The pictor-unload utility is useful for unloading pictures from removable media, collating, and
interleaving them with other pictures.
The tool takes two arguments, the SOURCE directory, and the DESTINATION directory.
Each file in the SOURCE directory is copied (preserving all attributes) to the DESTINATION directory. At
the destination, the file is renamed, prepending a timestamp in the form of "YYYY-MM-DD_HH:MM:SS__" to
the beginning of the filename. The timestamp is taken to be that of the file's original modification
time, as determined by the stat(1) utility. A "double-underscore", ie, "__" separates the timestamp from
the original filename. File permissions at the destination are also adjusted, removing the executable
bit which is typically set in the source, since the source is usually a VFAT filesystem.
If you perfectly synchronize the embedded clock on each of several cameras, you can use pictor-unload to
conveniently combine and interleave pictures from these cameras.
The SOURCE directory is renamed, appending the current timestamp to the folder, thus noting "when" these
pictures were unloaded. Your camera will create a new directory on the media when you take a new
picture. pictor-unload assumes that it is your right and responsibility to delete pictures from the
media or reformat the card.
Finally, if the source directory is in /media, then you are prompted, asking if you want to unmount the
source filesystem. Note that this will required root privileges via sudo(8).