TMSU

TMSU is a tool for tagging your files. It provides a simple command-line tool for applying tags and a virtual filesystem so that you can get a tag-based view of your files from within any other program.

TMSU does not alter your files in any way: they remain unchanged on disk, or on the network, wherever you put them. TMSU maintains its own database and you simply gain an additional view, which you can mount, based upon the tags you set up. The only commitment required is your time and there's absolutely no lock-in.

UX notes

Number of tagged files: 136

  • it's a PITA to tag new files; especially things like "document," "video," "pdf," "mp4," which could be easily automated in a system with more control than what tmsu wants.

  • it isn't very fun to create new tags which apply to already tagged files. implications help, of course. i can accept this pain as being largely fundamental to a living organisation system.

  • mounting/unmounting is a little weird; i ought to figure out how to mount on boot or login.

  • multiple databases tends to get in my way. i keep accidentally making new databases!!

  • at the end of the day, i'm still supremely interested in the idea of a ground-up non-hierarchical system. this is still a really fascinating space, far outside of my typical interests. }:3

at the moment, i'm only really organising media (specifically: documents, videos, and images). i'd like to try using it to organise something like a project repository, but 1. i don't really trust tmsu that much }:PP; 2. i can't consistently address the files by name, due to the weird trailing digits.

Number of tagged files: 500

  • Mounting/unmounting, and changes seemingly not being reflected without doing so, is still pretty annoying.

  • Tagging things is still annoying

  • I have some tags like mp4, png, webm that I wish could be applied automatically. Expressive tags still intrigue me.

Otherwise, it's been relatively smooth, so far. The chore of tagging every new file has been paying off pretty well. I'm still only organising documents, videos, and images.