Directory Content Scanner

The Directory Content Scanner is a Python-based utility designed to recursively scan directories, presenting both file paths and their content. It's an invaluable tool for in-depth content exploration and debugging within nested file structures.

🚀 Getting Started

📋 Prerequisites

• Python 3.x

🛠️ Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/kevinveenbirkenbach/directory-content-scanner.git
   

2. Navigate to the cloned directory:

   cd directory-content-scanner
   

⚡ Running Without Full Path Specification

To execute the script directly from the terminal without typing the full path, follow these steps:

1. Make the Script Executable

Ensure the script is executable:

chmod +x scan.py

2. Create a Symbolic Link

While inside the repository folder, use the following one-liner to create a symbolic link in a directory included in your $PATH:

ln -s "$(pwd)/scan.py" ~/.local/bin/scan-directory

This command uses the current directory as the base for the symbolic link and points to ~/.local/bin/scan-directory.

📖 Usage

Run the Python script, specifying the target directory and any desired filters:

scan-directory /path/to/directory [options]

Options:

To show the help page execute:

python3 scan.py /path/to/directory --help

• paths: List of files or directories to scan. This is a positional argument.
• --file-types: Filter by file types (e.g., .txt, .log). Only files with these extensions will be processed.
• --ignore-file-strings: Ignore files and folders containing these strings. Useful for excluding specific files or directories.
• --ignore-hidden: Ignore hidden directories and files (those starting with a dot).
• -v, --verbose: Enable verbose mode. This will print additional information about skipped files.
• --no-comments: Remove comments from the displayed content based on file type. Comments in supported file types (Python, JS, C, CPP, H) will be stripped.
• --compress: Compress code (for supported file types). The content will be displayed in compressed form.
• --path-contains: Display files whose paths contain one of these strings. Useful for narrowing down the scan to specific parts of the directory structure.
• --content-contains: Display files containing one of these strings in their content. The file's content will be checked, and only matching files will be shown.

⚠️ Caution

Exercise caution when scanning directories with large files. The script may produce extensive output. Always assess the data volume before executing the script.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions via pull requests are welcome. For significant modifications, kindly open an issue first to discuss the proposed changes.

✍️ Author

Kevin Veen-Birkenbach

• 📧 Email Kevin
• 🌐 Website

📜 License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. The complete license text is available in the LICENSE file.

🙏 Acknowledgements

Special thanks to OpenAI's ChatGPT model for assistance. Dive deeper into the creation process here, here, here and here.