PySeq

PySeq is a python module that finds groups of items that follow a naming convention containing a numerical sequence index (e.g. fileA.001.png, fileA.002.png, fileA.003.png...) and serializes them into a compressed sequence string representing the entire sequence (e.g. fileA.1-3.png). It should work regardless of where the numerical sequence index is embedded in the name. For examples, see basic usage below or http://rsgalloway.github.io/pyseq

Installation | Basic Usage | API Examples | Formatting | Command-Line Tools | Frame Patterns | Testing

Installation

The easiest way to install pyseq:

$ pip install -U pyseq

Environment

PySeq uses envstack to externalize settings and looks for a pyseq.env file to source environment variables:

$ pip install -U envstack
$ ./pyseq.env -r
PYSEQ_FRAME_PATTERN=\d+
PYSEQ_GLOBAL_FORMAT=%4l %h%p%t %R
PYSEQ_RANGE_SEP=, 
PYSEQ_STRICT_PAD=0

Distribution

If installing from source you can use distman to install PySeq using the provided dist.json file:

$ pip install -U distman
$ distman [-d]

Using distman will deploy the targets defined in the dist.json file to the root folder defined by ${DEPLOY_ROOT}:

Basic Usage

Using the "z1" file sequence example in the "tests" directory, we start by listing the directory contents using ls:

$ ls tests/files/z1*
tests/files/z1_001_v1.1.png  tests/files/z1_001_v1.4.png  tests/files/z1_002_v1.3.png   tests/files/z1_002_v2.11.png
tests/files/z1_001_v1.2.png  tests/files/z1_002_v1.1.png  tests/files/z1_002_v1.4.png   tests/files/z1_002_v2.12.png
tests/files/z1_001_v1.3.png  tests/files/z1_002_v1.2.png  tests/files/z1_002_v2.10.png  tests/files/z1_002_v2.9.png

Now we list the same directory contents using lss, which will find the sequences and display them in the default compressed format:

$ lss tests/files/z1*
   4 z1_001_v1.%d.png [1-4]
   4 z1_002_v1.%d.png [1-4]
   4 z1_002_v2.%d.png [9-12]

Recursivly walk a folder and find all the sequences:

$ lss -r tests
tests
├── test_pyseq.py
└── files
    ├── 012_vb_110_v001.1-10.png
    ├── 012_vb_110_v002.1-10.png
    ├── a.1-14.tga
    ├── alpha.txt
    ├── bnc01_TinkSO_tx_0_ty_0.101-105.tif
    ├── bnc01_TinkSO_tx_0_ty_1.101-105.tif
    ├── bnc01_TinkSO_tx_1_ty_0.101-105.tif
    ├── bnc01_TinkSO_tx_1_ty_1.101-105.tif
    ├── file.1-99.tif
    ├── file.info.03.rgb
    ├── file01.1-4.j2k
    ├── file01_40-43.rgb
    ├── file02_44-47.rgb
    ├── file1-4.03.rgb
    ├── fileA.1-3.jpg
    ├── fileA.1-3.png
    ├── file_02.tif
    ├── z1_001_v1.1-4.png
    ├── z1_002_v1.1-4.png
    └── z1_002_v2.9-12.png

Piping the output of find to lss, for example finding all the png sequences:

$ find ./tests/ -name *.png | lss
  10 012_vb_110_v001.%04d.png [1-10]
  10 012_vb_110_v002.%04d.png [1-10]
   3 fileA.%04d.png [1-3]
   4 z1_001_v1.%d.png [1-4]
   4 z1_002_v1.%d.png [1-4]
   4 z1_002_v2.%d.png [9-12]

Use the --format option to retain the relative path:

$ find tests/ -name "*.png" | lss -f "%D%h%r%t"
tests/files/012_vb_110_v001.1-10.png
tests/files/012_vb_110_v002.1-10.png
tests/files/fileA.1-3.png
tests/files/z1_001_v1.1-4.png
tests/files/z1_002_v1.1-4.png
tests/files/z1_002_v2.9-12.png

API Examples

Compression, or serialization, of lists of items:

>>> s = Sequence(['file.0001.jpg', 'file.0002.jpg', 'file.0003.jpg'])
>>> print(s)
file.1-3.jpg
>>> s.append('file.0006.jpg')
>>> print(s.format("%h%p%t %R"))
file.%04d.jpg [1-3, 6]

Uncompression, or deserialization, of compressed sequences strings:

>>> s = uncompress('./tests/012_vb_110_v001.%04d.png 1-1001', fmt='%h%p%t %r')
>>> len(s)
1001
>>> print(s.format('%04l %h%p%t %R'))
1001 012_vb_110_v001.%04d.png [1-1001]

Walk a directory tree and print disk usage for file sequences:

>>> for root, dirs, seqs in pyseq.walk(folder):
...     for seq in seqs:
...         print(seq.format("%h%r%t %H"))
012_vb_110_v001.1000-1321.exr   123.5G
012_vb_110_v002.1000-1163.exr    40.2G
012_vb_110_v003.1000-1027.exr    72.2G

Formatting

The following directives can be embedded in the format string.

Directive	Meaning
%s	sequence start
%e	sequence end
%l	sequence length
%f	list of found files
%m	list of missing files
%M	explicit missing files [11-14,19-21]
%p	padding, e.g. %06d
%r	implied range, start-end
%R	explicit broken range, [1-10, 15-20]
%d	disk usage
%H	disk usage (human readable)
%D	parent directory
%h	string preceding sequence number
%t	string after the sequence number

Here are some examples using lss -f <format> and seq.format(..):

Using lss -f <format>:

$ lss tests/files/a*.tga -f "%h%r%t"
a.1-14.tga
$ lss tests/files/a*.tga -f "%l %h%r%t"
7 a.1-14.tga
$ lss tests/files/a*.tga -f "%l %h%r%t %M"
7 a.1-14.tga [4-9, 11]

In Python, using seq.format(..):

>>> s = pyseq.get_sequences("tests/files/a*.tga")[0]
>>> print(s.format("%h%r%t"))
a.1-14.tga
>>> print(s.format("%l %h%r%t"))
7 a.1-14.tga
>>> print(s.format("%l %h%r%t %M"))
7 a.1-14.tga [4-9, 11]

Command-Line Tools

PySeq comes with the following sequence-aware command-line tools:

Command	Description	Example Usage
lss	List image sequences in a directory	lss shots/
stree	Display sequence-aware directory tree	stree shots/
sfind	Recursively find image sequences	sfind assets/ -name "*.exr"
sdiff	Compare two sequences	sdiff A.%04d.exr B.%04d.exr
sstat	Print detailed stats about a sequence	sstat render.%04d.exr
scopy	Copy a sequence to another directory	scopy a.%04d.exr /tmp/output/
smove	Move a sequence to another directory	smove b.%04d.exr /tmp/archive/

Example commands:

# List sequences in a folder
$ lss tests/files

# Show directory structure with grouped sequences
$ stree tests/

# Find all .png sequences recursively
$ sfind ./tests -name "*.png"

# Compare two sequences and print diffs
$ sdiff comp_A.%04d.exr comp_B.%04d.exr

# Show stats for a sequence
$ sstat render.%04d.exr
$ sstat --json render.%04d.exr

# Copy a sequence and rename it
$ scopy input.%04d.exr output/ --rename scene01

# Move and renumber a sequence starting at frame 1001
$ smove old.%04d.exr archive/ --renumber 1001

Frame Patterns

The environment var ${PYSEQ_FRAME_PATTERN} can be used to define custom regex patterns for identifying frame numbers. For example if frames are always preceded with an _, you might use:

$ export PYSEQ_FRAME_PATTERN="_\d+"

Environment vars can be defined anywhere in your environment, or if using envstack add it to the pyseq.env file and make sure it's found in ${ENVPATH}:

$ export ENVPATH=/path/to/env/files

Examples of regex patterns can be found in the pyseq.env file:

# matches all numbers, the most flexible
PYSEQ_FRAME_PATTERN: \d+

# excludes version numbers, e.g. file_v001.1001.exr
PYSEQ_FRAME_PATTERN: ([^v\d])\d+

# frame numbers are dot-delimited, e.g. file.v1.1001.exr
PYSEQ_FRAME_PATTERN: \.\d+\.

# frame numbers start with an underscore, e.g. file_v1_1001.exr
PYSEQ_FRAME_PATTERN: _\d+

Testing

To run the unit tests, simply run pytest in a shell:

$ pytest tests/