diff --git a/articles/photos_sorting.md b/articles/photos_sorting.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a57ab7b --- /dev/null +++ b/articles/photos_sorting.md @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +--- +title: How to sort multiples photo directories +date: 2020-05-15 +--- + +Too many backups +---------------- + +I have a bad habit of fearing losing data, and making a hasty backup when I need +to change machines. Since it's always laborious to compare a directory of photos +with what I already archive, I usually backup the whole directory to deal with +it later. + +After a few months (sometimes years), I end up with many backup directories. +Some images are duplicated across these directories, with various sizes and +naming. This make the task of archiving even more difficult. + +I recently had to do it and I created some tiny utilities that made this task +much easier. Let's dig in! + +Proper naming +------------- + +The first thing to do is to properly name an image. I chose the format +`year-month-day_hour-minutes-seconds.ext`, eg. `2020-05-15_14h30m05s.jpg`. +Usually this data is available in the photo +[Exif](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif). You can extract it with +[exiftool](https://exiftool.org/). + +For instance you can create a small script named `rename-exif-date`: +```sh +#!/bin/sh +# Rename wrt date and hour of shot: 2020-12-25_20h03m12s.jpg +exiftool -d %Y-%m-%d_%Hh%Mm%Ss%%-c.%%le "-filename fd -t f -x rename-exif-date {}` + +That will rename all your files. + +Detect thumbnails +----------------- + +If you have thumbnails cluttering your directories, you can detect and remove +them with [feh](https://feh.finalrewind.org/). + +To remove files smaller than 300x300, create a script name +`remove-small-images`: + +```sh +#!/bin/sh +feh --recursive --list --max-dimension $1 --action 'rm %F' +``` + +`> remove-small-images 300x300` + +Detect duplicates +----------------- + +Now you should have clean directories, but potentially full of duplicates. + +The tool I recommend to detecting (and removing) them is +[dupeGuru](https://dupeguru.voltaicideas.net/). + +It can detect perfect duplicates (basically the same file), or similar images +with a similarity threshold based on the content.