chiyoko

Python script to clone a directory hierarchy, that also processes it's multimedia files along the way

Hey You!

"Who? Me?"

Yes, you.
Have an organized directory hierarchy containing all of your pictures and videos and running out of space? "Yes!"
Need to compress those photos and videos while maintaining the organization in the directory? "Yes!"
Want to compress your multimedia files and keep the organization? "Yes!"
Then chiyoko is the right module for you!!!

"What is chiyoko?"

( Okay... I'm done with this T.V infomercial thingy. )

Name:

'Chiyoko' is the main character of the 2001, Satoshi Kon movie 'The Millenium Actress'. The name of this script is a homage to the great woman, and to the great Mr. Satoshi Kon, the genius behind the movie. This script was written with the belief that even the not-so-important photos lying around in our HDDs today will someday turn out to be The Key - "to the most important thing there is". Let's not trade memories for HDD spaces.

Dependencies, Platform and Usage

This script works only on Linux. If you're using Windows or Mac, and want to use it, just live boot a Linux Distro and run this script. This one is your best bet: https://linuxmint.com/download.php (Linux Mint 18.1 XFCE), as it comes with all the dependencies pre-installed and you can run this script with this simple command:

$ python3 chiyoko SOURCE DESTINATION -I -V

Dependencies

imagemagick $ sudo apt-get install imagemagick
ffmpeg $ sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
Other GNU utilities that should be on your Linux Distro by default file, du, tail, etc.

Usage

The Script takes two mandatory arguments: SOURCE and DESTINATION

SOURCE is the directory which you want to clone. i.e. The 'All My Childhood Pictures Ever' directory/folder.

DESTINATION is the directory where you want to save the compressed clone of the SOURCE directory. i.e. The 'Oh-no-I've-run-out-of-all-my-space-and-this-is-the-only-HDD-with-some-remaining' directory/folder.

Special Parameter: Setting DESTINATION to be '__in-place__' does all the processing in the same directory. So, you'll have everything in the same directory, but compressed. (This special parameter's syntax has been intentionally made to resemble Python's special variable syntax.)

-I turns on photo processing. Photo processing reduces the image quality to 73% of the original (by default), without changing the dimensions of the image. An optional parameter to -I can change the quality.
-V turns on video processing. This doesn't take any arguments.
-h or --help will give you usage information

Using the script without either -I or -V would result in an exact copy of the SOURCE into the DESTINATION, as-is. Not very useful.

Modifications

If the settings aren't working for you, open the script in a text editor and change the two global variables to be what you want them to be. I'd try the modified commands on a few guinea files before I modify the script's commands, though.

Installation

./INSTALL.sh --help # for information regarding installation

Maybe listen to "Chiyoko's Theme" while running this script?

peanutbutterandcrackers / chiyoko