Bartleby - Copy to multiple destinations - check file integrity and generate report

[Alexandre Westphal]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick message in case it can interest someone.

I am in a middle of a doc project that involve a loooot of copy/checksum to multiple destinations. AND I wanted to learn a little bit of Rust language. That being said, I also wanted to see how I could go with Claude Code as a learning tool on a practical software build.

And so I made Bartleby : https://github.com/colorgrain/Bartleby

It is still in a very early Beta stage but it works on Linux Mint (my main workstation) and on Windows on another partition of my drive. I didn't test it yet on Mac OS. The code was heavily written with the help of AI. It is under review now (my goal is to go out of beta this summer). If any of you want to give it a look, your welcome (the comments are pretty long and exhaustive but it is a part of the learning process). It is released under the GPLv3 License. Please, should you decide to have a look into the code, be kind and remind that I am not a developer

What the software does right now :
-Copy one source to N destinations.
-Possibility to queue several jobs
-Check (or not) the copy with MD5 or xxh3 algos
-Create reports in CSV, PDF or HTML
-Reports can be customized with Names, Contact, Logos and "color theme" to match one's company logo
-The interface was build to look as native as possible on the 3 OS (Gnome, MacOS and Windows) and to follow the light/dark mode upon startup.

You'll need mediainfo CLI and ffmpeg to generate the metadata of the reports and the thumbnails for the copied videos


Cheers everyone.
Alex

 

[Lois Plagnard]

Bonjour Alex,

I gave it a try.
I love the reports ! The only thing that doesn't work for me are the thumbnails. I do have ffmpeg installed and I run a Macbook Pro M2.

When it comes to feedback :
- Progress bar and average read and write speed seems to wait for at least one file to copy to get an accurate reading. If I have large files from long takes it might look like the app is stuck until the second file is written.
- For the interface I think many would prefer to have source on the left and destination on the right rather than on top of each other. But it's more a matter of taste

Other than that it's really great, I applaud you for making it open source

 

[Alexandre Westphal]

Salut Lois,
Thanks a lot for your feedback !!! I didn't have a chance to try it on Mac already, so I am happy that it is kind of working at least. I'll try to install it on a Mac but it likely won't happen before next week at best. I'll let you know what I can find about those thumbnails.
There is a beta 2 online now with some tweaks on the copy engine and the read/write speed display under the progress bar. Maybe it can change things... I don't know.
As I told you, the app is still in its very early days so...you can expect rough edges.
Don't hesitate to keep me in touch if you experience any other issue.
And for the UI, I can think about it (it is not the biggest change to make).
Thanks again !

Bartleby Beta 2 Release Notes:​

1. Performance: The copy engine has been optimized for faster transfer speeds.
2. Bug Fix: Resolved an issue in the conflict manager where selecting "Skip" for a file already present in one destination would incorrectly skip all files for other destinations during multi-destination copies.
3. Conflict Manager Improvements:
   The manager now displays the file size and modification date of existing files in the destination folder.
   Files are now skipped only if both the size and modification date match (using the original source date, not the copy date). This is particularly useful if a copy operation was interrupted unexpectedly.
4. New Feature: Added a toggle to copy the source folder itself into the destination, rather than just its contents. This is useful for workflows involving daily folders (e.g., sound recording sessions) where you wish to preserve the folder structure without formatting the device daily.
5. Controls: Added Pause and Resume buttons.
6. Logging: Logs are now saved automatically.
7. UI: Minor interface improvements.

 

[Tony Sal]

Alexandre,

If you aim is to target those who use media management apps on set you must have both a Windows and Mac OS version. Linux workstation are not widely used for on set media management.

I suggest comparing existing digital asset management (DAM) software such as Pomfort Silverstack and Offload manager, Shotput Pro, Yoyotta all software apps I have used for on set as well as in the color suite.

 

[Alexandre Westphal]

Hi Tony,
Thanks for your message and your advice.
My idea first was to make something I could use myself on my machine so the Linux version was essential. But indeed, my plan is to release Windows and Mac versions as well (that is why I choose Rust+Tauri).
The idea is definitely not to compete with Silverstack but more to build something that would stay simple , light and straightforward for backup /verification/report. Not sure I want to make it a metadata manager / file reviewing software and implement a library in the interface (too much work and this is the kind of stuff for which Resolve can be used maybe ?).
I'll keep you posted with future modifications/releases.

 

[Alexandre Westphal]

Hi everyone.
I just released a new Beta, with (Thanks to Lois !) and horizontal layout. Log is now an optional right panel. There is also now a "comment" section to add text to your job. And a bunch of improvements.
I'll dig into the MacOS version this week.

GitHub - colorgrain/Bartleby: Copy software with md5 verification and reporting tools

Copy software with md5 verification and reporting tools - colorgrain/Bartleby

github.com

Cheers.
Alex

 

[Tomislav Stojanovic]

Nice! Any chance to add an option to create MHL file?

MHL: Media Hash List | Improving Data Integrity in Digital Media Workflows

 

[Alexandre Westphal]

Hi Tomislav,
I am not familiar with MHL but from my understanding of their website it is checksum wrapped into and XML with additional information so it shouldn't be too hard to implement in the next Beta.
Could you tell me a bit more about your workflow with it so I can try to see the best way to make it useful (is it something you're often asked for ? do you just bundle it with backups or do you use it also to proceed to verification and do you need it to read it afterward ?).

The next steps for now are improving the progress bar and read/write display (which looks stuck during copies for now because they display average values for each file). And checking why Lois couldn't see thumbnails in the reports on MacOS.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[Tomislav Stojanovic]

Hi,

MHL is standard for all different offloading and backup softwares. For example:
- YoYotta
- Shoutput
- Hedge / offshoot


It is standardized format to white hashes to. Pomfor SealVerify and MediaVerify are free and can read MHL, calculate hashes and compare for whole folders... So pretty good to have it