Can I find out which graphic files (links) in a directory are unused?

[Gerben Wierda]

I have collected all graphics files for a project in a single directory, so that the whole project becomes easily movable and easily works on IDML import/export. But over time, that directoy has grown to 620 images, whereas only 450 or so are actually used.

I'd like to prune this and I'm looking for an efficient way to do that. Is there? Some sort of export of the ID file that would allow me to grep the image file names in some way?

[Jens Trost · Accepted solution]

You could simply package the InDesign file (via File -> Package) to another location (and then moving it back).

[Gerben Wierda]

That was it. Thank you.

Without moving it back, just packaging gives me a way to find out which ones are superfluous (which is what I'm after). Just removing them once is not enough, the images are automatically produced elsewhere (then referenced in the document as needed). Packaging gives me the possibility to find a clean list (ls -1) and prune the actual image production process accordingly.

[Jens Trost]

Do you actually just need a list of linked assets?

Then a little script would be a better solution (happy to write it down if that's indeed what you need).

[Gerben Wierda]

Indeed. What I need is a list of linked assets. I can use that as input for a shell script that purges them and marks them as unused for the production process so they won't be used another time. But don't spend a lot of time for it, it is OK if I do a check very rarely. The extra images do not really bother my process (that cross reference corruption in the file that sometimes crashes ID bugs/worries me far more now that I am busy with the final stages of release...)