timtoo / img-sync

A framework to synchronize image collections (albums) between local and remotely hosted services. Initially targeting Digikam and Picasaweb, but designed to be generic, so other services can be added.

IMG-SYNC

Synchronize image files between a local file system and remote services.

• maintain as much metadata as possible when syncronizing/uploading (tags, geolocation, etc)
• remember what images have been syncronized to what remote site
• ability to check for/list changed local files since last sync
• update only changed photos (sync!), either locally or remotely
• update only metadata when syncing, if possible, where only metadata has changed
• recursively upload/sync multiple albums with one command
• support multiple remote services

Status

Pre-Alpha. Nothing is working. Current focus is as follows:

• target picasaweb/google+ as remote service
• recursive uploader
• detect changes in local files

Command-line tool

General option modifiers

--no-write       # do not write/upload any changes
--verbose        # show extra information when available
--interactive    # prompt for confirmation before doing some actions
--check-all      # use meta and file hashes for comparisons (can be slow)
--check-meta     # only compare meta data hashes/changes

Common Usage Options

(Options in square brackets are defaults, so not needed to be specified)

--diff-with local [--sync-from local] <path>

• display differences between local file and cache
• if --verbose than display all local info and cache info first
• --check-all the default for local albums
• if --check-meta is specified, then only diff meta data

--sync-to local [--sync-from local] <path>

• this basically upades the local cache
• if --verbose, display the diff first
• if --no-write then don't write the updated the cache
• if --interactive then display --verbose info and prompt before writing
• --check-all the default for local albums
• if --check-meta is specified, then only diff meta data

Design

• configuration file config/img-sync.cfg (relative to HOME directory)
• album database is stored in a special file in each folder (.img-sync.db)
  • database is plain text for easy viewing/editing if necessary
  • separate database per album to make moving file system folders easy
  • database contains information about album sync state
    • unique identifiers for local files
    • seperate hash identifier for image and metadata
    • what services have been synced and when
    • unique identifiers for matching remote files
• command line tool for scripting
• (possible GUI in future)