Read someone else’s folder#

Use this guide for a folder that is not yours: a collaborator’s shared drive, a server you do not run, or a folder too large to open. The aim is to learn what Ingence can say from names, sizes and dates alone, with no file opened.

1. Make the project with depth set to metadata#

Put the project on your own disk, not in their folder.

ingence init their-project --root /path/to/their/folder --depth metadata

--depth metadata declares, once, that no dive in this project opens a file. It is written to the project, so nothing later has to remember it. The other depths are standard and deep.

2. Look first, if you want to#

ingence index -p their-project --dry-run --seconds 60

--dry-run walks the folder’s metadata as a census would and reports what is there: how fast the walk goes, the kinds of entry, sizes, years, file extensions and what each link says. It opens no file and writes nothing into your project or their folder, and it ends by saying so. --seconds stops it after that long and --limit after that many entries, which is useful on a very large folder. If you add --report FILE, it also writes the report as JSON to that file. Put the file outside the folder being read.

3. Take the census and read it#

ingence index -p their-project
ingence infer -p their-project
ingence see -p their-project

The census records every file’s name, size and dates and reads the names. infer applies the rules to that. You get what the names and dates can tell: which dated folders look like experiments, which files look like raw data and which like analysis, and what repeats. You do not get anything that needs a file’s contents.

If you run ingence dive -p their-project, Ingence says that this project’s depth never opens a file and does nothing. The files stay unexamined, which is not the same as “nothing found.”

Warning

The project’s declared depth is what dive uses unless someone adds --depth. A later ingence dive --depth standard would open files. If others use the project, say so.

What this does and does not do#

  • It changes nothing in their folder. Ingence reads, and writes only into your project, and the report, if you asked for one.

  • It opens no file, but it does ask the system for each file’s metadata, and for where each link points. A server may log that. See Privacy and your data.

  • If the folder is on a cloud-synced drive, opening a file may make the sync client download it. Depth metadata avoids that.

  • On a slow share, read Network shares and slow storage before the census.