beets/docs/plugins/rewrite.rst
J0J0 Todos c185b4fba5 Final take on rewording rewrite plugin docs
on whether it modifies metadata or not. Let's also leave a link to the issue
here to make it superclear and researchable for anyone stumbling across it.

Also suggest the substitute plugin as an alternative.
2023-09-08 19:24:34 +02:00

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Rewrite Plugin
==============
The ``rewrite`` plugin lets you easily substitute values in your templates and
path formats. Specifically, it is intended to let you *canonicalize* names
such as artists: for example, perhaps you want albums from The Jimi Hendrix
Experience to be sorted into the same folder as solo Hendrix albums.
To use field rewriting, first enable the ``rewrite`` plugin
(see :ref:`using-plugins`).
Then, make a ``rewrite:`` section in your config file to contain your rewrite
rules. Each rule consists of a field name, a regular expression pattern, and a
replacement value. Rules are written ``fieldname regex: replacement``.
For example, this line implements the Jimi Hendrix example above::
rewrite:
artist The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Jimi Hendrix
This will make ``$artist`` in your templates expand to "Jimi Hendrix" where it
would otherwise be "The Jimi Hendrix Experience".
The pattern is a case-insensitive regular expression. This means you can use
ordinary regular expression syntax to match multiple artists. For example, you
might use::
rewrite:
artist .*jimi hendrix.*: Jimi Hendrix
As a convenience, the plugin applies patterns for the ``artist`` field to the
``albumartist`` field as well. (Otherwise, you would probably want to duplicate
every rule for ``artist`` and ``albumartist``.)
A word of warning: This plugin theoretically only applies to templates and path
formats; it initially does not modify files' metadata tags or the values
tracked by beets' library database, but since it *rewrites all field lookups*,
it modifies the file's metadata anyway. See comments in issue :bug:`2786`.
As an alternative to this plugin the :doc:`/plugins/substitute` could be used.