recurse

A cross-platform recursive directory traversal file management tool

About

The recurse executable is a cross-platform command line tool for file management with default recursive directory traversal and regular expression pattern matching support. It is built in Rust and tested against the stable, beta, and nightly Rust toolchains on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms.

Features are available through sub-commands of the recurse executable. Support currently includes:

• recurse contains: identify valid UTF-8 encoded text file paths with contents that match regular expression patterns
• recurse find: identify regular expression pattern match line and byte offsets in valid UTF-8 encoded text files
• recurse walk: recursive directory traversal file listings

The following features are in development:

• [coming in v0.4.0] recurse replace: replace strings in text files that match regular expression patterns (issue #6)
• [coming in v0.5.0] add optional canonical Unicode normalization support for text input to sub-commands that support text matching (issue #8)

See the Usage section below for additional details.

See the FAQ.md for answers to frequently asked questions.

Installation

With cargo from crates.io

Use cargo to install the recurse executable from crates.io:

$ cargo install recurse

With cargo from the master branch of the repository

Clone the git repository, compile, and install the executable with the following commands:

$ git clone https://github.com/chrissimpkins/recurse.git
$ cd recurse
$ cargo install --path .

Usage

View the help documentation for any sub-command on the command line with the syntax:

$ recurse [SUB-COMMAND] --help

The help menu displays available options and required arguments.

Recursive directory traversal is the default behavior across all sub-commands.

The regular expression syntax support is documented here.

contains sub-command

contains Syntax

$ recurse contains [OPTIONS] [REGEX] [START PATH]

The contains sub-command's default behavior is to list all text file paths with one or more valid UTF-8 encoded Unicode scalar values that match a regular expression pattern [REGEX]. Hidden paths are excluded by default and are defined as a directory or file path that begins with a period (e.g., .hidden directory or .hidden.txt file). All directory and file paths below a hidden directory are considered hidden. Directory traversal proceeds to the max depth below the user-specified start path [START PATH].

contains Options

Command line options modify the default behavior. Supported options for the contains sub-command are:

• -a | --all: Include hidden file and directory paths
• -e | --ext [EXTENSION]: Filter on paths that include an EXTENSION string. Enter an EXTENSION string argument to define the extension filter. The EXTENSION argument may be defined with or without a period character (e.g., txt or .txt)
• --maxdepth [DEPTH]: maximum depth to extend traversal of file system sub-directory structure. Enter an integer value for DEPTH to limit the directory traversal.
• --mindepth [DEPTH]: minimum depth to begin traversal of file system sub-directory structure. Enter an integer value for DEPTH to limit the directory traversal.
• --symlinks: Follow symbolic links

find sub-command

find Syntax

$ recurse find [OPTIONS] [REGEX] [START PATH]

The find sub-command's default behavior is to list all lines in text files with valid UTF-8 encoded Unicode scalar values that match a regular expression pattern [REGEX]. The report includes the following data for each line in a file with a match:

[FILEPATH] [LINE NUMBER]:[START BYTE OFFSET INDEX]-[END BYTE OFFSET INDEX] [ MATCHED STRING ]

Here is an example of a match result on the regular expression pattern [Rr]ecurse in this repository:

./src/command/find.rs 12:11-18 [ Recurse ]

Note that the byte offsets will not map 1:1 to "character offsets" when multi-byte encoded characters are in or before the matched string in a given line of text.

Hidden paths are excluded by default and are defined as a directory or file path that begins with a period (e.g., .hidden directory or .hiddent.txt file). All directory and file paths below a hidden directory are considered hidden. Directory traversal proceeds to the max depth below the user-specified start path [START PATH].

find Options

Command line options modify the default behavior. Supported options for the find sub-command are:

• -a | --all: Include hidden file and directory paths
• -e | --ext [EXTENSION]: Filter on paths that include an EXTENSION string. Enter an EXTENSION string argument to define the extension filter. The EXTENSION argument may be defined with or without a period character (e.g., txt or .txt)
• --maxdepth [DEPTH]: maximum depth to extend traversal of file system sub-directory structure. Enter an integer value for DEPTH to limit the directory traversal.
• --mindepth [DEPTH]: minimum depth to begin traversal of file system sub-directory structure. Enter an integer value for DEPTH to limit the directory traversal.
• --symlinks: Follow symbolic links

walk sub-command

walk Syntax

$ recurse walk [OPTIONS] [START PATH]

The walk sub-command's default behavior is to list all file paths that are not hidden in the standard output stream. Hidden paths are defined as a directory or file that begins with a period (e.g., .hidden directory or .hidden.txt file). All directory and file paths below a hidden directory path are considered hidden. Directory traversal proceeds to the max depth below the user-specified start path [START PATH].

walk Options

Command line options modify the default behavior. Supported options for the walk sub-command are:

• -a | --all: Include hidden file and directory paths
• -d | --dir: Filter on directory paths only, do not list file paths
• -e | --ext [EXTENSION]: Filter on paths that include an EXTENSION string. Enter an EXTENSION string argument to define the extension filter. The EXTENSION argument may be defined with or without a period character (e.g., txt or .txt)
• --maxdepth [DEPTH]: maximum depth to extend traversal of file system sub-directory structure. Enter an integer value for DEPTH to limit the directory traversal.
• --mindepth [DEPTH]: minimum depth to begin traversal of file system sub-directory structure. Enter an integer value for DEPTH to limit the directory traversal.
• --symlinks: Follow symbolic links

Contributing

Please submit new issues on the GitHub issue tracker.

Contributions under the Apache License, v2.0 are welcomed. Please open a pull request with your proposal for changes.

License

Apache License, v2.0. See LICENSE.md for the full text of the license.