bagit.net

bagit.net is a C# implementation of the BagIt specification (RFC 8493).
It allows you to create BagIt bags—structured file collections with checksums for reliable storage and transfer of digital content.
It currently consists of a core library (bagit.net) and a CLI application (bagit.net.cli) for Linux, MacOS, and Windows.

⚠️ Note: This project is in early development. It currently supports the creation and validation of BagIt-formatted bags. There is currently no error handling in place and will crash if an error is encountered. See the roadmap for current project status

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bagit.net.cli

Commands

create

Create a BagIt-formatted bag from a directory.

Option	Description
--algorithm	Specify the checksum algorithm to use: md5, sha1, sha256 (default), sha384, or sha512.
--log	Specify the location to write logging (default: stdout).
--tag-file	Specify the location of an external tag-file to include in bag-info.txt

Usage:

# Create a bag with default SHA-256 checksums
bagit.net create /path/to/directory

# Create a bag using MD5 checksums
bagit.net create --algorithm md5 /path/to/directory

# Log to a file
bagit.net create --log bagit.net.log /path/to/directory

#Include tag metadata from external file in bag-info.txt
bagit.net create --tag-file /path/to/tag-file.txt /path/to/directory

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validate

Validate a BagIt-formatted bag.

Option	Description
--fast	Validate the bag based on payload-oxum only.
--complete	Validate the bag based on completeness only.
--log	Specify the location to write logging (default: stdout).

Usage:

# Validate a bag
bagit.net validate /path/to/bag

# Validate a bag with logging to file
bagit.net validate --log bagit.net.log /path/to/bag

# Fast validation
bagit.net validate --fast /path/to/bag

# Completeness Only validation
bagit.net validate --complete /path/to/bag

note: setting both --fast and --complete flags will cause the application to exit

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manage

manage tag manifests in existing bag.

Option	Description
--add	add a new key and value to bag-info.txt
--set	replace the value of a key in bag-info.txt
--delete	remove a line from bag-info.txt by the key
--view	display the contents of bag-it.txt

Usage:

#add a key-value pair to bagit.txt
bagit.net manage --add "External-Identifier=ID001" /path/to/bag

#replace a value for a given key in bagit.txt
bagit.net manage --set "External-Identifier=ID002" /path/to/bag

#remove a key and value
bagit.net manage --delete "External-Identifier" /path/to/bag

#print contents of bag-info.txt to stdout
bagit.net manage --view /path/to/bag

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help

Display help information.

Usage:

bagit.net help

Tip: Including --help or -h with any command will print the help screen.

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Binary Installation

Prerequisites

• .Net 9.x Runtime

Linux

wget https://github.com/dmnyu/bagit.net/releases/download/v0.2.6-alpha/bagit.net.cli-v0.2.6-alpha-linux-x64.tgz
tar xvzf bagit.net.cli-v0.2.6-alpha-linux-x64.tgz
cd bagit.net
sudo ./install.sh
bagit.net --help

Linux / SELinux Notes:
bagit.net single-file self-contained binaries require the ability to create and execute temporary files at runtime.
On RHEL/CentOS systems with SELinux or noexec restrictions on /tmp, these binaries may not run.

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Windows

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/dmnyu/bagit.net/releases/download/v0.2.6-alpha/bagit.net.cli-v0.2.6-alpha-win-x64.zip -OutFile bagit.net.cli-v0.2.6-alpha-win-x64.zip
Expand-Archive bagit.net.cli-v0.2.6-alpha-win-x64.zip -DestinationPath .
cd .\bagit.net
.\bagit.net.exe --help
.\install.ps1
%LOCALAPPDATA%\bagit.net\bagit.net --version

Tip: After installation on Windows, you can run bagit.net from any directory by adding %LOCALAPPDATA%\bagit.net to your user PATH.

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MacOS

wget https://github.com/dmnyu/bagit.net/releases/download/v0.2.6-alpha/bagit.net.cli-v0.2.6-alpha-macos-arm64.tgz
tar xvzf bagit.net.cli-v0.2.6-alpha-macos-arm64.tgz
cd bagit.net
sudo ./install.sh
bagit.net --help

note This is an automated build from Github Actions, it is not tested.

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Additional Notes

• The CLI requires the .NET 9 runtime to be installed on your system.
• On Linux and MacOS, the default install path is /usr/local/bin/bagit.net.
• On Windows, the default install path is %LOCALAPPDATA%\bagit.net\bagit.net.exe.
• For CI/CD or scripting, you can run the CLI directly from the extracted directory without installing.