Methods to the madness: Copying files into vaults

[ebullient]

Copying files into your vault is a necessary task, but there can be some nuance to it.

I'd like to compare notes!

[ebullient]

I use a script that runs rsync twice: once for notes and once for images:

#!/bin/bash

rsync -vi -rlD -O -c --delete --stats \
    --include "*/" \
    --exclude bestiary/bestiary.md \
    --exclude items/potion-of-resistance.md \
    --exclude items/chromatic-rose.md \
    --exclude items/armor-of-resistance.md \
    --include="*.md" \
    --exclude="*" \
    /Users/elh/adventures/compendium/dm/compendium/5e/ \
    /Users/elh/adventures/campaign-notes/compendium/5e

rsync -vi -rlD -O --ignore-existing --delete --stats \
    --include "*/" \
    --exclude="*.md" \
    --include="*" \
    /Users/elh/adventures/compendium/dm/compendium/5e/ \
    /Users/elh/adventures/campaign-notes/compendium/5e

In both cases, I'm asking rsync to delete files that have been deleted (I'll correct any referencing notes later, but it cleans up duplicates or moved files that I didn't otherwise catch).

• --stats and -vi tell me information about what is happening. If I have a lot of changes, I'll throw -n in there to dry-run first.
• Both use -rlD, which is semi-standard: -r is recursive, -l tells it to preserve symlinks, and -D tells it to leave devices and specials alone (which doesn't apply here, but ... habits)
• Both also use -O to avoid fussing with times on directories.
• Notes are compared with -c, which tells rsync to compare files using a checksum instead of using the timestamp or file size, as generated content will always have a newer timestamp.
• Images use --ignore-existing, so that new images are added, moved/deleted images are deleted, and images are otherwise left alone.

That's the gist, assuming I did everything right. ;)

[mclearc]

I've also been running 5etools via bash script. The following will let me build a compendium, and I can add a -c flag to copy it to my vault and a -t flag to trash the compendium. Of course you can add any other flags you like. A more complex version of the below that I use allows for switching builds between a full compendium and homebrew stuff.

Otherwise the rsync command is pretty similar to @ebullient (explained really clearly above). And as I found out the hard way, don't use cp or mv or you'll send your obsidian vault into overdrive resending eveything.

#!/bin/bash

rm -rf "/5e-cli-compendium/DnD-cli-out" &&
    java -jar /bin/ttrpg-convert-cli/target/ttrpg-convert-cli-299-SNAPSHOT-runner.jar --index \
         -c '/5e-cli-compendium/config.json' \
         -o '/5e-cli-compendium/DnD-cli-out' \
         '/5etools-mirror.nosync/data' \
         '/5etools-homebrew.nosync/creature/Kobold Press; Creature Codex.json' \
         '/5etools-homebrew.nosync/creature/Kobold Press; Tome of Beasts.json' 
        
while getopts 'ct' OPTION; do
    case "$OPTION" in
        c)
            echo "copy (rsync) compendium files" && \
                rsync -vi -rlcD -O --delete --stats \
                      "/5e-cli-compendium/DnD-cli-out/5e-compendium" \
                      "/ObsidianVault/Rules & Options/"
            ;;
        t)
            echo "trash compendium files" && \
                trash "/5e-cli-compendium/DnD-cli-out"
            ;;
        ?)
        echo "script usage: $(basename \$0) [-c] [-t]" >&2
        exit 1
        ;;
    esac
done