xtagger is a console application that lets you manage and find tags on your files. While similar applications like TMSU and Tagsistant use databases to manage the file/tag relationships, others like TagSpaces use sidecar files or encode tags in the filename. xtagger is different in that it uses the extended attributes of supporting file systems on Linux and macOS (Windows alternate data streams are not supported yet).
This fixes one problem common with most other solutions: You can move or rename your files with your favourite tools without loosing the file/tag relationship managed elsewhere[^1].
Install this console application with
console
$ cargo install xtagger
To get general help about xtagger and its command line interface you can issue
console
$ xtagger --help
A tag in xtagger can stand alone or can have a value associated. A tag or value can contain
alphanumeric characters along with the characters :, _ and -.
xtagger supports Perl-style regular expressions but has no look-around support.
The order of actions xtagger executes is fixed and given as follows. - filter - rename - remove - add - output - delete
The files xtagger works on can be viewed in multiple ways. You can for example always add
--list to get a list of files that have been manipulated in this call.
If you are working interactively with a graphical user interface using a terminal that supports
hyperlinks, you can add the -h option. Then xtagger will create hyperlinks for
the listed files, so you can open them with a mouseclick.
The option --list will simply list all matching files, one per line.
To list files along with their tags you use the --show option.
console
$ xtagger --show -h *.pdf
This shows the filenames with hyperlink support along with its tags and values, one per line and
indented:
Samsung S3C2416.pdf
ARMArchitecture=ARMv5TEJ
ARMCore=ARM926EJ-S
ARMFamily=ARM9E
You can also use general tools like xattr on macOS or getfattr on Linux to see the extended
attributes associated with a file.
The extended attribute that xtagger uses is called user.xtag.
To just list all used tags in a set of files you use the --tags option.
console
$ xtagger --tags *.pdf
will list the tags in alphabetical order, one per line.
To define the files xtagger should work on you can use multiple normal shell globs. For larger file amounts xtagger supports its own glob mechanism. Just put the glob in quotation marks[^3].
You can filter the files given on their tags with the --filter option. As there is no central
database, finding information is a more time consuming search operation depending on file system
speed.
xtagger supports the natural conditional operators AND OR NOT along with their symbolic pendants
&& || and ! respectively. The natural variants are case insensitive and need spaces around them
while the symbolic variants can be used without. The AND operator has higher precedence than OR.
You can use parentheses to influence the precedence as needed.
The AND and OR operators are left associative and use short-circuit evaluation.
console
$ xtagger --filter "Samsung and ARMFamily" --list *.pdf
This finds PDFs in the actual folder that have both the Samsung and ARMFamily tags, not caring
if any of them has an associated value or not.
Equality and inequality use == and != respectively and are tested using the string representation
of the values. Relations use <, <=, >= and >, while the values are converted to signed
integers for comparison.
console
$ xtagger --filter "Samsung and ARMFamily == ARM9E and Year >= 2006" --list *.pdf
Finds PDFs that have the Samsung tag with or without a value associated, the ARMFamily tag with
the value ARM9E associated and have the Year tag with an integer value bigger or equal to 2006.
If you use regular expressions for tags then == matches if at least one tag has a matching value.
The != operator matches if not a single value matches.
You can use regular expressions to find tags or values on patterns. As inequality tests convert to integers you can't use regular expressions with them. Regular expressions always match a full tag or value.
console
$ xtagger --filter "ARM(Family|Core) == .*J.*" --list *.pdf
Will return files which have a 'J' in either value associated with the ARMFamily or ARMCore tags.
Tag manipulations are executed on all remaining files in the list after the globs have been optionally filtered. So you can add or remove tags depending on the existence or absence of other tags. The order of manipulations is rename, remove and add. All manipulations are done before output and the delete action is done afterwards.
The option --add lets you add or change tags on files. Use a comma separated list to add more
than one tag. Tag/value pairs are separated with =.
console
$ xtagger --add "ARM,Samsung,ARMFamily=ARM9E,ARMArchitecture=ARMv5TEJ,ARMCore=ARM926EJ-S" "Samsung S3C2416.pdf"
Here we add the standalone tags ARM and Samsung as well as the tag/value pairs ARMFamily,
ARMArchitecture and ARMCore with there associated values ARM9E, ARMv5TEJ and ARM926EJ
respectively to the single given file.
If there already is an ARMArchitecture tag with or without an associated value, the new value
replaces the old one or creates a new value entry.
xtagger has no specific support for tag-groups or hierarchies. But you can give more meaning to your
tags for example by using : to separate levels.
To remove specific tags from files you use the --remove option. You can give a comma separated
list of tags to be removed.
console
$ xtagger --remove "ARM" "*.pdf"
This removes the tag ARM of all PDFs in the actual folder, using xtaggers own glob mechanism,
regardless of having an associated value or not.
To delete all tags along with the whole extended attribute of given files you can use
console
$ xtagger --delete *.pdf
The --find and --replace options let you rename tags also with regular expression replacements.
console
$ xtagger --find "ARM" --replace "Risc-V" *.pdf
Simply replaces the ARM tag with Risc-V in the given files, keeping any associated value.
console
$ xtagger --find "ARM(.*)" --replace "Risc-V\$1" *.pdf
Uses a capture group to rename tags like ARMFamily to Risc-VFamily. Please note the escaped $
sign in the replace pattern. This is needed to keep the shell from replacing this with environment
variables. You can alternatively use single quotes.
This rename mechanism also supports named capture groups.
Works on Linux and macOS.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
kernel doesn't have support compiled in the kernel at all. Also older implementations of NFS for
example might not support them and/or you might have to use special configuration/mount options
to enable them. In all cases you might loose extended attributes while moving files between
filesystems without notice. Please check your systems components documentations regarding
extended attribute support.
Also extended attributes might have filesystem specific size limits. These might be further
limited by other mechanisms using them. SELinux for example uses extended attributes for storing
the files security context.