cleanup-nodemodule 0.1.1

Find and remove node_modules, .next and dist folders (dry-run default).

deleteNodeModules.py

A small utility to find and remove common build/artifact folders such as node_modules, .next, and dist recursively.

What it does

• Recursively walks from a specified root directory and finds directories named node_modules, .next, or dist.
• By default the script runs in a safe "dry run" mode where it only prints what would be deleted.

Tested

I tested this on macOS (zsh) and it works fine in dry-run mode. Use with care before disabling dry-run.

Safety / Dry-run

The script has a safety flag at the top of the file:

# Safety: set to True to do a dry run (only log what would be deleted).
# Set to False to actually remove files/directories.
DRY_RUN = True

• Default: DRY_RUN = True (dry-run).
• To perform actual deletion, open deleteNodeModules.py and change DRY_RUN = True to DRY_RUN = False.

Important: disabling dry-run will delete files and directories permanently (via shutil.rmtree). Make sure you have backups or use version control and run the script from the correct directory.

Usage

1. Open a terminal in the repository folder (or specify your target directory by editing the script):

cd /path/to/your/project
python3 deleteNodeModules.py

2. By default the script starts at ./ (the current directory) and min_depth = 0 (so it will consider matches at any depth). If you want to change those defaults, edit the bottom section of the script:

if __name__ == '__main__':
    target_directory = './'  # Replace with your root folder path
    min_depth = 0  # Minimum depth to start deleting (0 = all levels)
    
    find_and_delete_targets(target_directory, min_depth)

• Set target_directory to the path you want to scan.
• Increase min_depth to avoid deleting shallow matches (for example, min_depth = 1 will skip immediate children of the root).

Examples

• Dry run from current directory (default):

python3 deleteNodeModules.py

• Dry run from a custom folder (edit target_directory in the file), or run it from that folder:

cd /Users/alice/projects
python3 /path/to/deleteNodeModules.py

• To actually delete, edit deleteNodeModules.py and set DRY_RUN = False, then run the script. Double-check the path and min_depth first.

Notes & Recommendations

• Always run the script in dry-run mode first to verify which directories it will remove.
• Consider adding a CLI wrapper (argparse) if you'd like to toggle dry-run, set target path, and set min depth without editing the file.
• The script removes directories using shutil.rmtree when DRY_RUN is False — this is irreversible.

Troubleshooting

• If you hit permission errors, run as a user with the appropriate permissions or adjust ownership/permissions for target folders. Use caution with sudo.

Install & run from terminal (pip)

After publishing to PyPI, developers can install and use the tool directly from the terminal. Recommended steps:

1. Install via pip (from PyPI):

python3 -m pip install --user cleanup-nodemodule

2. Make sure your user-level bin directory is on your PATH. On macOS that is commonly $HOME/Library/Python/<pyversion>/bin. Example for zsh/Python 3.9:

export PATH="$HOME/Library/Python/3.9/bin:$PATH"
# add the above line to ~/.zshrc to make it permanent

3. Run the installed CLI (dry-run is the default):

cleanup-nodemodule --help
cleanup-nodemodule -p /path/to/project      # dry-run: shows what would be deleted
cleanup-nodemodule -p /path/to/project --no-dry-run  # actually deletes targets

4. To uninstall or upgrade:

python3 -m pip uninstall cleanup-nodemodule
python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade cleanup-nodemodule

5. If the command cleanup-nodemodule isn't found after installation, either add the user scripts directory to PATH (see step 2) or run the script with the full path, for example:

$HOME/Library/Python/3.9/bin/cleanup-nodemodule --help

Security & behavior reminders

• The CLI defaults to dry-run (safe). To make the run destructive you must pass --no-dry-run explicitly.
• Always run a dry-run first and check the output before using --no-dry-run.

If you'd like, I can add a short Examples section showing real sample output from a dry-run and a recommended GitHub Actions workflow to publish on tag.

License / Contribution

This is a small utility — feel free to adapt it. If you'd like, I can add CLI flags (safe defaults) or a confirmation prompt before destructive runs.