rar in script, included every directory down the list!

[talz13]

Ok, so I finally got around to writing a python script to rar my image folders for easy archiving / backup. However, when I opened one of the rar files, it had like 7 levels of folders before I got to the images that I added! The contents of any given rar file looks like:/home/username/folder/folder2/folder3/folder4/folder5/ with all my images inside that bottom folder.

How can I make rar just insert the actual image files without all the crazy folders on the way there?

python script below:
import os
import subprocess
# Get last folder downloaded:
mbDir = "/home/my/pictures/are/here"
mbScript = "/home/my/script/is/here"
# Get list of folders in mbDir (should correspond to dates):
dirList = [name for name in os.listdir(mbDir) if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(mbDir, name))]
for dir in dirList:
# Get list of folders in each dated dir:
mbDir2 = os.path.join(mbDir, dir)
dirList2 = [name for name in os.listdir(mbDir2) if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(mbDir2, name))]
#print dirList2
for dir2 in dirList2:
#print 'rar a "' + os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2 + '.rar') + '" "' + os.path.join(os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2), '*') + '"'
subprocess.call('rar a "' + os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2 + '.rar') + '" "' + os.path.join(os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2), '*') + '"', shell=True)
#print 'rm -rf "' + os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2) + '"'
subprocess.call('rm -rf "' + os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2) + '"', shell=True)

I can either re-archive them if I fix the script, or I could rejigger the rar files to get rid of the upper directories in them, either one would work at the moment.

[.Maleficus.]

If I understand what you're trying to do, you're just trying to create separate .RARs for each folder? Something like date1.rar, date2.rar, etc?


Edit: I would recommend choosing better variable names than 'dir', 'dir2', 'mbDir' and 'mbDir2'.

[philcamlin]

just rar the 1 file ? right click on the file not the whole directory :D

[talz13]

for the most part, yes. I have my main pictures folder in my home directory, then that folder is broken up into folders by date. these date folders are then broken up by album, and I want to make rar's out of each of the albums.

The script works, but the directory structure of the rar file looks like:album1.rar:
/home
/username
/pics folder
/date folder
/album folder
(images are under here)and that results in me having to drill down through like 5 directories inside the rar file just to get to the images that I added.

[philcamlin]

yeah so rar the 1 filder you need :popcorn:

[.Maleficus.]

So what you want to do is something like
/home/name/pics/date/album/pictures.rar
? With all of the pictures in one .RAR?

[talz13]

yeah so rar the 1 filder you need :popcorn:

that's what I'm doing, but it is in a python script and I am passing the directory that needs rar'ed from python to rar, and rar is adding the 5 levels above the folder I am rar'ing

[.Maleficus.]

Try using os.chdir() to "cd" into your working directory, rather than working from the script directory and dealing with all of the the folder nonsense.

Link: http://docs.python.org/library/os.html

[talz13]

So what you want to do is something like
/home/name/pics/date/album/pictures.rar
? With all of the pictures in one .RAR?

Correct, and when I rar with the command:subprocess.call('rar a "' + os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2 + '.rar') + '" "' + os.path.join(os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2), '*') + '"', shell=True)it is adding the directory levels as seen below, from one of my actual rar files it created:

jeff@server:~/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder$ unrar v album.rar

UNRAR 3.80 freeware Copyright (c) 1993-2008 Alexander Roshal

Archive album.rar

Pathname/Comment
Size Packed Ratio Date Time Attr CRC Meth Ver
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/021.jpg
582077 572422 98% 09-10-08 16:07 -rw-r--r-- 60597974 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/023.jpg
319220 296429 92% 09-10-08 16:08 -rw-r--r-- FE9F3AA7 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/017.jpg
696011 687469 98% 09-10-08 16:06 -rw-r--r-- 0AC4B1F4 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/009.jpg
654888 649510 99% 09-10-08 16:05 -rw-r--r-- 95652830 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/026.jpg
629356 620307 98% 09-10-08 16:08 -rw-r--r-- 396284C3 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/004.jpg
589880 579281 98% 09-10-08 16:03 -rw-r--r-- 4DBC9A23 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/005.jpg
528810 520521 98% 09-10-08 16:04 -rw-r--r-- 5225003A m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/010.jpg
703683 695501 98% 09-10-08 16:05 -rw-r--r-- 2C1EEC1B m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/024.jpg
256403 251839 98% 09-10-08 16:08 -rw-r--r-- C8FED747 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/013.jpg
578146 563456 97% 09-10-08 16:05 -rw-r--r-- BF40F2E1 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/003.jpg
583051 574099 98% 09-10-08 16:03 -rw-r--r-- F4F89ABE m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/022.jpg
107482 92228 85% 09-10-08 16:08 -rw-r--r-- CF0DAB02 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/014.jpg
603057 593832 98% 09-10-08 16:06 -rw-r--r-- 03A5CC14 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/012.jpg
594806 583282 98% 09-10-08 16:05 -rw-r--r-- 8AC02D56 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/001.jpg
687456 684585 99% 09-10-08 16:03 -rw-r--r-- 58926442 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/018.jpg
687689 680302 98% 09-10-08 16:07 -rw-r--r-- A8099370 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/020.jpg
610464 597467 97% 09-10-08 16:07 -rw-r--r-- E5A3CEA8 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/006.jpg
564212 555216 98% 09-10-08 16:04 -rw-r--r-- AA77FAC7 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/008.jpg
623807 610049 97% 09-10-08 16:04 -rw-r--r-- 938A5A82 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/002.jpg
582414 575219 98% 09-10-08 16:03 -rw-r--r-- 9CB29C44 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/011.jpg
607484 595644 98% 09-10-08 16:05 -rw-r--r-- 2D0817C0 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/019.jpg
694908 687327 98% 09-10-08 16:07 -rw-r--r-- A6A23D41 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/007.jpg
598497 589665 98% 09-10-08 16:04 -rw-r--r-- 63AC5F73 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/016.jpg
675084 669453 99% 09-10-08 16:06 -rw-r--r-- 576A8A41 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/025.jpg
141759 129231 91% 09-10-08 16:08 -rw-r--r-- 326BB912 m3e 2.9
home/jeff/Pictures/level1/level2/level3/dateFolder/album/015.jpg
699640 692874 99% 09-10-08 16:06 -rw-r--r-- 2DFDA5BF m3e 2.9
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 14600284 14347208 98%

[talz13]

Try using os.chdir() to "cd" into your working directory, rather than working from the script directory and dealing with all of the the folder nonsense.

Link: http://docs.python.org/library/os.html

I will give that a try and see how it goes :)

[talz13]

Awesome, that worked great! Here's the relevant part of the updated script:# Get list of folders in mbDir (should correspond to dates):
dirList = [name for name in os.listdir(mbDir) if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(mbDir, name))]
for dir in dirList:
# Get list of folders in each dated dir:
mbDir2 = os.path.join(mbDir, dir)
dirList2 = [name for name in os.listdir(mbDir2) if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(mbDir2, name))]
for dir2 in dirList2:
os.chdir(os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2))
subprocess.call('rar a "' + os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2 + '.rar') + '" "*"', shell=True)
os.chdir(mbDir)
subprocess.call('rm -rf "' + os.path.join(mbDir2, dir2) + '"', shell=True)

[.Maleficus.]

Cool, glad you got it figured out. Now all you have to do is make a cron entry for it and have it run automatically :).

[talz13]

Cool, glad you got it figured out. Now all you have to do is make a cron entry for it and have it run automatically :).

as soon as my test run of it finishes, I will have an all-in-one script to:

1. Check if I have the latest albums from the site
2. If I don't have them, get them
3. Rar the directories after downloading

It was getting to be a pain backing up the files, since everything is slow with huge numbers of files (before I rar'ed everything there were almost 40k files, now there are barely more than 1k)