Semi-intelligently archive the contents of Mac OS X Desktop

archive.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

'''
archive.py

Quick and dirty script that moves desktop clutter to a date-sorted archive
location. Nothing elegant here, just keeps desktop workspace much less
cluttered. Intended to be run as a cron job at a sane frequency.

Usage is ideal if your desktop is merely a swap space, not so ideal if your 
desktop is a functional workspace.

Copyright (c) 2013 Stephen Murray

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
'''

import os
import pwd
from subprocess import call
from filecmp import (cmp, dircmp)
from datetime import date


def move_file(src, dest):
    '''Move src file/dir to dest, with a naive sanity check for collision.
    Directory collision does not recursively compare file content deltas, but
    file collision does'''

    if os.path.basename(src)[0] == '.':
        return False
    if os.path.isfile(src) and os.path.exists(dest):
        if cmp(src, dest):
            return False
    if os.path.isdir(src) and os.path.exists(dest):
        comparison = dircmp(src, dest)
        if not comparison.left_only and not comparison.right_only:
            return False

    index = 0
    indexed_dest = dest
    while os.path.exists(indexed_dest):
        index += 1
        path, base = os.path.split(dest)
        baseName, baseExt = os.path.splitext(base)
        indexed_dest = os.path.join(
            path,
            '%s_%s%s' % (baseName, index, baseExt)
        )

    if index:
        dest = indexed_dest

    call(['mv', src, dest])


if __name__ == '__main__':
    username = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid())[0]
    desktop_path = '/Users/%s/Desktop' % username
    archive_basepath = '/Users/%s/archive' % username
    archive_path = os.path.join(archive_basepath, date.today().isoformat())

    if not os.path.exists(archive_path):
        os.makedirs(archive_path)

    for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(desktop_path):
        if dirpath == desktop_path:
            for file in filenames:
                src = os.path.join(desktop_path, file)
                dest = os.path.join(archive_path, file)
                move_file(src, dest)
            for path in dirnames:
                src = os.path.join(desktop_path, path)
                dest = os.path.join(archive_path, path)
                move_file(src, dest)

    if not os.listdir(archive_path):
        os.rmdir(archive_path)

crontab

# Run every four hours
0   */4   *   *   * yourusername /path/to/archive.py