concatf - Concatenate Files with Headers

concatf is a simple and powerful shell script that recursively finds files in a directory and concatenates them into a single output file. It adds the relative path of each file as a header before its content, making it easy to navigate the bundled code.

It is written in bash and is compatible with both macOS and Linux.

Features

• Recursive Search: Traverses nested directories to find all matching files.
• Multiple Extensions: Specify one or more file extensions to include.
• Relative Path Headers: Automatically prepends --- path/to/file.ext --- before each file's content.
• Safe and Robust: Correctly handles filenames with spaces or special characters.
• Cross-Platform: Works on macOS and modern Linux distributions.

Installation

1. Download the Script

   You can either clone this repository or download the concatf script directly.

   git clone [https://github.com/VH-Lab/concatf.git](https://github.com/VH-Lab/concatf.git)
   cd concatf/

2. Make it Executable

   In your terminal, give the script execution permissions.

   chmod +x concatf

3. Move to your PATH

   Move the script to /usr/local/bin to make it available as a command from any location in your terminal. This is the standard directory for user-installed executables.

   sudo mv concatf /usr/local/bin/

   You will be prompted for your administrator password.

Usage

The script requires at least three arguments: the directory to search, the name of the output file, and at least one file extension.

Syntax

concatf [OPTIONS] <input-directory> <output-file> <extension_1> [extension_2] ...

Arguments

• <input-directory>: The directory to search for files.
• <output-file>: The file to write the concatenated content to.
• <extension_1>...: One or more file extensions to include (without the dot, e.g., c, h, txt).

Options

• -h, --help: Display the help message.

Example

Imagine a project with the following structure:

my_app/
├── main.c
├── utils/
│   ├── helper.c
│   └── helper.h
└── README.md

To concatenate all .c and .h files into a single bundle.txt, run the following command:

concatf ./my_app bundle.txt c h

Example Output

The resulting bundle.txt would look like this:

--- my_app/main.c ---
#include <stdio.h>
#include "utils/helper.h"

int main() {
    // ... main function ...
    print_hello();
    return 0;
}

--- my_app/utils/helper.h ---
#ifndef HELPER_H
#define HELPER_H

void print_hello();

#endif //HELPER_H

--- my_app/utils/helper.c ---
#include <stdio.h>
#include "helper.h"

void print_hello() {
    printf("Hello from helper!\n");
}