Sortify

A .NET console tool that sorts files into folders based on the prefix in the filename, with optional secondary sorting by file type or category.

How it works

Sortify takes all files in a given folder, determines each file's prefix (the part of the name before the first dash), and moves files sharing the same prefix into a common subfolder.

Example:

lena-1.jpg
lena-2.png
hello-1.txt

becomes:

lena/
  lena-1.jpg
  lena-2.png
hello/
  hello-1.txt

Files whose name has no dash are left untouched.

Installation

Sortify is installed as a .NET Global Tool.

git clone https://github.com/Pupler/sortify.git
cd sortify
dotnet pack -c Release
dotnet tool install --global --add-source ./nupkg Sortify

After installation, the sortify command is available globally in the terminal.

To update after changing the code:

dotnet pack -c Release
dotnet tool update --global --add-source ./nupkg Sortify

Usage

sortify <folder-path> [--sort-by-type | --sort-by-category]

Examples:

# Simple sorting by prefix
sortify ~/Downloads

# Additionally sort each group by file extension
sortify ~/Downloads --sort-by-type

# Additionally sort each group by category (photos/videos/archives/other)
sortify ~/Downloads --sort-by-category

Sorting modes

--sort-by-type

Files within each prefix group are further split into subfolders named after their extension:

lena/
  jpg/
    lena-1.jpg
  png/
    lena-2.png
  zip/
    lena-3.zip

--sort-by-category

Files are grouped by a meaningful category instead of the raw extension:

Extension	Category
.jpg, .png	photos
.gif	GIFs
.mov, .mp4	videos
.rar, .7z, .zip	archives
other	other

lena/
  photos/
    lena-1.jpg
    lena-2.png
  archives/
    lena-3.zip

Collision handling

If a file with the same name already exists in the target folder, Sortify does not overwrite it — the file stays in its original location, and a message is printed to the console noting the skip.

Limitations

• The prefix separator is only the - (dash) character. Files without a dash in their name are not sorted.
• Files whose name consists only of a dot and an extension (e.g. .zip) are also left untouched.
• Extension comparison is case-sensitive (.JPG and .jpg may end up in different groups).

Tech stack

• .NET / C#
• LINQ (GroupBy, TryGetValue)
• Implemented as a .NET Global Tool