fileshear 0.1.0

Safe, undoable archival and version pruning for local files

FileShear

FileShear is a Python-based automation tool designed to safely perform bulk file cleanup operations according to user-defined rules. It targets workflows where directories accumulate many redundant or outdated file versions and manual cleanup becomes time-consuming and error-prone.

• Primary goal: Reduce manual effort and risk by automatically identifying files to archive or delete while enforcing strict safety guarantees.

Modes Of Operation

• Whitelist Mode: A user specifies files in the working directory they'd like to keep, then the rest are deleted.
• Version Pruning: A user specifies a base filename or pattern, then all matches except the most recent version are deleted.
  • Deletes based on last modified timestamp by default, users can instead specify a "version pattern" to bias with.
• Note: Users can opt for relocation to an archive directory instead of deletion.

Safety Guarantees

This program:

• Communicates the modifications that will be made by a user's input before execution.
  • Requests user confirmation.
• Moves files to trash (or archive directory if specified) instead of hard deletion.
• User can then choose to hard delete relocated files.
• Conforms to rigid directory boundaries (never recursing outside the specified root).