README.md

detect-empty-folders

Detect empty folders in a DROID CSV through ID heuristic...

Heuristic for spotting empty folders

• Create CSV list, DROIDLIST
• GRAB 'ALL' PARENT_IDs FROM DROIDLIST
• LOOK FOR UNIQUENESS IN PARENT_ID LIST
• IF FOLDER 'ID' IS NEVER A 'PARENT_ID' IT IS EMPTY
• SIMULATE REMOVAL/DELETION OF THE FOLDER AND THE 'ID' FOR THAT FOLDER
• IF WE FIND EVEN ONE EMPTY FOLDER, REPEAT TO SEE IF A NEXT FOLDER BECOMES EMPTY - RECURSE

Using Denylists

A denylist allows you to simulate the deletion of non-record objects. Deletion of these objects may render a folder thusly empty. In this case, it supports reporting where it is necessary to record all deletions from a collection.

The heuristic doesn't change. Denylist items are removed from the DROIDLIST first. Folders are then checked using the method above.

Denylists currently allow:

• Listing PUIDs - these will only be removed if matched using Signature or Container identification
• Listing File Paths - a useful way to override Signature or Container identification for alt. file types
• Deletion of zero byte objects - operating on the 'SIZE' column in the DROID CSV output

The config file might look like follows:

[denylist]

#e.g. False or C:\Documents and Settings\spencero\Desktop\test-empty-folders\folder-becomes-empty-one-file\thumbs.db
filepaths=False

#e.g. False or fmt/682
puids=False

#e.g. False or True
zerobytefiles=False

Use of the config file is not yet bullet-proof, and so expect undefined results if it isn't correctly used.

N.b. The heuristics used here can be implemented in any language using the DROID CSV. This is my first implementation. It happens to be Python.