Testing — File Organizer¶

Test the organizer thoroughly before running it on real directories.

Basic Smoke Test (Dry Run First)¶

Always run with --dry-run before the real thing:

cd ~/projects/file-organizer
bash file_organizer.sh --dry-run test_sandbox/

Expected output:

[2024-01-15 09:00:00] [INFO ] === Starting organizer on /home/user/projects/file-organizer/test_sandbox (dry_run=true) === [2024-01-15 09:00:00] [INFO ] [DRY RUN] would move: .../test_sandbox/photo.jpg → .../test_sandbox/Images/photo.jpg [2024-01-15 09:00:00] [INFO ] [DRY RUN] would move: .../test_sandbox/report.pdf → .../test_sandbox/Documents/report.pdf ... [2024-01-15 09:00:00] [INFO ] === Done: moved=0 skipped=1 failed=0 === Done: moved=0 skipped=1 failed=0

The subdirectory subdir_to_skip should appear in the skipped count but NOT be moved.

Run the Real Move¶

bash file_organizer.sh --verbose test_sandbox/

[2024-01-15 09:00:01] [INFO ] moved: .../photo.jpg → .../Images/photo.jpg [2024-01-15 09:00:01] [INFO ] moved: .../report.pdf → .../Documents/report.pdf ... Done: moved=16 skipped=1 failed=0

Verify the result:

find test_sandbox/ -type f | sort

test_sandbox/.dotfile test_sandbox/Archives/backup.tar.gz test_sandbox/Archives/source.zip test_sandbox/Audio/ambient.flac test_sandbox/Audio/podcast.mp3 test_sandbox/Code/analysis.py test_sandbox/Code/deploy.sh test_sandbox/Code/index.js test_sandbox/Documents/notes.txt test_sandbox/Documents/readme.md test_sandbox/Documents/report.pdf test_sandbox/Documents/spreadsheet.csv test_sandbox/Documents/file with spaces.txt test_sandbox/Images/banner.svg test_sandbox/Images/photo.jpg test_sandbox/Images/screenshot.png test_sandbox/Other/no_extension test_sandbox/Videos/lecture.mp4 test_sandbox/Videos/tutorial.mkv

Test Deduplication¶

Create a duplicate and run again:

cp test_sandbox/Images/photo.jpg test_sandbox/photo.jpg
bash file_organizer.sh test_sandbox/

Check the result:

ls test_sandbox/Images/

banner.svg photo.jpg photo_1.jpg screenshot.png

photo_1.jpg was created instead of overwriting photo.jpg.

Test Dotfile Skipping¶

ls -la test_sandbox/.dotfile   # should still be in root, not moved

-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 0 Jan 15 09:00 test_sandbox/.dotfile

Test Spaces in Filenames¶

ls "test_sandbox/Documents/file with spaces.txt"

test_sandbox/Documents/file with spaces.txt

If this fails, check that you used "$file" (quoted) and find -print0 with read -d ''.

Test the Log¶

cat organizer.log | head -20

[2024-01-15 09:00:00] [INFO ] === Starting organizer on ... [2024-01-15 09:00:00] [INFO ] moved: .../photo.jpg → .../Images/photo.jpg ...

Test Error Handling¶

# Non-existent directory
bash file_organizer.sh /no/such/dir
echo "Exit: $?"

Error: '/no/such/dir' is not a directory Exit: 1

# Read-only directory (simulate permission error)
mkdir -p /tmp/readonly_test
touch /tmp/readonly_test/file.txt
chmod 444 /tmp/readonly_test
bash file_organizer.sh /tmp/readonly_test
# Clean up
chmod 755 /tmp/readonly_test
rm -rf /tmp/readonly_test

Checklist¶

□ Dry-run shows actions without moving files □ Files sorted into correct category directories □ Duplicate filenames get _1, _2 suffix — no overwrites □ Dotfiles skipped (stay in root) □ Subdirectories not moved □ Filenames with spaces handled correctly □ Log file written with timestamps □ Exit code 0 on success, 1 on any failure □ shellcheck file_organizer.sh returns 0 warnings

implementation | enhancements