Create symlinks inside of an Obsidian vault, pointing to files located outside of the vault

coln.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Create inside of an Obsidian vault symlinks to files located elsewhere

# Debug options
# set -euxo pipefail

# Obsidian vault where the symlinks will be created
vault=${HOME}/Sync/obsidian/obsidian-vault/no-sync

show_msg() {
    local message=${*}
    printf "%b\n" "${message}"
}

show_help() {
    show_msg """
    coln - create symlinks to an Obsidian vault

    Usage:
        coln [files...]

    Example:
        coln filename.md path/to/another/file.ext file_without_extension
    """ | sed -E 's/^\s{,4}//'
}

# Remove leading dots to make a path or file visible in Obsidian
set_unhidden() {
    echo "${1}" | sed -E "s/\/\./\//g;s/^\.//"
}

# Exit if no arguments was given, or is asking for help
[[ -z $* || $1 == -? || $1 == -h || $1 == --help ]] && show_help && exit 0

# Path of the folder where this script is being executed
current_folder=$(pwd -P)

# Use the last segment in the path as the name for a new folder in the vault
# to prevent collisions in the filenames
new_folder=$(set_unhidden "${current_folder##*/}")

# echo $new_folder

# Path where the symlinks will be created
target_folder=${vault}/${new_folder}

symlinks_created=0

# Create the folder inside of the vault if doesn't exist
[[ -d "${target_folder}" ]] || mkdir -p "${target_folder}"

create_symlink() {
    local file_full_path=${*}
    local path=${file_full_path%/*}
    local filename=${file_full_path##*/}
    local symlink_path=${target_folder}/${path}

    # Remove leading dots to prevent it being hidden
    symlink_path=$(set_unhidden "${symlink_path}")

    # Does the argument contains folders?
    if [[ ${file_full_path} == *"/"* ]]; then
        # Then create in the vault the folder structure
        mkdir -p "${symlink_path}"
    else
        # Except if it's a regular file
        [[ -f ${path} ]] && symlink_path=${target_folder}
    fi

    # Always add a .md extension to the symlink, otherwise Obsidian ignores it
    local symlink=${symlink_path}/${filename%%.md}.md

    # Remove leading dots to prevent it being hidden
    symlink=$(set_unhidden "${symlink}")

    # Create the symlink, removing leading dots to prevent it from being hidden
    ln -sf "${current_folder}/${file_full_path}" "${symlink}"
    return $?
}

for arg in "${@}"; do
    file=${current_folder}/${arg}
    error=""

    [[ -d "${file}" ]] && error="is a directory"

    [[ ! -f "${file}" && ! ${error} ]] && error="does not exist"

    if [[ ${error} ]]; then
        show_msg "Error: ${arg} ${error}, ignoring it"
    else
        create_symlink "${arg}" && ((symlinks_created++))
    fi
done

[[ ${symlinks_created} == 0 ]] && show_msg "No symlink created" && exit 1

show_msg "Created ${symlinks_created} symlinks in ${target_folder}"

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