Photo Organizer

A high-performance shell script tool to organize photos based on EXIF metadata, with automatic parallel processing for efficient handling of large photo collections.

Features

• Organize photos by date, camera, or both
• Copy or move files to organized structure
• Preserve original metadata
• Handle duplicate files safely
• Extract EXIF data for organization
• Support for dry-run mode to preview changes
• Recursive directory processing option
• Detailed logging with verbose mode
• Parallel processing for improved performance
• Auto-detection of available CPU cores

Requirements

• Linux/Unix environment
• Bash shell
• ExifTool (for metadata extraction)
• Standard Linux utilities

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/photo-organizer.git
   

2. Make the script executable:

   chmod +x photo_organizer.sh
   

3. Install ExifTool (if not already installed):

   • On Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl
   • On Fedora: sudo dnf install perl-Image-ExifTool
   • On macOS with Homebrew: brew install exiftool
   • More installation options: https://exiftool.org/install.html

Usage

./photo_organizer.sh [OPTIONS] SOURCE_DIRECTORY

Options

• -o, --output DIR: Output directory (default: organized_photos)
• -b, --organize-by TYPE: Organize by: date, camera, both (default: date)
• -m, --move: Move files instead of copying
• -d, --dry-run: Show what would be done without making changes
• -r, --recursive: Process directories recursively
• -v, --verbose: Enable verbose output
• -p, --parallel: Enable parallel processing (default)
• -s, --sequential: Disable parallel processing and use sequential processing
• -j, --jobs NUM: Number of parallel jobs (default: auto-detected based on CPU cores)
• -h, --help: Display help message
• --version: Display version information

Examples

# Organize photos by date with automatic parallel processing (default)
./photo_organizer.sh ~/Pictures

# Organize by camera model
./photo_organizer.sh -o ~/Sorted -b camera ~/Pictures

# Move files instead of copying, with recursive directory processing
./photo_organizer.sh -m -r ~/Pictures

# Use sequential processing (disable parallel processing)
./photo_organizer.sh -s ~/Pictures

# Specify number of parallel jobs
./photo_organizer.sh -j 8 ~/Pictures

# Preview changes without modifying files
./photo_organizer.sh -d -v ~/Pictures

Organization Structure

By Date

organized_photos/
├── 2023/
│   ├── 01/
│   │   ├── IMG_0001.jpg
│   │   └── IMG_0002.jpg
│   └── 02/
│       ├── IMG_0003.jpg
│       └── ...
└── 2022/
    └── ...

By Camera

organized_photos/
├── Canon_EOS_R5/
│   ├── IMG_0001.jpg
│   └── IMG_0002.jpg
├── iPhone_13_Pro/
│   └── IMG_0003.jpg
└── Nikon_Z6/
    └── ...

By Both

organized_photos/
├── Canon_EOS_R5/
│   ├── 2023/
│   │   ├── 01/
│   │   │   └── IMG_0001.jpg
│   │   └── ...
│   └── 2022/
│       └── ...
├── iPhone_13_Pro/
│   └── ...
└── Nikon_Z6/
    └── ...

Development

• Run script: bash photo_organizer.sh
• Lint shell scripts: shellcheck photo_organizer.sh
• Test EXIF extraction: exiftool -a -u -g1 test_image.jpg

Testing

The project includes a comprehensive test suite to verify functionality with various EXIF data scenarios:

• Create test images: cd test_images && ./create_test_images.sh
• Setup test cases: cd test_scripts && ./setup_test_images.sh
• Run all tests: cd test_scripts && ./run_all_tests.sh
• Run single test: bash test_scripts/test_single.sh TEST_NAME

Test scenarios include:

• Complete EXIF data (with dates and camera information)
• Partial EXIF data (missing DateTimeOriginal but having CreateDate)
• No EXIF data (using file timestamps)
• Various organization methods (by date, camera, or both)

Continuous Integration

This project uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration:

• Automatically runs all tests on push and pull requests
• Performs shellcheck analysis on all shell scripts
• Verifies the script works with different EXIF scenarios

License

MIT License

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.