Files Flattener

This repository contains implementations for recursively reading all files in a specified directory and outputting their filenames and contents to a specified output file.

• Why do I need this?
• Example
• Getting Started
  • Usage
  • Development
• TODO
• License

Why do I need this?

Imagine you are working on a project and need to share the project structure and file contents with a collaborator or an AI platform for analysis. Instead of manually copying and pasting each file's content, you can use the files_flattener.py script to generate a single file with all the necessary information. This consolidated file can then be easily shared, ensuring that the recipient has all the context needed to understand the project.

Example

Assume you have the following directory structure:

|
|--folder1
|  |--file1.txt
|  |--file2.txt
|--file3.txt

And you have an .ignore file in the root directory with the following content:

folder1/file2.txt

# Exclude itself
.ignore

Running the implementation will process the files, ignoring folder1/file2.txt and .ignore itself as specified in the .ignore file. The output file will contain the contents of the remaining files in the following format:

**folder1/file1.txt:**

[...file1.txt's content...]

**file3.txt:**

[...file3.txt's content...]

Getting Started

Usage

1. Ensure you have Python installed on your system.

2. Install the package using pip:

   pip install files_flattener

3. Run the command:

   flt <directory> <output_file> [<ignore_file>]

   • <directory>: The path of the directory containing the files to be flattened.
   • <output_file>: The path of the output file where the contents of the files will be written.
   • [<ignore_file>]: (Optional) The path to a file containing patterns of files to ignore. If not provided, the script will look for a '.ignore' file in the specified directory. If the '.ignore' file is not found, no files will be ignored.

Development

Install the required dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the script locally

python -m files_flattener.cli <directory> <output_file> [<ignore_file>]

Build the package

Ensure wheel is installed:

pip install wheel

Generate the distribution files:

. scripts/build.sh

Publish the package to PyPI

Install twine if you haven't already:

pip install twine

Upload the distribution files to PyPI:

. scripts/upload.sh

TODO

• Add dry-run mode to preview the output before writing to the file.
• Make a web app based on Vue3.
• Use .ignore to exclude or include files for flattening.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.