Decluttering my Org Agenda and File System

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Table of Contents

Decluttering my files

Like the home, the home directory, without vigilance, tends toward chaos. I had accumulated files and folders that I no longer used, but I hesitated to delete anything because it's irreversible. So I created a shell script which allows me to move files into an ~/archive directory where the file path mirrors that of the location from whence it came.

Shell script

Archiving sibling files and folders won't create duplicates or clobber existing directories in the archive. 

#!/bin/bash

# Archive directory
ARCHIVE_DIR="$HOME/archive"

# Check if a file or directory is specified
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  echo "Usage: archive <file-or-directory>"
  exit 1
fi

# File or directory to archive
TARGET="$1"

# Get the current directory relative to home
if [ "$(pwd)" == "$HOME" ]; then
  CURRENT_DIR=""
else
  CURRENT_DIR=$(pwd | sed "s|^$HOME/||")
fi

# Construct the full path of the target
if [ -z "$CURRENT_DIR" ]; then
  RELATIVE_TARGET_PATH="$TARGET"
else
  RELATIVE_TARGET_PATH="$CURRENT_DIR/$TARGET"
fi

# Construct the destination directory in the archive
DEST_DIR="$ARCHIVE_DIR/$(dirname "$RELATIVE_TARGET_PATH")"

# Create the destination directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p "$DEST_DIR"

# Check if the target is a directory
if [ -d "$TARGET" ]; then
  # Use rsync to merge directories if the target is a directory
  rsync -a "$TARGET/" "$DEST_DIR/$(basename "$TARGET")/"
  # Remove the original directory after merging
  rm -rf "$TARGET"
else
  # Move the target to the archive directory if it's a file
  mv "$TARGET" "$DEST_DIR/"
fi

echo "Archived '$TARGET' to '$DEST_DIR/'."

I also created a little emacs lisp script to archive the open file.

Emacs lisp script 
(defvar my-archive-dir "~/archive"
  "Directory where files will be archived.")

(defun archiver-archive-open-file ()
  "Move the current file to the archive directory."
  (interactive)
  (if (buffer-file-name)
      (let* ((file-path (buffer-file-name))
             (relative-path (file-relative-name file-path (getenv "HOME")))
             (archive-path (expand-file-name relative-path my-archive-dir)))
        (if (file-exists-p file-path)
            (progn
              (save-buffer)
              (make-directory (file-name-directory archive-path) t)
              (rename-file file-path archive-path t)
              (kill-buffer)
              (message "Archived: %s" archive-path))
          (message "File does not exist: %s" file-path)))
    (message "No file is associated with this buffer.")))

Decluttering my agenda

The same issue of clutter—the fear of removing things and regretting it—applies to not just files but the contents of files, such as headings in an Org file in Emacs. While Emacs Org-mode does have a built in command for archiving headings, the resulting archive contains a flat list of archived headings. In other words, the original document structure is not preserved. So I created an Emacs command to archive Org agenda headings in an archive file that mirrors the structure of the agenda.

emacs-archiver.gif

Figure 1: Demo of Archiver Package

Installation

Clone the repository in your preferred destination. 

cd ~/path/to
git clone https://github.com/Duncan-Britt/emacs-archiver.git

Add the following to your config, specifying the path to the cloned repository and the path to your agenda archive file. 

(use-package archiver
  :load-path "~/path/to/emacs-archiver/"
  :after org
  :init
  (setq *archiver-agenda-archive-location*
        (expand-file-name "~/path/to/your/agenda_archive.org"))
  :bind
  (:map org-mode-map
        ("C-c C-x C-a" . archiver-archive-heading)))

Date: 2024-09-19 Thu 00:00