digitaglinktree(1) Linux User's Manual digitaglinktree(1)NAME
digitaglinktree - Export tag structure of photos in digikam to the filesystem.
SYNOPSIS
digitaglinktree
-l taglinkdir | -A archivedir
-d database
[-r rootdir]
[-H|-f|-a|-v|-C]
DESCRIPTION
digitaglinktree will create a linktree for all photos in a digikam database that have tags set on them. Tags (like eg. "family", "events",
...) are used in digikam to create virtual folders containing images that all have one or more tags assigned. Please note: Photos that
have no tags at all assigned are silently ignored by this script. The program will not modify or even touch your original photos managed by
digikam.
The script can be used in two ways: If you call it using Option -l taglinkdir the script will create the user specified directory
taglinkdir and inside this directory it will create sub directories for digikam tags set on the photos. Inside these subdirectories it
will finally place symbolic or hard links (see -H) to photos having the tags in question. As a result you will see the tags of your pho-
tos as folders and in these folders you will find links to your original photos.
In this way you can access the collection of all images that share a certain tag by changing directory to the folder with the tags name
created by this script. This allows you e.g. to run JAlbum a photo album software that needs to find the pictures to be put into a web
album in the filesystem because JAlbum cannot access digikams virtual folders directly.
The second way of calling this script is the so called archive-mode by setting option -A archiveDir.
Archive mode is thought for people who want to archive tagged photos independently of digikams root directories and the photos therein.
This way you can put your photos and their tag structure in eg. a tar archive and send it to a friend, who can look at the photos via
their tag structure. In this mode the script creates the directory given as parameter to -A and in this directory two more subdirectories.
One named Photos and a second named Tags. The Photos directory contains hard links to your original photos, and the Tags directory con-
tains a subdirectory for each Tag used by any of your photos. Inside this subdirectory there are links (either symbolic or hard links) to
the files in the Photos directory. This way the archive directory needs nearly no additional space on your harddisk and you have an ar-
chive that allows you or a friend to easily look at the photos tag structure.
Another benefit from using this script is that you have kind of a backup of your tag settings for all of your photos. The backup is simply
the directory structure containing links to the original images that wear the tags. This could become important if for whatever reason the
digikam.db file gets corrupted or even lost.
COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS-l taglinkdir
Parameter taglinkdir denotes a directory in which the tag structure of all your photos stored in rootdir will be exported to by
creating subdirectories for each tag and placing symbolic links in these subdirectories that point to the original photo wearing the
tags. If calling the script with option -l taglinkDir you also have to specify options -r rootdir as well as -d database.
-A archivedirectory
archivedirectory denotes a directory into which the script will export the photos and their tag structure. -A has to be used
together with option -r rootdir if using digikam version < 0.10, as well as -d database else the script will terminate. Inside
the archive directory the script will create a Photos and a Tags directory. It will put hard links in the Photos directory that
point to your original photos. By using hard links you are independent of changes in your digikam root directory but on the other
hand you are limited to one filesystem. So the directory given by -r rootdir and the directory specified for -A archivedir have to
be one the same filesystem. If using digikam in version >= 0.10 you cannot specify -r rootdir . Instead the root paths of all
albums are taken from digikams database directly. However still the requirement holds, that archivedir has to be on the same
filesystem like all the root directories containing photos you defined in digikam. If one of digikams root directories is on
another filesystem this one will not be processed, since hardlinking the photos inside the Photos directory would not work in this
case! The Tags subdirectory will contain links to the files in the Photos directory. This way you have one archive directory that
is completely self contained. You can tar it, send it to a friend or just put it somewhere for archivel or backup purposes. Usually
only those photos will be archived that have a digikam tag set on them. By using option -C however you can perform a complete ar-
chive. See -C for more infos.
-d database
database is the complete path including the filename to digikams photo database which usually can be found in digikams root direc-
tory. The files name is usually digikam.db .
-r rootdir
rootdir denotes the digikam base directory containing all your photos if you are using digikam in a version before 0.10. If you are
using digikam 0.10 or newer you must not use this option. If you do it anyway you will see a hint that the option given will be
ignored because digikams version 0.10 database contains the root directories of all albums defined in digikam.
-C When the script is called with option -A archivedir only those photos will be archived (by placing links) in the Photos subdirectory
of archivedir that have at least one digikam tag set. By setting option -C all photos will be archived to archivedir no matter if
they have a tag set or not. Note: This only changes the contents of the Photos subdirectory not of the Tags subdirectory in the
archivedir directory.
-a By default the script will try to create relative symbolic links from the directory taglinkdir set by option -l to the photo files
under rootdir given by option -r. Using this option will result in absolute symbolic links beeing created instead of relative ones.
-H By default the script will create soft (symbolic) links from the Tag-Tree to the photos. By setting option -H the script will use
hard links instead. Please note that hard links can only be created inside one filesystem. So your photos and the Tag tree have to
be one the same filesystem. If not you will see a warning about this problem and the script will not run.
-f In digikam photos can have hierachical tags (tags that have subtags). In this case digitaglinktree would by default add a directory
for the tag and a subdirectory for each of the subtags of this tag. By setting -f a subtag is treated like a regular tag just as
its parent tag so digitaglinktree will create all subdirectories for tags and subtags at the same level independent of the tag -
subtag hierarchy.
-v Prints the scripts version number and exits.
CONFIGURATION
By default this script will run with all photo databases created by digikam version 0.10 as well as older version like 0.9 and 0.8. If you
still have digikam version 0.7 then you have to reconfigure the script itself.
You have to reconfigure the script by setting the path to the sqlite binary that is used by the script to query the digikam database
digikam.db. Since very old digikam version use sqlite in version 2, but later digikam versions need sqlite version 3 you have to take care
to install the correct version of sqlite for the installed digikam version and to set the path to the correct sqlite executable in the
scripts head:
Choose
$SQLITE="/usr/bin/sqlite3";
for digikam version 0.8x and 0.9x and 0.10x
$SQLITE="/usr/bin/sqlite";
for digikam version 0.7x.
EXAMPLE
A call to digitaglinktree is shown below:
digiTagLinktree -l /home/user/tags -d /home/user/photos/digikam.db
In this example we assume that you are running digikam version 0.10 or higher so that no option -r was used to specify the photo root dir.
Instead this information will automatically be fetched from digikams database.
In case you want to run the script on a digikam database that was created by digikam version 0.9 or earlier you have to use -r to specify
the root directory where you keep all your photos that are managed by digikam:
digiTagLinktree -r /home/user/photos -l /home/user/tags -d /home/user/photos/digikam.db
In this example digikams photo root denoted by -r is /home/user/photos.
Option -l /home/user/tags tells the script that all the subdirectories and symbolic links will be placed in the directory /home/user/tags.
The folder was chosen so that the tags-directory is not under digikams photo root. You may put the tags folder inside digikams photoroot
but this is not the preferred method. Because the link directory contains only links this tag structure does hardly need any additional
space on your harddisk.
AUTHORS
digitaglinktree was written by Rainer Krienke <krienke at uni-koblenz.de>
16 Aug 2006 digitaglinktree(1)