How to use

CLI arguments

Arguments can be specified in both short and long form. For example: -a or --all.

usage: count-files [-h] [-hc]
                   [-v] [-st]
                   [-a] [-c]
                   [-nr] [-nf]
                   [-alpha]
                   [-t EXTENSION]
                   [-sf] [-ts]
                   [-fe FILE_EXTENSION]
                   [-fm PATTERN][-fs]
                   [-p] [-ps PREVIEW_SIZE]
                   [path]


usage: count-files [--help] [--help-cmd]
                   [--version] [--supported-types]
                   [--all] [--case-sensitive]
                   [--no-recursion] [--no-feedback]
                   [--sort-alpha]
                   [--total EXTENSION]
                   [--show-folders] [--total-size]
                   [--file-extension FILE_EXTENSION]
                   [--filename-match PATTERN] [--file-sizes]
                   [--preview] [--preview-size PREVIEW_SIZE]
                   [path]

Common arguments

path, --all, --case-sensitive, --no-recursion, --no-feedback

Special arguments

• File counting by extension (sorted table):

  --sort-alpha

• File searching by extension (list with file paths):

  --file-extension, --file-sizes, --preview, --preview-size

• File searching by pattern (list with file paths):

  --filename-match, --file-sizes, --preview, --preview-size

• Total number of files (number):

  --total, --show-folders, --total-size

Getting help

To check the list of available options and their usage, you just need to use one of the following commands:

count-files -h

count-files --help

Search in help by topic - argument or group name(count, search, total):

count-files -hc

count-files --help-cmd

Check the version number of the program:

count-files -v

count-files --version

Get the list of currently supported file types for preview:

count-files -st

count-files --supported-types

The path argument

Optionally, you can pass it a path to the directory to scan. If you prefer, you can leave that argument empty, and it will scan the current working directory.

To process files in the user’s home directory, you can use ~ (tilde).

If there are spaces in the folder names, then path should be specified in quotation marks. For example, in Windows: count-files "~\Desktop\New folder"

Non-recursive search or counting

The optional -nr or --no-recursion switch argument tells the application not to scan recursively through the subdirectories.

Hidden files and directories

For supported operating systems (Linux, macOS, iOS, Windows), any hidden files or folders are ignored by default. But you can add the -a or --all optional switch argument to make it count or search for all files.

For other operating systems in which Python can be run, this option to include/exclude hidden files is not available. And as a result, all existing files will be included.

In Windows, files and directories considered hidden by this application are those for which the FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN attribute is set to true.

In Linux, macOS, iOS and other Unix-like operating systems, a file or directory is considered to be hidden if its name starts with a . (dot).

Case sensitivity

The names of extensions are case insensitive by default. The results for ini and INI will be the same. To distinguish between similar extensions in different cases, use the -c or --case-sensitive switch argument.

• File counting by extension (sorted table):

  In this case, the file extensions in the table will be displayed as is (in lowercase and uppercase).

• File searching by extension (using -fe or --file-extension):

  The result of the search will be a list with paths to files with an extension in the corresponding register.

• File searching by pattern (using -fm or --filename-match):

  The search result will be a list of file paths with file names that exactly match the case-sensitive pattern.

• Total number of files (using -t or --total):

  For total counting of files with a specific extension, this option is also available. The result of the counting will be a total number of files with an extension in the corresponding register.

Customizing operation feedback

By default, the program displays an operating indicator that consists in successively printing processed file names in a single line. File names are not displayed, however, when searching for a particular extension, if there are no such files in the folder or if the files are hidden, and the argument --all was not specified.

This kind of feedback is available by default when counting files by extension and when counting the total number of files (using -t or --total). The optional -nf or --no-feedback switch argument disables it.

Using the --no-feedback argument allows you to speed up a little the processing of a large amount of files/folders.

When searching for files by extension or by pattern(using --file-extension or --filename-match) the feedback mechanism is the list of file paths itself.

File counting by extension

To count all files by extension, you can simply use the command count-files and, if necessary, specify one or more of the common arguments: path, --all, case-sensitive, --no-recursion, --no-feedback. You can sort the extensions in the table alphabetically using the --sort-alpha argument.

Example: count-files

See also

File counting by extension: sorted table

The --sort-alpha argument

By default, result of file counting by extension is a table that lists all the file extensions found and displays the frequency for each file extension. To sort the extensions alphabetically, use the -alpha or --sort-alpha argument.

Example: count-files --sort-alpha

File searching by extension

Another main feature of this application consists in searching files by a given extension, which presents to the user a list of all found files.

Using -fe or --file-extension argument, you can find all the files that have the specified extension. You can get additional information about the size of each found file and see a short preview for text files (--file-sizes, --preview, --preview-size optional arguments).

If necessary, specify one or more of the common arguments: path, --all, case-sensitive, --no-recursion.

Example: count-files --file-extension txt

See also

File searching by extension: list with file paths

File searching by pattern

You can also search for files using Unix shell-style wildcards: *, ?, [seq], [!seq] (with -fm or --filename-match argument). * - matches everything (zero or more occurrences of any character), ? - matches any single character, [seq] - matches any character in seq, [!seq] - matches any character not in seq.

Some optional arguments are also available (--file-sizes, --preview, --preview-size arguments). If necessary, specify one or more of the common arguments: path, --all, case-sensitive, --no-recursion.

Example: count-files --filename-match *.????

See also

File searching by pattern: list with file paths

Total counting of files

To count the total number of files, the number of files with a specific extension or the number of files without any extension you can use the -t or --total argument and specify the name of the extension.

You can also get a list of folders in which the found files are located, the number of found files in each folder and the total combined size of these files (--show-folders and --total-size optional arguments). When recursively counting all files(--total ..) and using the --show-folders argument, all folders containing files are displayed.

If necessary, specify one or more of the common arguments: path, --all, case-sensitive, --no-recursion, --no-feedback.

Example: count-files --total json

See also

Total number of files

Preview text files

Preview is available as an option when searching files using the --filename-match or --file-extension arguments.

The default text preview size depends on the terminal width settings. You can change this value by specifying the argument -ps or --preview-size followed by an integer (the number of characters to display from each file).

Example: count-files --file-extension css --preview --preview-size 50

File sizes

You can get additional information about the size of each file using the -fs or --file-sizes argument. This option is only available when searching files using the --filename-match or --file-extension arguments.

Example: count-files --file-extension js --file-sizes

When counting the total number of files (using --total argument) you can also get the total combined size of found files.

Example: count-files --total py --total-size