Requirements — File Organizer

What you will build and what you need before starting.

Learning Objectives

• Sort files into subdirectories based on extension using mv and find
• Implement a --dry-run flag that shows what would happen without doing it
• Write structured log entries with timestamps
• Handle edge cases: duplicates, dotfiles, nested directories, no-extension files
• Use case statements to map extensions to categories

What You Will Build

file_organizer.sh — a script that takes a target directory, scans it for files, and moves them into category subdirectories:

Downloads/ ├── Images/ │ ├── photo.jpg │ └── screenshot.png ├── Documents/ │ ├── report.pdf │ └── notes.txt ├── Videos/ │ └── lecture.mp4 ├── Archives/ │ └── project.tar.gz ├── Code/ │ └── script.py └── Other/ └── mystery_file

Prerequisites

Skill	Where to review
mv, mkdir -p	Day 01 Part 2 — Files & Permissions
for loops	Day 04 Part 2 — Loops
case statements	Day 04 Part 1 — Control Flow
String manipulation	Week 02 Day 02 Part 2
Functions	Week 02 Day 01 Part 1
Logging pattern	01-system-health-monitor/implementation

Command-Line Interface

file_organizer.sh [OPTIONS] [TARGET_DIR] Options: -d, --dry-run Show what would be moved without actually moving -l, --log FILE Write log to FILE (default: ./organizer.log) -v, --verbose Print each action to stdout as well as the log -h, --help Show this help Arguments: TARGET_DIR Directory to organize (default: current directory)

Categories and Extensions

Category	Extensions
Images	jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, svg, webp, ico, tiff
Documents	pdf, doc, docx, txt, md, odt, rtf, csv, xlsx, pptx
Videos	mp4, mkv, avi, mov, wmv, flv, webm
Audio	mp3, wav, flac, aac, ogg, m4a
Archives	zip, tar, gz, bz2, xz, 7z, rar, tgz
Code	sh, py, js, ts, go, rs, c, cpp, h, java, rb, php
Other	(anything not matched above)

Acceptance Criteria

✓ Moves files into the correct category subdirectory ✓ --dry-run shows intended moves without executing them ✓ Writes a timestamped log entry for every file moved ✓ Skips subdirectories (only operates on files) ✓ Handles filenames with spaces correctly ✓ Does not overwrite existing files (appends _1, _2, etc.) ✓ Reports a summary: N files moved, N skipped, N already organised ✓ Returns exit code 0 on success, 1 if any move failed

Time Estimate

Part	Time
Setup + scaffold	15 min
Extension → category mapping	20 min
Move logic with dedup	25 min
Dry-run flag	15 min
Logging + summary	15 min
Testing	20 min
Total	~110 min

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overview | setup