make some handling via uuid workable..

ui/fixtures/cmd.parent_obj.json

@@ -49,5 +49,20 @@
 	"title": "search excludes newfile.txt ",
 	"cmd": [ "search", "file", "+some=tag", "-ms:tag=random" ],
 	"stdout_re": "^.*test.txt\n$"
+},
+{
+	"title": "that an obj can be modified by uuid",
+	"format": [ "cmd" ],
+	"cmd": [ "modify", "+another=tag", "uuid:{newuuid}" ]
+},
+{
+	"title": "and modification works",
+	"cmd": [ "search", "file", "+another=tag" ],
+	"stdout_re": "newfile.txt\n$"
+},
+{
+	"title": "that a parent obj can be dropped",
+	"format": [ "cmd" ],
+	"cmd": [ "drop", "{newuuid}" ]
 }
 ]

ui/medashare/cli.py

@@ -554,7 +554,7 @@ class ObjectStore(object):
 				session.execute(delete(orm.UUIDv5Table).where(
 				    orm.UUIDv5Table.uuid == obj.id))
 
-			for j in obj.hashes:
+			for j in obj.get('hashes', []):
 				h = self.makehash(j)
 				session.execute(delete(orm.HashTable).where(
 				    orm.HashTable.hash == h and
@@ -1039,12 +1039,16 @@ def cmd_modify(options, persona, objstr, cache):
 	for i in options.files:
 		#print('a:', repr(i), file=_real_stderr)
 
-		try:
-			objs = objstr.get_metadata(i, persona)
-			#print('d:', repr(i), repr(objs), file=_real_stderr)
-		except FileNotFoundError:
-			print('ERROR: file not found: %s, or invalid tag specification.' % repr(i), file=sys.stderr)
-			sys.exit(1)
+		if i.startswith('uuid:'):
+			obj = objstr.by_id(i[5:])
+			objs = [ obj ]
+		else:
+			try:
+				objs = objstr.get_metadata(i, persona)
+				#print('d:', repr(i), repr(objs), file=_real_stderr)
+			except FileNotFoundError:
+				print('ERROR: file not found: %s, or invalid tag specification.' % repr(i), file=sys.stderr)
+				sys.exit(1)
 
 
 		for j in objs:

ui/medashare/mdb.py

@@ -163,6 +163,12 @@ class MDBase(object):
 		else:
 			self._obj[k] = v
 
+	def get(self, key, default=None):
+		try:
+			return self[key]
+		except KeyError:
+			return default
+
 	def __getitem__(self, k):
 		return self._obj[k]