recursivist 0.2.0

A command-line tool for visualizing directory structures

Recursivist

A beautiful command-line tool for visualizing directory structures with rich formatting, color-coding, and multiple export options.

Features

• 🎨 Colorful Visualization: Each file type is assigned a unique color for easy identification
• 🌳 Tree Structure: Displays your directories in an intuitive, hierarchical tree format
• 📁 Smart Filtering: Easily exclude directories and file extensions you don't want to see
• 🧩 Gitignore Support: Automatically respects your .gitignore patterns
• 📊 Multiple Export Formats: Export to TXT, JSON, HTML, and Markdown
• 🔄 Directory Comparison: Compare two directory structures side by side with highlighted differences
• 🚀 Simple Interface: Intuitive command-line interface with smart defaults

Installation

From PyPI

pip install recursivist

From Source

git clone https://github.com/ArmaanjeetSandhu/recursivist.git
cd recursivist
pip install .

Usage

Basic Usage

Just run the command in any directory:

recursivist visualize

This will show a colorful tree of the current directory structure in your terminal.

Advanced Options

# Visualize a specific directory
recursivist visualize /path/to/directory

# Exclude specific directories
recursivist visualize --exclude node_modules .git venv

# Exclude file extensions
recursivist visualize --exclude-ext .pyc .log .cache

# Use a gitignore-style file
recursivist visualize --ignore-file .gitignore

# Export to various formats
recursivist visualize --export txt json html md

# Export to a specific directory
recursivist visualize --export md --output-dir ./exports

# Custom filename prefix for exports
recursivist visualize --export json --prefix my-project

# Compare two directories
recursivist compare /path/to/dir1 /path/to/dir2

# Compare and export the comparison
recursivist compare dir1 dir2 --export html --output-dir ./reports

# View the current version
recursivist version

# Generate shell completion
recursivist completion bash > ~/.bash_completion.d/recursivist

Command Overview

Command	Description
visualize	Display and export directory structures
compare	Compare two directory structures side by side
completion	Generate shell completion scripts
version	Show the current version

Command Options for visualize

Option	Short	Description
--exclude	-e	Directories to exclude (space-separated or multiple flags)
--exclude-ext	-x	File extensions to exclude (space-separated or multiple flags)
--ignore-file	-i	Ignore file to use (e.g., .gitignore)
--export	-f	Export formats: txt, json, html, md
--output-dir	-o	Output directory for exports
--prefix	-p	Prefix for exported filenames
--verbose	-v	Enable verbose output

Command Options for compare

Option	Short	Description
--exclude	-e	Directories to exclude (space-separated or multiple flags)
--exclude-ext	-x	File extensions to exclude (space-separated or multiple flags)
--ignore-file	-i	Ignore file to use (e.g., .gitignore)
--export	-f	Export formats: txt, json, html, md
--output-dir	-o	Output directory for exports
--prefix	-p	Prefix for exported filenames
--verbose	-v	Enable verbose output

Examples

Basic Directory Visualization

recursivist visualize

This will produce output similar to:

📂 my-project
├── 📁 src
│   ├── 📄 main.py
│   ├── 📄 utils.py
│   └── 📁 tests
│       ├── 📄 test_main.py
│       └── 📄 test_utils.py
├── 📄 README.md
├── 📄 requirements.txt
└── 📄 setup.py

Directory Comparison

recursivist compare ~/project-v1 ~/project-v2

This will display two directory trees side by side with differences highlighted:

• Files and directories present only in the first directory are highlighted in green
• Files and directories present only in the second directory are highlighted in red

You can export the comparison to various formats:

recursivist compare ~/project-v1 ~/project-v2 --export html --output-dir ./reports

Export to Multiple Formats

recursivist visualize --export txt md --output-dir ./docs

This exports the directory structure to both text and markdown formats in the ./docs directory.

Exclude Unwanted Directories and Files

recursivist visualize --exclude node_modules .git --exclude-ext .pyc .log

This shows the directory tree while ignoring the node_modules and .git directories, as well as any .pyc and .log files.

Export Formats

Text (TXT)

A simple ASCII tree representation that can be viewed in any text editor.

JSON

A structured JSON format that can be easily parsed by other tools or scripts.

HTML

An HTML representation with styling that can be viewed in any web browser.

Markdown (MD)

A markdown representation that renders nicely on platforms like GitHub.

Shell Completion

Recursivist supports shell completion for easier command entry. Generate completion scripts with:

# For Bash
recursivist completion bash > ~/.bash_completion.d/recursivist

# For Zsh
recursivist completion zsh > ~/.zsh/completion/_recursivist

# For Fish
recursivist completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/recursivist.fish

# For PowerShell
recursivist completion powershell > recursivist.ps1

Advanced Usage

Using with Git Repositories

When working with Git repositories, you can use your existing .gitignore file:

recursivist visualize --ignore-file .gitignore

Integration with Other Tools

The JSON export format allows for easy integration with other tools:

# Export to JSON
recursivist visualize --export json --prefix myproject

# Use with jq for additional processing
cat myproject.json | jq '.structure | keys'

Development

Setting Up Development Environment

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ArmaanjeetSandhu/recursivist.git
cd recursivist

# Create a virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running Tests

# Run tests
pytest

Building the Package

# Install build tools
pip install build

# Build the package
python -m build

Testing

The Recursivist project uses pytest for testing. The test suite covers core functionality, CLI interface, and export features.

Running Tests

To run the tests, first install the development dependencies:

pip install -e ".[dev]"

Then run the tests with coverage reporting:

pytest

You can also run specific test files:

# Run only core tests
pytest tests/test_core.py

# Run only export tests
pytest tests/test_exports.py

# Run only CLI tests
pytest tests/test_cli.py

# Run only compare tests
pytest tests/test_compare.py

Test Coverage

To generate a detailed coverage report:

pytest --cov=recursivist --cov-report=html

This will create an HTML coverage report in the htmlcov directory, which you can open in your browser.

Continuous Integration

The test suite is automatically run on GitHub Actions for every pull request and push to the main branch. This ensures that all changes maintain compatibility and don't introduce regressions.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Acknowledgements

• Rich - For beautiful terminal formatting
• Typer - For the intuitive CLI interface

Author

Armaanjeet Singh Sandhu

• Email: [e-mail]
• GitHub: ArmaanjeetSandhu