I can’t directly help you. I have a small test function that might help if someone wanted to continue working on it.
I do want to implement this, but I won’t have time for months.
This is a test case I was adding to test_files.py within /src/beets/test. It’s not finished.
def test_albuminfo_move_keeps_most_fields(self):
# any field not defined here, or tracked/created by a plugin, should not change with a move
# this uses the Python concept of a "key" / "value" pair rather
# than the beets concept of a "field". in here, "key" <-> "field".
import pdb
fluid_item_keys = ['path', 'mtime']
fluid_album_keys = ['path', 'artpath']
old_item_keys = {}
old_album_keys = {}
static_item_keys = self.i.all_keys()
static_album_keys = self.ai.all_keys()
# todo get old_dict and compare to new_dict
for ikey in fluid_item_keys:
# old_item_keys[ikey] = self.i.get(ikey)
static_item_keys.remove(ikey)
for akey in fluid_album_keys:
# old_album_keys[akey] = self.ai.get(akey)
static_album_keys.remove(akey)
self.ai.move(operation=MoveOperation.MOVE)
self.ai.store()
self.i.load()
new_item_keys = self.i.all_keys()
new_album_keys = self.ai.all_keys()
for ikey in fluid_item_keys:
new_item_keys.remove(ikey)
for akey in fluid_album_keys:
new_album_keys.remove(akey)
# is there a way to compare them non-iteratively?
for ikey in new_item_keys:
print(ikey)
pdb.set_trace()
self.assertEqual(static_item_keys[ikey], new_item_keys[ikey])
for akey in new_album_keys:
print(akey)
self.assertEqual(static_album_keys[akey], new_album_keys[akey])
The point of this test function is to verify that individual fields (such as artist name) do not change when the file location changes. The file path is a special case - it should change when the file location changes.
Are you suggesting that “/home/moonwind/Downloads/not_processed/please_tell_the_FBI_that_I_own_the_cd/all_metallica/ride_the_lighning/forwhotehbeltools.mp3” be placed into the file tags? Most of the time these are temporary holding places.
More power to you if you would like to beet scrub or whatever. My point is that the inverse can’t be done - you can’t pull original paths out of thin air years later. I continue to believe that making beets more lossless is a good goal for user-friendliness.