I love tags. I want to use them more (I am a lazy ass), because when I use them I find myself finding the stuff I look for way easier. I use Tags and DefaultFolderX mainly for tagging, but when I am on the commandline (like most of the times) I always find it annoying to either use Tags or something else to add/remove/list tags.

That’s why I wrote this little script to help me tagging my files/folders. It needs openmeta and should be placed somewhere in your $PATH for easier access (obviously):

{% highlight bash %}
#!/usr/bin/env bash

#

Frontend script for the openmeta commandline utility

#

function usage {
echo “Usage:”
echo “$0 [file|directory]”
echo
echo “Specify one tag per line to add a tag, prepend a ‘-‘ to remove a tag”
exit 0
}

timestamp=$(date +%s)
dir=$1
qdir=$PWD/$1

openmeta -t -p $qdir | rev | cut -d” ” -f 2- | rev >/var/tmp/tag_$timestamp 2>/dev/null
if [ $? -ne 133 ]; then
curtags=$(cat /var/tmp/tag_$timestamp)
echo “Current tags: $curtags”
echo
fi

Exit if we have nothing to tag

[ ! -d $qdir -a ! -f $qdir ] && usage

while read -p “Tag: ” line
do
[ -z “${line:-}” ] && break
if [ “${line:0:1}” == “-” ]; then
rmtags=”$rmtags ${line:1}”
else
newtags=”$newtags $line”
fi
done

echo
if [ “$rmtags” == “” ]; then
openmeta -a ${newtags} -p $qdir | rev | cut -d” ” -f 2- | rev
else
for rmtag in $rmtags; do
curtags=$(echo $curtags | sed “s/$rmtag//g”)
done
openmeta -s ${curtags} ${newtags} -p $qdir | rev | cut -d” ” -f 2- | rev
fi

rm -f /var/tmp/tag_$timestamp &>/dev/null
{% endhighlight %}