Bash/Nemo Scripts for Plex

Helps you organize your files via symbolic links so Plex lists them correctly.

Your files will not be renamed, moved, or modified in any way by these scripts.

To install, clone this repo in ~/.local/share/nemo/scripts

Scripts

• map/append: From the show or movie's directory, select files/directories and run this to append videos and subtitles to plex.tsv

  • Supported subtitles: ass, smi, srt, ssa, vtt

  Once you've edited plex.tsv to your liking with your favorite spreadsheet program, run the map/process script.

• map/process: From the show or movie's directory, reads plex.tsv and creates symlinks.

  Also updates the .plexignore tree and sorts plex.tsv, so if you have it open make sure to reload it.

• help/condensed-episodes: Generates ranged designators (xx-Exx) for mapping files containing multiple episodes.

  No files need to be selected to run this, but you will want to map/append the episodes to plex.tsv first.

  The resulting output can be pasted into an editor for the second column (episode designator) alongside the file paths.

• help/split-episodes: Generates fragment-designators (ptX) for mapping single episodes that are split among multiple files.

  No files need to be selected to run this, but you will want to map/append the episodes to plex.tsv first.

  The resulting output can be pasted into an editor for the second column (episode designator) alongside the file paths.

• mark/*: Adds emblems to folders.

• ignore: Adds selected files/directories to the .plexignore tree.

• unignore: Removes selected files/directories from the .plexignore tree.

• x-reset-x: From the show's directory, clears the .plexignore tree and __ symlinks (asks for confirmation)

plex.tsv

The TSV is an unquoted and headless map which defines what gets plex-ignored and symlinked.

1. The first column is the SEASON or ASSET designator, and MUST be either:

   • # to denote a comment-row (see section below)
   • Blank to have the processor skip symlinking
   • For shows, a season integer (0, 1, 2, 3, ...)
   • For movie extras, one of the Local Media Asset tags:
     • behindthescenes
     • deleted
     • featurette
     • interview
     • scene
     • short
     • trailer
     • other

2. The second column is the EPISODE or INDEX designator, and MUST be either:

   • Blank to have the processor skip symlinking

   • For shows:

     • An episode integer (0, 1, 2, 3, ...)
     • A Plex-friendly episode designator that will be prefixed with "E" when symlinking. For example:
       • "01-E02" becomes E01-E02 (the help/condensed-episodes script can help you fill these)
       • "01.pt1" becomes E01.pt1 (the help/split-episodes script can help you fill these)

   • For movie extras:

     • A hyphen (-) to use the file name as-is and trust Plex's alphabetical sorting
     • An integer (1, 2, 3, ...) to index the extra for sorting
     • Any other label to be used literally

   • Subtitles can be mapped, too. The designator must be <OWNER>.<ISO2>

     • For example: "01.en" becomes E01.en, which is English subtitles for E01

3. The third column is the MEDIA PATH relative to the TSV's directory. Files in this column are added to the .plexignore tree by the processor, regardless of whether they get symlinked.

   There MUST NOT be any columns after the third.

TV Example

plex.tsv:

#		this is a comment
		ignore-me.mp4
0	1	misc/unaired-pilot.mp4

Result

.plexignore:

ignore-me.mp4

misc/.plexignore:

unaired-pilot.mp4

__/ directory:

S00/S00E01.mp4 -> ../../misc/unaired-pilot.mp4

Explanation

Even though misc/unaired-pilot.mp4 is similarly ignored, the symlink isn't. Plex sees __/S00/S00E01.mp4 as a video, and uses it.

Thus, Plex can be organized without renaming or moving source files.

Comment Rows

Lines that begin with # are skipped entirely. Since plex.tsv is sorted, the comment text should be placed in the third column, and multiple comments should be numbered.

#		1. this is a multi-line comment
#		2. which is skipped by the processor
#		3. and is kept at the top of the tsv

Movie Extras Example

plex.tsv:

trailer	-	misc/Official Trailer.mp4
deleted	1	misc/Deleted Scene.mp4
deleted	2	misc/Another Deleted Scene.mp4

Result

misc/.plexignore:

Official Trailer.mp4
Deleted Scene.mp4
Another Deleted Scene.mp4

The movie's directory:

Official Trailer-trailer.mp4            -> misc/Official Trailer.mp4
01. Deleted Scene-deleted.mp4           -> misc/Deleted Scene.mp4
02. Another Deleted Scene-deleted.mp4   -> misc/Another Deleted Scene.mp4

Caveats

Unfortunately, the bloated "inline" way is the only way to control the sorting of movie extras. The inline extras have to exist on the same level as the movie; there's no way to have them work in the __ directory.

Also, there can't be any other videos in the movie file's directory except for the movie and the inline extras themselves, at all, including the source files for the extras that would be otherwise be mapped and ignored. The movie file's directory must purely only contain videos/symlinks that comprise the final set. So, extras should be placed in an arbitrary subdirectory and mapped from there.

Local Files for Movie Trailers and Extras > Adding Local Trailers and Extras

"Besides the extras themselves, you can only have the main movie file (or other local media assets) in the directory."

There is a known bug with the "subdirectories" approach where the sorting is seemingly random -- regardless of file name, modification time, etc. Plex has ackowledged this bug ever since the "extras" feature was added, and they've done nothing about it.

If/when they fix the bug, the processor will be updated to use the "subdirectories" approach. Maps will not need to be updated, the code-friendly lowercase tags will continue to be used for mapping.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Something that can greatly improve the experience of organizing large libraries is to bind some of these scripts to keyboard shortcuts.

From a shell:

nemo -q
touch ~/.gnome2/accels/nemo
nemo .

Press CTRL+F1 to open the shortcut menu, which populates .gnome2/accels/nemo. Then close the dialog and the nemo window.

Edit ~/.gnome2/accels/nemo and find the scripts you want to add shortcuts to. Here's what I have:

• map/append = <Primary><Alt><Shift>a
• map/process = <Primary><Alt><Shift>p
• mark/complete = <Primary><Alt><Shift>c
• mark/mostly-complete = <Primary><Alt><Shift>i

Note: <Primary> is used in the config to mean CTRL for normal keyboards and CMD for Macs. Also make sure to remove the leading ; which comments-out the line.