Organizing photos by date with Go
Keeping Things Tidy

© Lead Image © Tatiana Venkova photos, 123RF.com
In this issue, Mike conjures up a Go program to copy photos from a cell phone or SD card into a date-based file structure on a Linux box. To avoid wasting time, a cache using UUIDs ensures that only new photos are transferred.
I regularly import photos from my phone or the SD card of my brand new mirrorless camera (a Sony A7) to my home computer in order to archive the best shots. On the computer, a homegrown program sorts them into a folder structure that creates a separate directory for each year, month, and day. After importing, the images usually remain on the card or phone. Of course, I don't want the importer to recopy previously imported images the next time it is called, but instead pick up where it left off the last time. If several SD cards are used, it is important to keep track of them because they sometimes use conflicting file names.
The photos on the SD card are files with a name format of DSC<number>.JPG
. On the phone, they have a different file name, say, IMG_<number>.JPG
. Cameras and photo apps increment the consecutive number of newly taken photos by one for each shot. This process is described in the Design rule for Camera File system (DCF) [1] specification. The DCF specification defines the format of the file names along with their counters and specifies what happens if a counter overflows or the camera detects that the user has used other SD cards with separate counters in the meantime.
Figure 1 shows the typical, DCF-compliant file layout on the card. On a freshly formatted card, the camera saves the first images as DSC00001.JPG
, DSC00002.JPG
, and so on in the 100MSDCF/
subdirectory; this, in turn, is located in the DCIM
folder. Now, it's unlikely for anyone to store 99,999 pictures on a card, but if a crazy photographer actually shot that many photos, the camera would create a new directory named 101MSDCF/
and, after the next shot, would simply start again at DSC00001.JPG
.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
Escuelas Linux 8.0 is Now Available
Just in time for its 25th anniversary, the developers of Escuelas Linux have released the latest version.
-
LibreOffice 7.5 has Arrived Loaded with New Features and Improvements
The favorite office suite of the Linux community has a new release that includes some visual refreshing and new features across all modules.
-
The Next Major Release of Elementary OS Has Arrived
It's been over a year since the developers of elementary OS released version 6.1 (Jólnir) but they've finally made their latest release (Horus) available with a renewed focus on the user.
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta Is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.