DMSd

A command line tool for tagging files and querying for files with those tags.

NB: This project is a (working) prototype to see if it can be useful at all.

Table of contents

• About the name
• Overview
• Quick start
• Documentation
  • Installation
  • Tagging files
    • Examples
  • Listing files
    • Examples
  • Untagging files
    • Examples
  • Using multiple data files

About the name

DMS stands for Document Management System, d for directory.

The tool was originally meant to create a DMS from files in a directory, but now it actually uses glob patterns to match the files to work on.

Also, after feedback from Reddit and HN, it seems that it's not quite a DMS, but rather a file tagging system.

As I have currently no better name for it, it remains DMSd :)

Overview

DMSd is a command line tool for tagging files and querying for files with those tags.

It uses glob patterns to match the files to work on.

It makes no changes to the files themselves, doesn't copy, move or rename them - all data about the tagged files is stored in a data file.

Quick start

1. Download a release and unpack it to a directory
2. cd to the directory
3. Tag all files in the current directory (with tags derived from the file system):

   ./dmsd tag --auto-tags
   

4. List the tagged files:

   ./dmsd list
   

Documentation

Installation

Download a release and unpack it to a directory. That's all.

You can add the directory to the PATH so you can run dmsd from any directory. All examples assume you have dmsd in your PATH.

Alternatively, if you have Go installed, run go install github.com/mirovarga/dmsd@latest.

Tagging files

TL;DR: To tag files, use the tag command (run dmsd tag -h for help).

Tagging is attaching a name or a name and value to a file, like invoice (a name) or due:tomorrow (a name and value - the : separates the tag name from its value).

Tags can be attached to multiple files and each file can have multiple tags.

The tags can then be used to list files that match certain tags.

Tagging a file makes no changes to the file itself, doesn't copy, move or rename it - all data about the tagged files is stored in the data file.

Examples

Use the --dry-run option in all the examples below to avoid making any changes to the data file.

Tag all files in the current directory with tags derived from the file system, like file name, extension, etc.:

dmsd tag --auto-tags

Tag all files in the current directory with the a-tag tag:

dmsd tag --tag a-tag

Tag all files in the current directory with tags tag-one and tag:two (the : separates the tag name from its value):

dmsd tag --tag tag-one --tag tag:two

You can combine tags derived from the file system with custom tags like this:

dmsd tag --auto-tags --tag a-tag

Tag all Markdown files in the current directory with tags derived from the file system:

dmsd tag '*.md' --auto-tags

Note the single quotes - we need them to prevent the shell from interpreting the glob pattern and thus matching different files than expected.

Tag all files except Markdown ones in the current directory with tags derived from the file system:

dmsd tag --auto-tags --exclude '*.md'

Listing files

TL;DR: To list tagged files, use the list command (run dmsd list -h for help).

Examples

Use the --format option in all examples below to change the listing format. Supported formats are text (default) and json.

List all files:

dmsd list

List all files with the a-tag tag:

dmsd list a-tag

List all files with tags tag-one and tag:two (the : separates the tag name from its value):

dmsd list tag-one tag:two

Untagging files

TL;DR: To untag files, use the untag command (run dmsd untag -h for help).

Untagging removes tags from already tagged files.

Like tagging, untagging a file makes no changes to the file itself, doesn't copy, move or rename it - the tags are removed only from the data file.

Examples

Use the --dry-run option in all the examples below to avoid making any changes to the data file.

Remove tags derived from the file system from all files:

dmsd untag --auto-tags

Remove the a-tag tag from all files:

dmsd untag --tag a-tag

Remove tags tag-one and tag:two from all files (the : separates the tag name from its value):

dmsd untag --tag tag-one --tag tag:two

You can combine tags derived from the file system with custom tags like this:

dmsd untag --auto-tags --tag a-tag

Remove tags derived from the file system from all Markdown files:

dmsd untag '**/*.md' --auto-tags

Note the double asterisk - we need it because files are indexed by their full paths so *.md wouldn't work as expected.

Remove tags derived from the file system from all files except Markdown ones:

dmsd untag --auto-tags --exclude '**/*.md'

Using multiple data files

By default, information about tagged files is stored in the dmsd.db file in the current directory. You can override where the information is stored (or read from) by specifying the --data-file option, like this:

dmsd --data-file overriden.db tag --auto-tags