The papis_id
key
Every Papis document should have a papis_id
key created at random by
the Papis database. This id should serve as a UUID-type key for the document
(by default it contains a hash of the document keys and documents with a bit
of randomness thrown in).
The papis_id
is added automatically when using papis add
or other commands,
but is not updated after the initial creation of the document. If you manually
add a document into your library, e.g. by creating an info.yaml
file without
Papis, you will have to clear the library cache in order to trigger a rebuild
using
papis cache clear
When the library scans the document added manually, it will create a papis_id
key automatically and it will edit your info.yaml
file accordingly.
We stress again that the database will edit the info.yaml
file,
without committing the changes (in the case that you are using a git
repository), so that you can inspect the changes manually.
Please note that if you add a document manually with an existing
papis_id
to your library, Papis will not check if there is an
id clash. A clash of ids has a very low probability and can be checked using
the papis doctor
command.
Use of papis_id
in scripts
Since the papis_id
key is a unique (ish) identifier, it is quite useful for
scripts that do not depend on the actual path to the document in your system.
For instance you can get the papis_id
of a document using
id=$(papis list --id query)
and subsequently use the id
variable to trigger other commands. For example,
you can open the files attached to the document using
papis open "papis_id:${id}"