Ubuntu – Change directory structure from /YEAR/MONTH/DAY/ to /YEAR-MONTH-DAY

bashbatch-renamecommand linedirectoryregex

I need to change my directory structure for my photos from /YEAR/MONTH/DAY/ to /YEAR-MONTH-DAY

I know this can sort of be done with exiftool, but it will only work on files containing EXIF-tags, and I have xmp-sidecar files corresponding to each image, and these need come along too. So I recon script of some kind would be the best way.

I sat down and tried to learn RegEx, sed, bash and what not, and given enough time, I guess I should be able to figure this one out, but right now I am in a hurry, so any help would be appreciated.

//Ola

Best Answer

The rename utility in Ubuntu can rename directory structures but it won't clean up after itself.

rename 's#(.+)/(.+)/(.+)#$1-$2-$3#' */*/*/

Stick -vn on the end if you just want it to tell you what it's going to do before it renames anything, but here's a little test harness that shows you what's possible:

$ mkdir -p 2014/06/15
$ touch 2014/06/15/photo_{001..003}.jpg
$ tree
.
└── 2014
    └── 06
        └── 15
            ├── photo_001.jpg
            ├── photo_002.jpg
            └── photo_003.jpg

$ rename 's#(.+)/(.+)/(.+)#$1-$2-$3#' */*/*/
$ tree
.
├── 2014
│   └── 06
└── 2014-06-15
    ├── photo_001.jpg
    ├── photo_002.jpg
    └── photo_003.jpg

Simply put it's being fed the third-level directories and renaming is reading the earlier two segments and renaming it, sticking it in the current directory. As you can see there will be a load of year directories. Assuming they're empty you could clean up with something like (and I pray you check they're empty first):

find -maxdepth 1 -type d -regex '\./[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]' -exec rm -irf "{}" \;

I'm using the -i option to force it to ask you before deleting every file. Remove that at your own risk.

Script to reorganize photos into /year/month directories

The script below does the following:

It determines the month the picture was taken
Inside your targeted directory, it creates (if necessary) sub directories per year (if photos were found)
Inside these year directories, it creates sub directories per month
If the script is unable to find an appropriate date, it creates a folder named "undetermined"

Folders per year

enter image description here

Sub folders per month

enter image description here

Handling duplicates:

An important thing is to take care of duplicates in an appropriate way: digital cameras take shots in similarly named series (like IMG_1.jpeg, IMG_2.jpeg etc). Therefore duplicates need to be automatically renamed, or either the script will break or a large number of photo's will be lost.
The script renames duplicates like:
```
IMG_1.jpeg, duplicate_1_IMG_1.jpeg, duplicate_2_IMG_1.jpeg etc
```

How to use

The script uses exif to read the meta-data:
```
sudo apt-get install exif
```
copy the script below into an empty file.
In the head section of the script, define the directory where you want the photos to be copied to (targeted directory):
```
#---
save_to = "/targeted/directory"
#---
```
save the script as reorganize.py.
Create the targeted (superior) directory if necessary
Run the script, with the source directory (the folder with your photos) as an argument, by the command:
```
python3 /path/to/reorganize.py <source_directory>
```
I made the target directory set in the script, because you might want to add other dorectories (new pictures) to the same directory, organized automatically, while the source directory will be different in future situations.

Important notes

The dat format can differ slightly per camera. In the script, I took into account the following formats:
```
Datum en tijd       |2013:08:18 15:58:46
```
and
```
Datum en tijd       |2013-08-18 20:21:32
```
It might be different on other cameras. If the script does not work properly, you need to post the output of the command exif <image>, but most likely, it will work as it should.
The script as it is copies the photos into the new (sub) directorie(s), since you probably don't want to mess with the original directory until you verified all went well. I f you want to move the files however, replace the line:
```
shutil.copyfile(file, newfile)
```
by:
```
shutil.move(file, newfile)
```

The script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import os
import sys
import shutil

#---
save_to = "/targeted/directory"
#---

directory = sys.argv[1]
if not os.path.exists(save_to):
    os.mkdir(save_to)

get = lambda cmd: subprocess.check_output(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd]).decode("utf-8")

def check_dir(dr):
    if not os.path.exists(dr):
        os.mkdir(dr)

def rename_dups(target_dir, name):
    n = 1; name_orig = name
    while os.path.exists(target_dir+"/"+name):
        name = "duplicate_"+str(n)+"_"+name_orig
        n = n+1
    return target_dir+"/"+name

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(directory):
    for name in files:
        file = root+"/"+name
        try:
            date = [l for l in get("exif "+'"'+file+'"').splitlines()\
                    if "Dat" in l][0].split("|")[1].split()[0]
            if "-" in date:
                date = date.split("-")[:2]
            elif ":" in date:
                date = date.split(":")[:2]
            targeted_dir = save_to+"/"+date[0]
            check_dir(targeted_dir)
            sub_dir = targeted_dir+"/"+date[1]
        except:
            sub_dir = save_to+"/"+"undetermined"
        check_dir(sub_dir)
        newfile = rename_dups(sub_dir, name)
        shutil.copyfile(file, newfile)

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – Reorganize photos from an existing folder structure into a new structure

Script to reorganize photos into /year/month directories

How to use

Important notes

The script

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