eh-extract 1.1.0

A CLI tool to extract file contents and structure into a single text file.

🗂️ Extract Files to Text Utility

This Python script (extract_files.py) recursively extracts the contents of all files in a given directory and writes them to a single text file. It also optionally generates a “tree-like” structure (similar to the Unix tree -fa command) at the top of the output file.

Useful for:

• Code auditing or review

• AI context extraction (feeding codebases into LLMs)

• Creating a readable snapshot of project files and structure

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📁 Features

• ✅ Generates a tree -fa-like structure for the repository

• ✅ Recursively extracts files and writes them to a single .txt file

• ✅ Supports inclusion/exclusion by file extensions, directories, and filenames

• ✅ Handles UTF-8 encoding safely with error catching

• ✅ Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows

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🧰 Requirements

• Python 3.7+

• No external dependencies (only uses the standard library)

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⚙️ Usage

1. Clone or copy this script

git clone https://github.com/EsmailEbrahim/eh-extract-files-to-txt.git
cd eh-extract-files-to-txt

2. Run the script

Edit the repo_directory and output_txt_file variables in the script or pass them as arguments.

Example inside the script:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    repo_directory = r"/path/to/your/project"
    output_txt_file = r"/path/to/output/project_extract.txt"

    extract_files_to_txt(
        repo_directory,
        output_txt_file,
        include_ext=['.py', '.yml', '.yaml', '.json', '.sh', '.env', '.txt'],
        exclude_dirs=['.git', '__pycache__', 'venv', 'node_modules', 'dist', 'build', 'uploads', 'logs', 'certs'],
        exclude_files=['README.md', 'LICENSE'],
        include_tree=True
    )

    print(f"File paths, contents, and structure have been written to {output_txt_file}")

Then run:

python extract_files.py

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🧩 Function Overview

generate_tree(repo_path)

Generates a string representing a tree structure of the repository.

extract_files_to_txt(...)

Main function that:

• Walks the given directory

• Filters files and folders based on inclusion/exclusion lists

• Writes file paths and their contents to an output text file

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Example Output

Repository structure for: /home/esmail/my-repo
================================================================================
├── my-repo/
│   ├── main.py
│   ├── utils/
│   │   ├── helpers.py
================================================================================

main.py:
print("Hello world")

========================================

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🧾 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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👨‍💻 Author

Esmail Ebrahim Hamza

• 📧 [e-mail]
• 🌐 GitHub: EsmailEbrahim

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💻 Quick Install & Usage

Install from PyPI

pip install eh-extract

Or directly from GitHub

pip install git+https://github.com/EsmailEbrahim/eh-extract-files-to-txt.git

🧠 Windows Users:
If you see a warning like
The script eh-extract.exe is installed in ... which is not on PATH,
add that folder to your system PATH (usually C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python312\Scripts).

On Ubuntu (safe install via pipx)

sudo apt install pipx
pipx ensurepath
pipx install eh-extract
eh-extract -i /path/to/repo -o /path/to/output.txt

Usage

eh-extract -i /path/to/repo -o /path/to/output.txt --include-ext .py .yml .json

🆕 Changelog

v1.1.0 (2025-11-13)

• Added --exclude-tree-dirs and --exclude-tree-files options.
• These allow excluding directories or files from the generated tree structure separately from content extraction.