Flatten is a command-line tool to flatten a directory structure.
Usage:
flatten [SOURCE] [DESTINATION] [-c | --copy-only] [-f | --force] [--include-source-files] [-s | --simulate-only] [--verbose]
flatten -h | --help
flatten -v
Recursively flatten the directory structure from SOURCE to DESTINATION.
Arguments:
SOURCE Optional source directory (default is current directory).
DESTINATION Optional destination directory (default is current directory).
Options:
-c --copy-only Do not remove anything from the source directory.
-f --force Do not propose a simulation first, immediately execute the command.
--include-source-files Include the files which are directly located in the SOURCE directory.
-s --simulate-only Do not move or copy any files on the system,
just output the expected result.
--verbose Explain what is being done.
-v --version Show version.
-h --help Show this screen.
Assume we have the following directory strcuture in /home/goggle/example/
:
/home/goggle/example
├── c_progs
│ └── prog01
│ ├── hello
│ └── hello.c
├── data
│ ├── dat001
│ │ ├── data_apples.txt
│ │ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ │ └── data_trees.txt
│ ├── dat002
│ │ ├── data_apples.txt
│ │ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ │ └── data_trees.txt
│ ├── dat003
│ │ ├── data_apples.txt
│ │ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ │ └── data_trees.txt
│ └── dat004
│ ├── data_apples.txt
│ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ └── data_trees.txt
├── hello
└── hello_1
By running flatten
in /home/goggle/example
we get the following result:
/home/goggle/example
├── data_apples_1.txt
├── data_apples_2.txt
├── data_apples_3.txt
├── data_apples_4.txt
├── data_monkeys_1.txt
├── data_monkeys_2.txt
├── data_monkeys_3.txt
├── data_monkeys_4.txt
├── data_trees_1.txt
├── data_trees_2.txt
├── data_trees_3.txt
├── data_trees_4.txt
├── hello
├── hello_01
├── hello_1
└── hello.c
All the files in the subdirectories of /home/goggle/example/
have been moved into /home/goggle/example
and the empty directories have been removed. Note, that no regular file has been removed, even though we have file name collisions (e.g. the file data_apples.txt
exists four times). Flatten does automatically take care of such filename collisions and adds a number to the filename if such a collision happens.
If we want to keep the original files in their subdirectories, we can use the --copy-only
option. flatten -c
or flatten --copy-only
executed in /home/goggle/example
will lead to the following result:
/home/goggle/example
├── c_progs
│ └── prog01
│ ├── hello
│ └── hello.c
├── data
│ ├── dat001
│ │ ├── data_apples.txt
│ │ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ │ └── data_trees.txt
│ ├── dat002
│ │ ├── data_apples.txt
│ │ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ │ └── data_trees.txt
│ ├── dat003
│ │ ├── data_apples.txt
│ │ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ │ └── data_trees.txt
│ └── dat004
│ ├── data_apples.txt
│ ├── data_monkeys.txt
│ └── data_trees.txt
├── data_apples_1.txt
├── data_apples_2.txt
├── data_apples_3.txt
├── data_apples_4.txt
├── data_monkeys_1.txt
├── data_monkeys_2.txt
├── data_monkeys_3.txt
├── data_monkeys_4.txt
├── data_trees_1.txt
├── data_trees_2.txt
├── data_trees_3.txt
├── data_trees_4.txt
├── hello
├── hello_01
├── hello_1
└── hello.c
By default, flatten will perform a simulation of its actions first, and ask the user, if he wants to continue.