Directory Print - DirPrint

Simplify Code Sharing with LLMs by Exporting Directory Structure and File Contents

DirPrint is a command-line tool that streamlines sharing your project's directory structure and file contents with LLMs (like ChatGPT, Claude, etc.). By providing comprehensive context about your codebase, DirPrint enhances LLMs' ability to assist you in debugging and development tasks.

Features

• Visual Directory Tree: Get a clear, hierarchical representation of your project's structure.
• File Contents Display: View file contents within the tree, formatted in markdown code blocks.
• File Export: Save the output to a file for easy sharing and reference.
• Flexible Content Management:
  • Ignore Mode: Completely hide specified files/directories from the output.
  • Omit Mode: Show files/directories in the directory structure but hide their contents for brevity.
  • Glob Support: Use standard globs (e.g., *.pyc, test_*.js) for flexible matching.
  • GitIgnore Integration: Automatically respects .gitignore rules (unless disabled).
  • Strict Matching: Enable exact matching for file/directory names by wrapping the pattern in carets (^).
• Optional Line Count Analysis: When enabled, DirPrint calculates and displays the number of lines for each file and directory.

Installation

From source:

git clone https://github.com/zebangeth/DirPrint.git
cd DirPrint
python setup.py install

Via pip:

pip install DirPrint

or

pip install DirPrint==0.3.1

Usage

Basic command structure:

dir_print [options] <directory_path>

Options

• --export, -E : Save output to a specified file.
• --ignore, -I : Patterns to completely hide (e.g., __pycache__, .git, node_modules).
• --omit, -O : Patterns to show in the structure but hide their contents.
• --no-gitignore : Do not automatically load patterns from .gitignore.
• --show-omitted-structure, --sos : Show structure of omitted directories.
• --line-count, -lc : Enable display of line counts and percentages for files/directories.

Strict Matching with Carets (^)

By default, patterns are matched partially (i.e., a pattern will match any file or directory that contains it). To enable strict (exact) matching, wrap the pattern in carets. This applies to both ignore and omit modes. For example:

• Partial matching (default):

  dir_print MindPlug -I doc .md build
  

  In this case, any file or directory name that contains "build" (such as build_check.py or build.py) will be ignored.

• Strict matching:

  dir_print MindPlug -I doc .md ^build^
  

  With strict matching, only an entry whose name is exactly build will be ignored.
  Note: Depending on your shell, you might need to escape carets (^) so that they are passed as part of the argument.

Examples

Suppose you have a project directory structure like this:

my-project/
├── src/
│   ├── main.py              # 50 lines
│   ├── utils.py             # 30 lines
│   ├── config.json          # 20 lines
│   └── tests/
│       ├── test_main.py     # 20 lines
│       └── test_utils.py    # 30 lines
└── README.md                # 50 lines

1. Basic usage - Print everything:

   dir_print src
   

2. Using ignore - Hide files or directories containing "test":

   dir_print src -I test
   

   This will ignore any file or directory with "test" in its name.

3. Using omit (partial matching) - Show in the structure but hide contents:

   dir_print src -O config
   

   In this case, both the directory config/ and the file config.json will be omitted because the pattern config matches any entry containing that substring:

   src/
   ├── main.js
   ├── utils.js
   ├── [omitted] config/
   ├── [omitted] config.json
   └── tests/
       ├── main.test.js
       └── utils.test.js
   
   [Contents of files shown except for entries matching "config"...]
   

4. Using strict matching with carets - Match only the exact name:

   dir_print src -O ^config^
   

   Here, only an entry whose name is exactly config (such as the config/ directory) will be omitted. The file config.json will not be omitted because its name does not exactly equal config. Note: You may need to escape carets depending on your shell.

5. Showing omitted structure - View the internal structure of omitted items:

   dir_print src -O ^config^ --sos
   

6. Enable line count analysis - Print structure with line counts and percentages:

   dir_print src --line-count
   

   The output might look like this:

   src/ (150 lines, 100%)
   ├── main.py (50 lines, 33.3%)
   ├── utils.py (30 lines, 20.0%)
   ├── config.json (20 lines, 13.3%)
   └── tests/ (50 lines, 33.3%)
       ├── test_main.py (20 lines, 13.3%)
       └── test_utils.py (30 lines, 20.0%)
   

7. Combined usage - Multiple patterns, export, and line count analysis:

   dir_print src -I node_modules -O ^config^ test -E output.txt --sos --line-count
   

   In this example:

   • node_modules is ignored using partial matching.
   • ^config^ is strictly omitted (exact match only) so only an entry named exactly config is affected.
   • test is omitted using partial matching.
   • The --line-count flag enables line count statistics for non-ignored and non-omitted entries.

Notes

• Partial Matching: By default, a pattern matches if it is a substring of the file or directory name (e.g., test matches testing.js or tests/).

• Glob Matching: Standard shell-style wildcards are supported (e.g., *.log matches error.log, test_*.py matches test_main.py).

• Strict Matching: Wrap a pattern in carets (e.g., ^build^) to enable exact matching. This ensures the pattern only matches when the file or directory name is an exact match.

• Ignore patterns take precedence over omit patterns when they overlap.

• The --sos flag only affects directories marked for omission.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by the simplicity and utility of the tree command in Unix-like operating systems.
• Built with GitHub Copilot, GPT-4-0125-preview, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

About the Author

DirPrint was created by zebang.eth, a developer passionate about making development and debugging processes smoother and more intuitive.