converty

Automatically converts media files when their extension is renamed. Powered by inotify — no manual commands needed.

Rename video.mp4 → video.gif and converty silently converts the content in the background.

How it works

1. Watches your home directory recursively via inotify
2. Detects when a media file's extension changes
3. Converts the file content to match the new format using ffmpeg or ImageMagick
4. The original rename is transparent — the file just appears in the new format

Requirements

• ffmpeg
• imagemagick (provides the magick command)

sudo pacman -S ffmpeg imagemagick

Installation

git clone https://github.com/Oztturk/converty.git
cd converty
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/converty /usr/local/bin/

Usage

converty [OPTIONS]

Simply run converty and start renaming files. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Options

Flag	Description
--save-origin	Keep the original file after conversion
--save-path <DIR>	Save originals to a specific directory (implies --save-origin)
--temp-path <DIR>	Use a specific directory for temporary files during conversion

Examples

# Basic — originals are deleted after conversion
converty

# Keep originals in the same directory
converty --save-origin

# Keep originals in a dedicated folder
converty --save-path ~/originals

# Use /tmp for intermediate files (faster on tmpfs)
converty --temp-path /tmp/converty

# All options combined
converty --save-path ~/originals --temp-path /tmp/converty

Supported formats

Category	Formats	Tool
Photo	jpg jpeg png webp bmp tiff ico avif heic	ImageMagick
Video	mp4 avi mkv mov webm flv wmv	ffmpeg
GIF	gif	ImageMagick / ffmpeg

Conversion rules

From → To	Tool	Notes
Photo → Photo	ImageMagick
Photo → GIF	ImageMagick	Static GIF
GIF → Photo	ImageMagick	Falls back to ffmpeg if GIF contains video
Video → Video	ffmpeg
Video → GIF	ffmpeg	Animated GIF
Video → Photo	ffmpeg	Extracts first frame
GIF → Video	ffmpeg	No audio
Photo → Video	ffmpeg	Single-frame video

Project structure

src/
├── main.rs              # Entry point, dependency checks
├── cli.rs               # CLI arguments (clap)
├── formats.rs           # Supported formats and categories
├── converter/
│   ├── mod.rs           # Conversion orchestration, temp file management
│   └── tools.rs         # ffmpeg and ImageMagick command wrappers
└── watcher/
    ├── mod.rs           # inotify watcher setup, directory traversal
    └── handler.rs       # Rename event dispatch (From/To/Both)

Notes

• Symlinks are not followed to avoid watching restricted paths (e.g. Steam Proton's /root symlink)
• A 300ms delay is applied before conversion starts to let file managers finish their post-rename operations
• Temporary files are prefixed with .converty_tmp_ and hidden when created in the same directory as the source file
• If conversion fails, the file is restored to its original name