indexing TagSets for file paths which lives in the file path's directory.
• get_xattr_value: Read the extended attribute xattr_name of fspath. Return the extended attribute value as a string, or None if the attribute does not exist.
• HasFSTagsMixin: Mixin providing an automatic .fstags property.
• is_valid_basename: Test whether name is a valid basefile for something in a directory.
• main: Command line mode.
• rsync_patterns: Return a list of rsync include lines suitable for use with the --include-from option.
• TaggedPath: Class to manipulate the tags for a specific filesystem path.
• TaggedPathSet: A set of TaggedPath instances also indexed by their Tags.
• update_xattr_value: Update the extended attributes of fspath with new_xattr_value for xattr_name. Return the previous value, or None if the attribute was missing.
• verbose: Emit message if in verbose mode.

Module contents:

• Class CachedValue``: Manage a cached value stored in a TaggedPath. The value and the validity state are stored in a prefixed subsection of the tags.

  This is how modules like cs.hashindex cache file content hashcodes.

  The default state function is TaggedPath.stat_size_mtime, which returns {'st_size':st_size,'st_mtime':int(st_mtime)} by default, essentially the same criteria used by rsync(1) to skip comparing file contents.

  Example:

    tags = fstags[fspath]
    hash
  

CachedValue.__init__(self, taggedpath: cs.fstags.TaggedPath, prefix: str, name: str, *, state_func: Optional[Callable[[str], Mapping[str, Any]]] = None): Initialise a cached value reference.

Parameters:

• taggedpath: the TaggedPath tagged file system path
• prefix: the tags prefix
• name: the tag name for the value
• state_func; an optional function to compute the current state if taggedpath; the default is CachedValue.stat_size_mtime which returns the current file st_size and st_mtime

CachedValue.get(self) -> Tuple[Optional[Any], Mapping[str, Any]]: Get the cached value if the current state matches the cache state, otherwise None. Return the valu or None and the current state.

CachedValue.set(self, value: Any, *, state: Mapping = None): Update the cached value and associated state. If the state is omitted, the current state is used.

CachedValue.stat_size_mtime(fspath: str, round_mtime=<class 'int'>, follow_symlinks=True) -> dict: Return the default cache state mapping. This function stats the fspath and returns {'size':st_size,'mtime':int(st_mtime)}.

• Class CascadeRule``: A cascade rule of possible source tag names to provide a target tag.

CascadeRule.infer_tag(self, tagset): Apply the rule to the TagSet tagset. Return a new Tag(self.target,value) for the first cascade value found in tagset, or None if there is no match.

• DEFAULT_FSTAGS = FSTags('.fstags'): A class to examine filesystem tags.
• Class FSTags(cs.resources.MultiOpenMixin)``: A class to examine filesystem tags.

FSTags.__init__(self, tagsfile_basename=None, ontology_filepath=None, physical=None, update_mapping: Optional[Mapping] = None, update_prefix: Optional[str] = 'cs.fstags', update_uuid_tag_name: Optional[str] = 'uuid'): Initialise the FSTags instance.

Parameters:

• tagsfile_basename: optional basename forthe backing tags files, default from TAGSFILE_BASENAME: '.fstags'
• ontology_filepath: optional filesystem path for an associated ontology
• physical: optional flag for the associated FSTagsConfig specifying whether TagFiles are indexed by their physical or logical filesystem paths
• update_mapping: optional secondary mapping to which to mirror tags, such as an SQLTags; the default comes from an SQLTags specified by the environment variable $FSTAGS_UPDATE_MAPPING if present
• update_prefix: optional key prefix for use in the secondary mapping; the default comes from the environment variable $FSTAGS_UPDATE_MAPPING_PREFIX if present, otherwise 'cs.fstags'
• update_uuid_tag_name: optional name for the per file UUID tag name; default 'uuid'

FSTags.__getitem__(self, path, *, verbose: bool) -> 'TaggedPath': Return the TaggedPath for abspath(path).

FSTags.apply_tag_choices(self, tag_choices, paths): Apply the tag_choices to paths.

Parameters:

• tag_choices: an iterable of Tag or an equality TagBasedTest. Each item applies or removes a Tag from each path's direct tags.
• paths: an iterable of filesystem paths.

FSTags.attach_path(self, attach, srcpath, dstpath, *, force=False, crop_ok=False): Attach srcpath to dstpath using the attach callable.

Parameters:

• attach: callable accepting attach(srcpath,dstpath) to do the desired attachment, such as a copy, link or move
• srcpath: the source filesystem object
• dstpath: the destination filesystem object
• crop_ok: if true and the OS raises OSError(ENAMETOOLONG) attempt to crop the name before the file extension and retry
• force: default False. If true and the destination exists try to remove it before calling attach. Otherwise if the destination exists raise a ValueError.

FSTags.cascade_tags(self, tags, cascade_rules=None): Yield Tags which cascade from the TagSet tags via cascade_rules (an iterable of CascadeRules).

FSTags.copy(self, srcpath, dstpath, **kw): Copy srcpath to dstpath.

FSTags.dir_tagfile(self, dirpath: str) -> 'FSTagsTagFile': Return the FSTagsTagFile associated with dirpath.

FSTags.edit_dirpath(self, dirpath, all_names=False): Edit the filenames and tags in a directory.

If all_names is true, include names commencing with a dot, otherwise exclude them.

FSTags.export_xattrs(self, paths): Import the extended attributes of paths and use them to update the fstags.

FSTags.find(self, path, tag_tests, use_direct_tags=False): Walk the file tree from path searching for files matching the supplied tag_tests. Yield the matching file paths.

Parameters:

• path: the top of the file tree to walk
• tag_tests: a sequence of TagBasedTests
• use_direct_tags: test the direct_tags if true, otherwise the all_tags. Default: False

FSTags.find_ontology(self, dirpath, ontbase=None): Locate an ontology for the directory dirpath. The optional ontbase may override the relative path to the file, default is self.ontology_filepath. Return a TagOntology or None if not found.

FSTags.find_ontpath(self, dirpath, ontbase=None): Locate an ontology file for the directory dirpath. The optional ontbase may override the relative path to the file, default is self.ontology_filepath. Return the found ontology file or None if not found.

FSTags.import_xattrs(self, paths): Update the extended attributes of paths from their fstags.

FSTags.keypath(self, fspath): Compute the absolute path used to index a TaggedPath instance.

This returns realpath(fspath) if self.config.physical, otherwise abspath(fspath).

FSTags.link(self, srcpath, dstpath, **kw): Link srcpath to dstpath.

FSTags.move(self, srcpath, dstpath, **kw): Move srcpath to dstpath.

FSTags.mv(self, srcpath: str, dstpath: str, *, symlink=False, remove=True): Move (or link or symlink) srcpath to dstpath. It is an error if dstpath already exists. Note that a move uses a hardlink+rename and will not work across filesystems.

Parameters:

• srcpath: the source filesystem path
• dstpath: the destination filesystem path
• symlink: default False: if true, make a symbolic link
• remove: default True: if true, remove srcpath after hard linking to dstpath

FSTags.ontology: The primary TagsOntology, or None if self.ontology_filepath was None.

FSTags.ontology_filepath: The ontology file basename.

FSTags.ontology_for(self, path, ontbase=None): Return the TagsOntology associated with path. Returns None if an ontology cannot be found.

FSTags.open_ontology(self, ontpath): Open the contology file at ontpath.

FSTags.path_tagfiles(self, fspath): Generator yielding a sequence of (FSTagsTagFile,name) pairs where name is the key within the FSTagsTagFile for the FSTagsTagFiles affecting fspath in order from the root to dirname(fspath).

FSTags.resolve_format_string(self, format_string): See if format_string looks like [clausename]entryname. if so, return the corresponding config entry string, otherwise return format_string unchanged.

FSTags.scrub(self, path): Scrub tags for names which do not exist in the filesystem.

FSTags.startup_shutdown(self): Sync tag files and db mapping on final close.

FSTags.sync(self): Flush modified tag files.

FSTags.tagfile_for(self, fspath): Return the FSTagsTagFile storing the Tags for fspath.

FSTags.tagsfile_basename: The tag file basename.

FSTags.test(self, path, tag_tests, use_direct_tags=False): Test a path against tag_tests.

Parameters:

• path: path to test
• tag_tests: an iterable of TagBasedTests
• use_direct_tags: test the direct_tags if true, otherwise the all_tags. Default: False

• Class FSTagsCommand(cs.cmdutils.BaseCommand, cs.tagset.TagsCommandMixin)``: Usage: {cmd} [-o ontology] [-P] subcommand [...] Work with fstags.

  Usage summary:

  Usage: fstags [common-options...] [-o ontology] [-P] subcommand [...]
    Work with fstags.
    Subcommands:
      autotag [common-options...] paths...
        Tag paths based on rules from the rc file.
      cp [common-options...] [-finv] srcpath dstpath, cp [common-options...] [-finv] srcpaths... dstdirpath
        POSIX cp(1) equivalent, but also copying tags: copy files and their tags into targetdir.
        -f  Force: remove destination if it exists.
        -i  Interactive: fail if the destination exists.
        -n  No remove: fail if the destination exists.
        -v  Verbose: show copied files.
      cptags [common-options...] srcpath dstpath
        Copy the direct tags from srcpath to dstpath.
      edit [common-options...] [-ad] [path]
        Edit the direct tagsets of path, default: '.'.
        If path is a directory, provide the tags of its entries.
        Otherwise edit just the tags for path.
        -a    List all names in directory edit mode; normally
              names commencing with a dot are omitted.
        -d    Treat directories like files: edit just its tags.
      export [common-options...] [-a] [--direct] path {tag[=value]|-tag}...
        Export tags for files from paths matching all the constraints.
        -a        Export all paths, not just those with tags.
        --direct  Export the direct tags instead of the computed tags.
        The output is in the same CSV format as that from "sqltags export",
        with the following columns:
        * unixtime: the file's st_mtime from os.stat.
        * id: empty
        * name: the file path
        * tags: the file's direct or indirect tags
      find [common-options...] [--direct] [--for-rsync] [-o output_format] path {tag[=value]|-tag}...
        List files from path matching all the constraints.
        --direct    Use direct tags instead of all tags.
        --for-rsync Instead of listing matching paths, emit a
                    sequence of rsync(1) patterns suitable for use with
                    --include-from in order to do a selective rsync of the
                    matched paths.
        -o output_format
                    Use output_format as a Python format string to lay out
                    the listing.
                    Default: {fspath}
      help [common-options...] [-l] [-s] [subcommand-names...]
        Print help for subcommands.
        This outputs the full help for the named subcommands,
        or the short help for all subcommands if no names are specified.
      import [common-options...] {-|srcpath}...
        Import CSV data in the format emitted by "export".
        Each argument is a file path or "-", indicating standard input.
      infer [common-options...] pathname
        Print the base and inferred tags for pathname.
      info [common-options...] [field-names...]
        Recite general information.
        Explicit field names may be provided to override the default listing.
      json_import --prefix=tag_prefix {-|path} {-|tags.json}
        Apply JSON data to path.
        A path named "-" indicates that paths should be read from
        the standard input.
        The JSON tag data come from the file "tags.json"; the name
        "-" indicates that the JSON data should be read from the
        standard input.
      ln [common-options...] [-finv] srcpath dstpath, ln [common-options...] [-finv] srcpaths... dstdirpath
        POSIX ln(1) equivalent, but also copying the tags: link files and their tags into targetdir.
        -f  Force: remove destination if it exists.
        -i  Interactive: fail if the destination exists.
        -n  No remove: fail if the destination exists.
        -v  Verbose: show linked files.
      ls [common-options...] [-dlr] [--direct] [-o output_format] [paths...]
        List files from paths and their tags.
        -d          Treat directories like files, do not recurse.
        --direct    List direct tags instead of all tags.
        -l          Long format.
        -o output_format
                    Use output_format as a Python format string to lay out
                    the listing.
                    Default: {fspath:json} {tags}
        -r          Recurse into subdirectories.
      mv [common-options...] [-finv] srcpath dstpath, mv [common-options...] [-finv] srcpaths... dstdirpath
        POSIX mv(1) equivalent, but also copying the tags: move files and their tags into targetdir.
        -f  Force: remove destination if it exists.
        -i  Interactive: fail if the destination exists.
        -n  No remove: fail if the destination exists.
        -v  Verbose: show moved files.
      ns [common-options...] [-d] [--direct] [paths...]
        Report on the available primary namespace fields for formatting.
        Note that because the namespace used for formatting has
        inferred field names there are also unshown secondary field
        names available in format strings.
        -d          Treat directories like files, do not recurse.
        --direct    List direct tags instead of all tags.
      ont [common-options...] [subcommand [args...]]
        With no arguments, print the ontology.
      rename [common-options...] -o basename_format paths...
        Rename paths according to a format string.
        -o basename_format
            Use basename_format as a Python format string to
            compute the new basename for each path.
      repl [common-options...]
        Run a REPL (Read Evaluate Print Loop), an interactive Python prompt.
      scrub [common-options...] paths...
        Remove all tags for missing paths.
        If a path is a directory, scrub the immediate paths in the directory.
      shell [common-options...]
        Run a command prompt via cmd.Cmd using this command's subcommands.
      tag [common-options...] {-|path} {tag[=value]|-tag}...
        Tag a path with multiple tags.
        With the form "-tag", remove that tag from the direct tags.
        A path named "-" indicates that paths should be read from the
        standard input.
      tagfile [common-options...] tagfile_path [subcommand ...]
        Perform operations on a tag file.
        Subcommands:
          tag tagset_name {tag[=value]|-tag}...
            Directly modify tag_name within the tag file tagfile_path.
      tagpaths [common-options...] {tag[=value]|-tag} {-|paths...}
        Tag multiple paths.
        With the form "-tag", remove the tag from the immediate tags.
        A single path named "-" indicates that paths should be read
        from the standard input.
      test [common-options...] [--direct] path {tag[=value]|-tag}...
        Test whether the path matches all the constraints.
        --direct    Use direct tags instead of all tags.
      xattr-export [common-options...] {-|paths...}
        Import tag information from extended attributes.
      xattr-import [common-options...] {-|paths...}
        Update extended attributes from tags.
  

FSTagsCommand.Options

FSTagsCommand.cmd_autotag(self, argv, *, upd: cs.upd.Upd, runstate: Optional[cs.resources.RunState] = <function uses_runstate.<locals>.<lambda> at 0x108790680>): Usage: {cmd} paths... Tag paths based on rules from the rc file.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_cp(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} [-finv] srcpath dstpath, {cmd} [-finv] srcpaths... dstdirpath POSIX cp(1) equivalent, but also copying tags: copy files and their tags into targetdir. -f Force: remove destination if it exists. -i Interactive: fail if the destination exists. -n No remove: fail if the destination exists. -v Verbose: show copied files.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_cptags(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} srcpath dstpath Copy the direct tags from srcpath to dstpath.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_edit(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} [-ad] [path] Edit the direct tagsets of path, default: '.'. If path is a directory, provide the tags of its entries. Otherwise edit just the tags for path. -a List all names in directory edit mode; normally names commencing with a dot are omitted. -d Treat directories like files: edit just its tags.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_export(self, argv, *, runstate: Optional[cs.resources.RunState] = <function uses_runstate.<locals>.<lambda> at 0x108790cc0>): Usage: {cmd} [-a] [--direct] path {{tag[=value]|-tag}}... Export tags for files from paths matching all the constraints. -a Export all paths, not just those with tags. --direct Export the direct tags instead of the computed tags. The output is in the same CSV format as that from "sqltags export", with the following columns:

• unixtime: the file's st_mtime from os.stat.
• id: empty
• name: the file path
• tags: the file's direct or indirect tags

FSTagsCommand.cmd_find(self, argv, *, runstate: Optional[cs.resources.RunState] = <function uses_runstate.<locals>.<lambda> at 0x108790ea0>): Usage: {cmd} [--direct] [--for-rsync] [-o output_format] path {{tag[=value]|-tag}}... List files from path matching all the constraints. --direct Use direct tags instead of all tags. --for-rsync Instead of listing matching paths, emit a sequence of rsync(1) patterns suitable for use with --include-from in order to do a selective rsync of the matched paths. -o output_format Use output_format as a Python format string to lay out the listing. Default: {FIND_OUTPUT_FORMAT_DEFAULT}

FSTagsCommand.cmd_import(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} {{-|srcpath}}... Import CSV data in the format emitted by "export". Each argument is a file path or "-", indicating standard input.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_infer(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} pathname Print the base and inferred tags for pathname.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_json_import(self, argv): Usage: json_import --prefix=tag_prefix {{-|path}} {{-|tags.json}} Apply JSON data to path. A path named "-" indicates that paths should be read from the standard input. The JSON tag data come from the file "tags.json"; the name "-" indicates that the JSON data should be read from the standard input.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_ln(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} [-finv] srcpath dstpath, {cmd} [-finv] srcpaths... dstdirpath POSIX ln(1) equivalent, but also copying the tags: link files and their tags into targetdir. -f Force: remove destination if it exists. -i Interactive: fail if the destination exists. -n No remove: fail if the destination exists. -v Verbose: show linked files.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_ls(self, argv, *, runstate: Optional[cs.resources.RunState] = <function uses_runstate.<locals>.<lambda> at 0x108791440>): Usage: {cmd} [-dlr] [--direct] [-o output_format] [paths...] List files from paths and their tags. -d Treat directories like files, do not recurse. --direct List direct tags instead of all tags. -l Long format. -o output_format Use output_format as a Python format string to lay out the listing. Default: {LS_OUTPUT_FORMAT_DEFAULT} -r Recurse into subdirectories.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_mv(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} [-finv] srcpath dstpath, {cmd} [-finv] srcpaths... dstdirpath POSIX mv(1) equivalent, but also copying the tags: move files and their tags into targetdir. -f Force: remove destination if it exists. -i Interactive: fail if the destination exists. -n No remove: fail if the destination exists. -v Verbose: show moved files.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_ns(self, argv, runstate: Optional[cs.resources.RunState] = <function uses_runstate.<locals>.<lambda> at 0x108791940>): Usage: {cmd} [-d] [--direct] [paths...] Report on the available primary namespace fields for formatting. Note that because the namespace used for formatting has inferred field names there are also unshown secondary field names available in format strings. -d Treat directories like files, do not recurse. --direct List direct tags instead of all tags.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_ont(self, argv): Ontology operations.

Usage: {cmd} [subcommand [args...]] With no arguments, print the ontology.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_rename(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} -o basename_format paths... Rename paths according to a format string. -o basename_format Use basename_format as a Python format string to compute the new basename for each path.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_scrub(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} paths... Remove all tags for missing paths. If a path is a directory, scrub the immediate paths in the directory.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_tag(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} {{-|path}} {{tag[=value]|-tag}}... Tag a path with multiple tags. With the form "-tag", remove that tag from the direct tags. A path named "-" indicates that paths should be read from the standard input.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_tagfile(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} tagfile_path [subcommand ...] Perform operations on a tag file. Subcommands: tag tagset_name {{tag[=value]|-tag}}... Directly modify tag_name within the tag file tagfile_path.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_tagpaths(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} {{tag[=value]|-tag}} {{-|paths...}} Tag multiple paths. With the form "-tag", remove the tag from the immediate tags. A single path named "-" indicates that paths should be read from the standard input.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_test(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} [--direct] path {{tag[=value]|-tag}}... Test whether the path matches all the constraints. --direct Use direct tags instead of all tags.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_xattr_export(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} {{-|paths...}} Import tag information from extended attributes.

FSTagsCommand.cmd_xattr_import(self, argv): Usage: {cmd} {{-|paths...}} Update extended attributes from tags.

FSTagsCommand.import_csv_file(self, f, *, convert_name=None): Import CSV data from the file f.

Parameters:

• f: the source CSV file
• convert_name: a callable to convert each input name into a file path; the default is to use the input name directly

FSTagsCommand.run_context(self): Push the FSTags.

• Class FSTagsConfig(cs.fs.FSPathBasedSingleton)``: A configuration for fstags.

FSTagsConfig.__init__(self, rcfilepath=None, physical=None): Initialise the config.

Parameters:

• rcfilepath: the path to the confguration file If None, default to '~/.fstagsrc' (from RCFILE).

FSTagsConfig.cascade_rules_from_config(config): Return a list of the [cascade] tag rules from the config.

FSTagsConfig.filename_rules_from_config(config): Return a list of the [filename_autotag] tag rules from the config.

FSTagsConfig.load_config(rcfilepath): Read an rc file, return a ConfigParser instance.

FSTagsConfig.tagsfile_basename: The tags filename, default '.fstags'.

• Class FSTagsTagFile(cs.tagset.TagFile, HasFSTagsMixin)``: A FSTagsTagFile indexing `TagSet`s for file paths which lives in the file path's directory.

FSTagsTagFile.TagSetClass(self, name: str) -> cs.fstags.TaggedPath: Factory to create a TaggedPath from a name.

FSTagsTagFile.dirpath: Return the path of the directory associated with this FSTagsTagFile.

• get_xattr_value(fspath, xattr_name): Read the extended attribute xattr_name of fspath. Return the extended attribute value as a string, or None if the attribute does not exist.

  Parameters:

  • fspath: the filesystem path to update
  • xattr_name: the extended attribute to obtain if this is a str, the attribute is the UTF-8 encoding of that name.

• Class HasFSTagsMixin``: Mixin providing an automatic .fstags property.

HasFSTagsMixin.fstags: Return the .fstags property, default a shared default FSTags instance.

• is_valid_basename(name: str): Test whether name is a valid basefile for something in a directory.
• main(argv=None): Command line mode.
• rsync_patterns(paths, top_path): Return a list of rsync include lines suitable for use with the --include-from option.
• Class TaggedPath(cs.tagset.TagSet, HasFSTagsMixin, cs.fs.HasFSPath)``: Class to manipulate the tags for a specific filesystem path.

TaggedPath.all_tags: Cached cumulative tags for this path as a TagSet by merging the tags from the root to the path.

Note that subsequent changes to some path component's direct_tags will not affect this TagSet.

TaggedPath.as_tags(self, prefix=None, all_tags=False): Yield the tag data as Tags.

This overrides TagSet.as_tags, honouring an optional all_tags` parameter.

TaggedPath.auto_infer(self, attr): Infer a value from attr via the associated FSTags.cascade_rules.

This implementation tries the cascade rules from the configuration and falls back to the superclass inference (the direct tag, if present). Therefore a tagset with a rule for .title and also a direct .title Tag would return the direct tag value for .title and the rule value for .auto.title.

TaggedPath.basename: The name of the final path component.

TaggedPath.cached_value(self, prefix: str, name: str, *, state_func: Optional[Callable[[str], Mapping[str, Any]]] = None) -> 'CachedValue': Return a CachedValue managing the prefix.name tag.

TaggedPath.export_xattrs(self): Update the extended attributes of the file.

TaggedPath.findup(self, check): Locate the first TaggedPath from self upwards (via .parent) for which check(TaggedPath) is true.

TaggedPath.format_kwargs(self, *, direct=False): Format arguments suitable for str.format_map.

This returns an ExtendedNamespace from TagSet.ns() for a computed TagSet.

In addition to the normal TagSet.ns() names the following additional names are available:

• fspath.basename: basename of the TaggedPath.fspath
• fspath.pathname: the TaggedPath.fspath
• fspath.encoded: the JSON encoded fspath
• tags: the TagSet as a string

TaggedPath.format_tagset(self, *, direct=False): Compute a TagSet from this file's tags with additional derived tags.

This can be converted into an ExtendedNamespace suitable for use with str.format_map via the TagSet's .format_kwargs() method.

In addition to the normal TagSet.ns() names the following additional names are available:

• fspath.basename: basename of the TaggedPath.fspath
• fspath.ext: the file extension of the basename of the TaggedPath.fspath
• fspath.pathname: the TaggedPath.fspath
• fspath.encoded: the JSON encoded fspath

TaggedPath.from_str(fspath, *, fstags: Optional[cs.fstags.FSTags] = <function <lambda> at 0x1087900e0>): Supports the @promote decorator.

TaggedPath.get_xattr_tagset(self, xattr_name=None): Return a new TagSet from the extended attribute xattr_name of self.fspath. The default xattr_name is XATTR_B (None).

TaggedPath.import_xattrs(self): Update the direct tags from the file's extended attributes.

TaggedPath.infer_from_basename(self, rules=None): Apply rules to the basename of this TaggedPath, return a TagSet of inferred Tags.

Tag values from earlier rules override values from later rules.

The default rules come from self.fstags.config.filename_rules, which is sourced from ~/.fstagsrc.

TaggedPath.infer_tags(self): Infer tags for this path.

In order of preference:

• from filesystem fstags
• from file basename matching
• from various _type suffixes
• from the cascade rules (see FSTags.cascade_rules)

TaggedPath.keypath: The key path used to index this TaggedPath within its FSTags from FSTags.keypath(path).

TaggedPath.merged_tags(self): Compute the cumulative tags for this path as a new TagSet by merging the tags from the root to the path.

TaggedPath.name: The .name is basename(self.fspath).

TaggedPath.parent: A reference to the parent of this TaggedPath, or None.

TaggedPath.prune_inherited(self): Examine the tags of this path's parent. Remove any tag on this file if they are present on the parent. Return a TagSet containing the pruned Tags.

TaggedPath.save(self, prune=True): Update the associated FSTagsTagFile.

TaggedPath.save_if_closed(self, **save_kw): Save the tag file is self._fstags is closed (no autosave).

TaggedPath.set(self, tag_name, value, **kw): Forbid the special tag name 'name', reserved for the filename.

TaggedPath.tagfile: Return the FSTagsTagFile storing the state for this TaggedPath.

TaggedPath.update(self, other=None, **update_kw): Call TagSet.update with the FSTags open.

• Class TaggedPathSet``: A set of TaggedPath instances also indexed by their `Tag`s.

TaggedPathSet.__getitem__(self, key: Union[str, Tuple[str, Any], cs.tagset.Tag]): Fetch matching TaggedPaths by key. This looks up a tag name or a (name,value) pair or a Tag.

TaggedPathSet.add(self, path: cs.fstags.TaggedPath): Add path to the set. This indexes its current tag names and values. To reindex a path, add it again.

TaggedPathSet.clear(self): Clear the set.

TaggedPathSet.discard(self, path: cs.fstags.TaggedPath): Discard path if known. This removes path from the main set and the indices.

TaggedPathSet.update(self, paths: Iterable[Union[str, cs.fstags.TaggedPath]]): Add paths to the set.

• update_xattr_value(fspath, xattr_name, new_xattr_value): Update the extended attributes of fspath with new_xattr_value for xattr_name. Return the previous value, or None if the attribute was missing.

  We avoid calling os.setxattr if the value will not change.

  Parameters:

  • fspath: the filesystem path to update
  • xattr_name: the extended attribute to update; if this is a str, the attribute is the UTF-8 encoding of that name.
  • new_xattr_value: the new extended attribute value, a str which should be the transcription of TagSet i.e. str(tagset)

• verbose(msg, *a): Emit message if in verbose mode.

Release Log

Release 20250528:

• New TaggedPathSet implementing a set of TaggedPaths.
• FSTags.mv: link then remove to avoid tromping dstpath.

Release 20241122:

• FSTags.copy: use atomic_copy2 instead of shutil.copy2.
• FSTagsCommand: rename "-o ontology" to "-O ontology", modernise option specifications.

Release 20241005: Assorted minor changes.

Release 20240709:

• New CachedValue class to manage a cached TaggedPath tag value.
• New TaggedPath.cached_value() method to return a CachedValue.

Release 20240422:

• Bugfix: .fstags files should no longer get Python repr() output for weirdly typed tag values.
• Some other minor internal updates.

Release 20240412: Changes to accomodate dropping BaseCommandOptions.runstate.

Release 20240316:

• TaggedPath.infer_tags: add _dt, _date, _f conversions, skip conversions which raise TypeError or ValueError.
• rpaths: fix to yield relative paths.

Release 20240211:

• TaggedPath: subclass Promotable, add from_str(fspath) class method.
• FSTags: new mv(srcpath,dstpath) method to move/link/symlink a file bringing its tags.

Release 20240201.1: Release with "fstags" script.

Release 20240201: FSTags.attach_path: do not save the tagfile if the FSTags is open - the final close will do it.

Release 20231129: FSTags.startup_shutdown: run self.sync() in a finally clause.

Release 20230407:

• FSTags: support open/close of self.update_mapping, update startup/shutdown to startup_shutdown.
• Move the (optional) ORM open/close from FSTags.startup_shutdown to TagFile.save, greatly shortens the ORM lock.

Release 20230217: FSTagsCommand.cmd_rename: use -o for the format string as for other commands, -n is for "no action".

Release 20230212:

• FSTags.keypath(fspath) and TaggedPath.keypath with the singleton filesystem path for a TaggedPath.
• TaggedPath.parent property.
• TaggedPath.findup(check) method.
• FSTagsCommand: cmd_find,cmd_ls: abort if runstate.cancelled thus honouring SIGINT/^C.

Release 20230211: FSTags.init: treat empty $FSTAGS_UPDATE_MAPPING as missing i.e. None.

Release 20230210: New optional update_mapping for mirroring tags eg to an SQLTags; activated automatically by an $FSTAGS_UPDATE_MAPPING environment variable.

Release 20221228: TaggedPath.save: new options prune=True parameter to drop empty top level dict/lists.

Release 20220918:

• FSTagsConfig: add empty .provided dict for config overrides.
• FSTagsConfig: set FSPATH_DEFAULT=RCFILE for use by FSPathBasedSingleton._singleton_key.
• FSTagsConfig: accept optional physical parameter to choose realpath over abspath and new .physical property.
• FSTags.getitem: use abspath or realpath depending on self.config.physical.
• FSTagsCommand: new -P option for "physical" mode, plumb though to the config and self.options.
• Provide a DEFAULT_FSTAGS instance and an @uses_fstags decorator.

Release 20220606: FSTagsCommand.edit: mention the filename in the header comments in tagset edit mode.

Release 20220430: Minor bugfixes.

Release 20220311:

• New TaggedPath.infer_tags() method to compute and return the inferred TagSet.
• New "fstags infer pathname" command.

Release 20211212:

• Rename edit_many to edit_tagsets for clarity.
• FSTags.edit_dirpath: include realpath(dirpath) at the top of the edit list.

Release 20210906:

• TaggedPath: new auto_infer method overriding the inherited TagSet.auto_infer which consults the cascade_rules from the .fstagsrc.
• fstags ls: new -l option to print a multiline tag listing.
• fstags cptags: copy the tags from one path to another.
• Assorted other changes.

Release 20210404:

• FSTags.edit_dirpath: new all_names parameter to include dot-names.
• FSTagsCommand.cmd_edit: new -a option to turn on the all_names parameter.

Release 20210306:

• FSTags: new tagfile_for(filepath) to obtain the TagFile for filepath.
• FSTagsCommand: new -o ontology option to supply an ontology file for the FSTags.
• FSTagsCommand.cmd_ont: drop -o/--ontology, superceded by global -o option.
• Move BaseTagFile from cs.fstags to TagFile in cs.tagset.
• FSTags.edit_dirpath: we now get (old_name,new_name,TaggedPath) back from edit_many, obviating the te_id_map.
• TaggedPath: .name property returning basename(self.filepath), .set and .discard methods rejecting use of the 'name' tag.
• FSTagsCommand: port to new cs.cmdutils API.
• Many small refactors and bugfixes.

Release 20200717.1: Add the manual page MarkDown source files. Note: well out of date, need updating.

Release 20200717: DISTINFO: require cs.obj>=20200716 for SingletonMixin API change.

Release 20200716:

• Update for changed cs.obj.SingletonMixin API.
• fstags: new "export" and "import" subcommands roughly paralleling those from "sqltags", providing CSV formatted export/import.
• fstags export: ew -a (all paths) option - the default is not to not export paths with no tags.

Release 20200521.1: fix DISTINFO.install_requires

Release 20200521:

• Add -i option to cp,ln,mv for command line compatibility, just disables -f.
• New "rename" subcommand to rename files according to a format string.
• Ontology support (optional).
• Various classes are now singletons to avoid dissonance.
• Fold "edittags" subcommand into "edit" via the "-d" (directories like files) option.
• New "ns" subcommand reporting on the primary names available for formatting.
• Accept [clausename]entryname as a format string to obtain the string from that entry of the config file.
• Many bugfixes and improvements.

Release 20200229:

• New TaggedPath.modified property aliasing the TagSet.modified attribute.
• ls: new -d option to treat directories like files (do not recurse), aiding reporting of tags for a directory.
• find,ls subcommands: work off the realpath of the supplied top level path.
• Tag: now subclasses namedtuple.
• Rewrite rpaths() to use scandir and to also yield (is_dir,path) tuples.
• TagSet, Tag, TagChoice moved into new cs.tagset module for reuse.
• json_import: make --prefix mandatory, is "." as separator if not empty.
• Move filename regexp rules to [filename_rules] config section.
• New CascadeRule for representing a "target_tag_name = tag_name1 tag_name2..." config rules.
• autotag: include the cascade rules in the autotagging after the filename rules.

Release 20200210:

• New "json_import" subcommand to import a JSON dict as tags, initial use case to load the metadata from youtube-dl.
• New "scrub" command line operation, to purge tags of paths which do not exist.
• New "cp", "ln" and "mv" subcommands to copy/link/move paths and take their tags with them.
• New "test" subcommand to test paths against tag criteria, useful for find and scripts.
• Small bugfixes.

Release 20200130:

• New FSTagsConfig class which parses the .fstagsrc as a .ini file; related adjustments.
• New HasFSTagsMixin presenting a settable .fstags property with a shared default.
• New xattr_import and xattr_export subcommands, remove implicit xattr access/update from other operations.
• New TagSet.len returning the number of tags.
• Add "-" support for stdin to "tag" and "tagpaths" subcommands.

Release 20200113.2: FSTagsCommand docstring tweak.

Release 20200113.1: Small docstring updates.

Release 20200113: Mirror tags to user.cs.fstags xattr to honour Linux namespace requirements. Add "filesize" to available tag string format (-o option). Small bugfixes.

Release 20191230:

• Command line: new "find" command to search a file tree based on tags.
• Command line: new "mv" command to move a file and its tags.
• Command line: Python string formats for "find" and "ls" output.
• TaggedPath.autotag: new optional no_save parameter, default False, to suppress update of the associated .fstags file.
• Inital and untested "mirror tags to xattrs" support.

Release 20191201: New "edit" subcommand to rename files and edit tags.

Release 20191130.1: Initial release: fstags, filesystem based tagging utility.