Subj : Re: Old computer
To   : bex
From : boraxman
Date : Sun Aug 07 2022 13:07:54

 be> In the end, all of the shells can do most of the same things, it's just a
 be> matter of how easy it is to do those things. zsh makes things like
 be> working with history and searching easy-peasy. And oh-my-zsh plugins
 be> make adding environment variables and variables a piece of cake.
 be> 
 be> Bo> I add an "archived" extended attribute to any files I've put on my
 be> Bo> archive drive, but still want to keep around, and I can list those fil
 be> Bo> with ls *(+archived) or delete them with
 be> 
 be> That is  friggin BRILLIANT! I am going to implement that on my test
 be> system!
 be> 
 be> 
 be> Have a place for everything and keep the thing somewhere else; this is
 be> not advice, it is merely custom.
 be> - Mark Twain

The magic happens with this ZSH function.  Note that you need to add
zmodload zsh/attr
to your .zshrc as well to add support for extended attributes.

function archived() {
    # just a check whether the archived attribute exists, regardless of value.
    local val
    zgetattr $REPLY user.archived val 2>/dev/null
}


All you need to do to set a file as "archived" is created an extended attribute with that name on the file

ie
# setfattr -n user.archived mysticBBS_Release3.RAR

then you can refer to files with this 'tag' using the following glob
*(.+archived)
as in
# rm *(.+archived)

Which removes all files with the tag
....or recursively
# rm **/*(.+archived)
The following glob is the negation
*(.^+archived)

So
# cp *(.^archived) /mnt/external
copies all files which have NOT got the tag
which you can then tag as archived with

# setfattr -n user.archived *(.^+archived)

I have folders I download things in, which I then save on an external drive, but may want to keep locally for a moment longer.

Of course, you can duplicate that function with other tags.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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