Copy the base name of a file in Obsidian

Obsidian has a command to copy the relative path of a note (Copy file path) in the command palette. But I was in search of a way to only copy the base name, the file name without the extension.

After some search I’ve now found the Taitava/obsidian-shellcommands GitHub repository plugin, which allows you to execute custom shell commands from the command palette. With this plugin I’ve setup a new command which only copies the base name:

s={{file_name}};echo "${s%.*}" | pbcopy

The {{file_name}} part is a variable from the plugin which contains the name of the currently active file. I then use bash string manipulations to remove the file ending. Inspired by this answer: Extract file basename without path and extension in bash. The last step is to pipe the result of the command into pbcopy which is a macOS shell tool to add content to the clipboard.

To give your new shell command a nice name, select the cog icon, which opens an edit dialog where you can define an alias.

And then define a hot key for the new command via the regular Obsidian method (Settings -> Hotkeys). I’m using cmd-shift-L for it (the same as in Zettlr for the “Copy ID” command).

• /note-taking
• /obsidian