I have separate directories for uni courses, which are grouped in semester directory. I also TA some classes, which is stored in separate folder named 'TA'. That is, it is grouped like this:
University
| - ...
| - 2024.2
| | - Lie algebra
| | - Operator algebra
| - 2025.1
| | - Mathematical Algorithms
| | - Diophantine equations
| - TA
| | - ...
| | - 2024.2
| | - 2025.1
Oftentimes, I focus on the current semester, so I want to view courses on a same semester grouped together.
On other times, I want to group TA activities across semesters together to .
I may also do the same with grouping similar subjects.
Basically, I want to view directories with different grouping for each use case, as in the title. I hope this makes sense..
Is there any kind of directory structure or application-based solutions for this cases?
EDIT: I want both GUI and TUI solution for browsing files like this, it's great if linux filesystem supports this natively but fine if it doesn't.
Database with redirection capability would be even better.
Thanks in advance!
You can do this using links. e.g.
ln -s TARGET LINK_NAMEto make symbolic links on the command line, or (usually) by holding some key while dragging a file/folder between windows in your preferred GUI file manager.I have something related set up with a small Python script to automatically create new files and update the links for tracking my weekly work notes (pseudo-timecard, basically).
Hard links may work too unless you want a "primary" view/reference store and a "different view on that".
I've tried setting up projects that used hard links like that and there are some pros and cons to this. On the plus side, you can delete from one location and the file is still available in the other without having to manage a separate repository structure. On the down side, most software cannot copy the structure correctly to a different file system (even one that supports hard links), which can make backups and migrations annoying to deal with -- generally you end up with multiple actual copies, ballooning disk space usage and sometimes causing weird issues if the two files linking to the same data (rather than just having copies of the same data) actually matters...
I'd recommend sticking with the "primary repository of real files" and "multiple views filled with symlinks" structure over hardlinks unless you're really sure you know what you're getting yourself into.