tagfs, xtagfs, dhtfs and more: Tag, you’re it

For some reason, the last file tagging utility I mentioned, tagsistant, touched off a flood of suggestions on tagging titles. Four or five came from just one contributor alone, and I got e-mails about two or three more from other counties.

I didn’t know file tagging tools were so prolific. I’d always just relied on directory trees as the simplest way to arrange things, but now it seems I am living in 1988. 😐

Anachronistic me aside, I’m terribly grateful for all the suggestions. But the sheer volume — and the time it would take to build, set up, learn, playtest and evaluate all of them — means I must go the short route, and list them here as potentially interesting to you, the reader.

I don’t like doing this because there are undoubtedly some very useful tools in here, and it levels the field between the truly genius and the truly jejune. It’s hard to spot a real winner in a crop this dense though, so if you can attest to any one of these, please give us a steer.

• Dantalian: By the home page’s admission, a “multi-dimensionally hierarchical tag-based transparent lightweight file organization system.” This struck me as closest to tmsu, which I liked best of what I’ve used.
• debtags: If I understand correctly, debtags is the Debian solution for tagging the tens of thousands of titles in their collection, and that’s quite a testament. tagcoll, if I read the wiki right, is the go-to tool for manipulating the tags. I don’t know (but perhaps you do) if debtags or its underlying structure are applicable beyond that project itself.
• dhtfs: A tagging system that sports “dynamic directory hierarchies based on tags associated with files.” That suggests to me that the directory structure will evolve as the tags are applied, which is either attractive or horrifying, depending on you. Personally I’m curious in a morbid kind of way, because I like to manage the way things are arranged on my system. Perhaps I shall set up a dummy system and try it out, just for kicks.
• django-tagging: Kevin sent this one by e-mail, but I don’t have any experience with django, and I think this might go way beyond what I could investigate.
• flickerfs: This one might be oddball of the group: I believe this latches on to your flicker account and allows you to work the tags in use there. But I don’t use flicker, and so I might be way off base with this one. Thanks to Lars for suggesting it though.
• pytagsfs: I see this in Debian with the description, “arranges media files in a virtual directory structure based on the file tags,” which might mean it works something like dhtfs for audio files. I might give this one a try later. The home page listed on the package page doesn’t seem to be related to the project, though.
• stagfs: A “proof-of-concept non-hierarchical FUSE file system deriving structure from independent tag files.” The term “proof-of-concept” says to me that it wasn’t intended for actual use, but it might be a viable product, so don’t take my word for it. I am quite frequently wrong. 😦
• tag-fs: I have my doubts about this one, only because the downloadable source file is all of 36.7Kb, and the trunk is suspiciously concise. Also, it doesn’t appear to have seen updates since 2008, which is not necessarily a bad sign, only a little worrisome.
• tagfs: Not to be confused with the previous project, this has seen more recent updates and appears to be (have been?) a more complete effort. It also seems to have an approach like tmsu or tagsistant, and I can see where it might have inspired those two titles. Another of Eric Davis‘s suggestions from a month ago.
• tracker: tracker confuses me a little bit: Apparently this is a plugin for Nautilus, but I also see that there are things like tracker-utils in Debian, so maybe there are text-based tools that can run it too. If you use GNOME you may want to investigate further. If they can’t be split off from the graphical component, then. … 😦 Thanks to Jonas for the note.
• xtagfs: I have a strong suspicion this is intended as a tool for Macs, but I won’t discount it out of my relative ignorance about Mac-related software. And sometimes I see where tools written for Macs are implantable in Linux systems. You probably know better than me. … 😐

Of course, like I implied earlier, I simply don’t have the time right now to work with every title here, and so there may be one or two in there that are not only incapable or inappropriate, but impossible. My apologies if you stumble across something so useless as to be laughable. I feel obligated to share the information I receive, since people are kind enough to pass it my way. Just remember, as always, your mileage may vary. Happy tagging. 🙂