🦉 ow

Name

ow - Nextcloud command-line client

Synopsis

ow action target

Description

ow (like, you're trying to say "owl" and almost succeed) is your handy local command-line pal for Nextcloud. ow enhances local editing, collaboration, and more by providing missing features or by providing a command-line interface for existing features.

Output is generally minimal on success. If an error occurs, messages are printed to standard error and a nonzero exit code is returned.

Quick examples

# Add all media in a folder to an album.
ow dir-album "Photos/2020/Camping trip"

# Get internal link for a file.
ow internal-link ~/Nextcloud/Readme.md

# Find and delete old calendar events.
ow delete-old-events 'calendar=personal,minimumAge=2y'

# Lock a file.
ow lock ~/Nextcloud/Readme.md

# Unlock a file.
ow unlock ~/Nextcloud/Readme.md

Install

• clone this repository
  • or just download the ow script
  • put ow in your $PATH and make it executable, e.g. ln -s ~/git/meonkeys/ow/ow ~/.local/bin
• install required dependencies
  • Python 3
  • Python requests library (via e.g. pip install requests or apt install python3-requests)
• install optional dependencies
  • Nextcloud desktop sync client (for lock, unlock, internal-url; not needed for dir-album)
  • xmllint at /usr/bin/xmllint (for debugging API responses)
    • on Debian/Ubuntu: apt install libxml2-utils
  • python3-argcomplete for Bash programmable (Tab) completion
    • must also set this up with, e.g. eval "$(register-python-argcomplete3 ow)" in your ~/.bashrc
  • Temporary files lock app for locking and unlocking files.
• create config file based on "example config" below

example config

Create ~/.config/ow/ow.ini and customize, following the example below:

[server]
# Must start with https
baseUrl = https://cloud.example.com
username = user
# If you use multi-factor auth, use an app password here.
password = redacted

[local]
# If you use the Nextcloud Desktop client, set this to indicate where files are sync'd.
# Required for lock, unlock, and internal-url.
# Not needed for dir-album nor delete-old-events.
syncFolder = /home/user/Nextcloud

Detailed usage

Help

List available actions.

ow --help

Create album from folder

Add all media in a folder to an album.

ow dir-album "Photos/2020/Camping trip"

This works directly against the Nextcloud WebDAV API; the desktop client is not required.

This command expects that the provided path contains media compatible with the Photos and Memories apps (generally just photos and videos). Sub-folders and non-compatible file types are ignored.

convert many folders to albums

Example Python script for converting a bunch of folders to albums at once:

import subprocess

folders = [
    'Photos/2020/Camping trip',
    'Photos/2021/sunny day'
]

for folder in folders:
    subprocess.run(['./ow', 'dir-album', folder])

Get internal link

Given a local file path sync'd by the Nextcloud desktop client, return the "internal link" on the Nextcloud server.

ow internal-link ~/Nextcloud/test.md
# example output:
# https://cloud.example.com/f/229

Delete old calendar events

Find and delete old calendar events given an event filter specification.

This will delete events older than 2 years on a calendar called "personal":

ow delete-old-events 'calendar=personal,minimumAge=2y'

Lock

Lock a file.

ow lock ~/Nextcloud/Readme.md

Locking indicates to other users your wish to avoid conflicts in shared files.

Unock

Unlock a file.

ow unlock ~/Nextcloud/Readme.md

Contributions

Patches welcome. Ask before submitting anything larger than an obvious bugfix. Create a GitHub pull request. Add your name below.

Contributors

• Frederik Berg

Architecture

ow is written in Python. It examines local files sync'd by the Nextcloud desktop client for some operations, and talks with the Nextcloud WebDAV API for others.

History

ow started with one command (get internal link for locally sync'd file).

Ideas

• testing
  • add unit tests (very fast and specific, code-level)
  • add integration tests (slower, maybe only run on merges)
  • add end-to-end/acceptance tests (many things under test, complex, brittle, possibly manual)
  • security, penetration, fuzzing, etc.
  • use continuous integration
  • document manual acceptance tests, perform regularly, record results
  • document test matrix ("tested with" table showing all combinations of client OS, client version, server version, etc. that are tested / known / expected to work)
• add more features
  • post chat messages
  • add a task
  • add a calendar event
  • search
• improve setup
  • automate install
• improve config
  • read and use config from Nextcloud desktop client
  • read and use secrets from desktop/OS password manager or smartcard
• improve code maintainability
  • add tests (see "testing")
• improve cross-platform compatibility
  • currently only built for and tested on recent Ubuntu LTS
  • add Windows support
  • add macOS support
• pick a better name?
• consider cla or not, copyright ownership
• Are there other/better free software utilities like this one? List/promote them.
• Would it make more sense to implement this and the other feature ideas (above) within the official client?
  • Do the maintainers want these features?

COPYLEFT AND LICENSE

• Copyright ©2023-2024 Adam Monsen haircut@gmail.com
• License: AGPL v3 or later (see COPYING)