Package 'printtree'

Title: Print Directory Trees for R Projects and Folders
Description: Quickly visualize 'R' project directory structures with automatic project detection and clean tree output.
Authors: George Arthur [aut, cre, cph]
Maintainer: George Arthur <[email protected]>
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Version: 0.2.1
Built: 2026-06-01 21:06:45 UTC
Source: https://github.com/prigasg/printtree

Help Index

Print an R Project or Directory Tree

Description

Prints a directory tree for a given path. Optionally, detects an RStudio project (.Rproj) and can print from a project root.

Usage

print_rtree(
  path = NULL,
  ignore = c("renv", ".git", ".Rproj.user", "__pycache__", ".DS_Store", "node_modules",
    ".Rhistory"),
  ignore_type = c("auto", "fixed", "glob", "regex"),
  max_depth = NULL,
  show_hidden = FALSE,
  project = c("auto", "root", "none"),
  search_paths = c(".", "..", "~/Documents", "~/Projects"),
  root_markers = c(".Rproj", "DESCRIPTION"),
  format = c("ascii", "unicode"),
  return_lines = FALSE,
  quiet = FALSE,
  count_footer = TRUE,
  git = FALSE,
  git_legend = TRUE,
  prune = FALSE,
  snapshot = FALSE,
  snapshot_file = "tree.png",
  snapshot_width = 800,
  snapshot_bg = c("white", "black"),
  snapshot_path = "."
)

Arguments

path

Character. Directory path, project name, or .Rproj file. If NULL, uses current directory.
ignore

Character vector. Basenames to exclude (e.g., ".git", "renv"). With ignore_type = "auto", entries containing wildcard characters are treated as glob patterns, so values such as "*.log" or "test_*" work.
ignore_type

One of "auto", "fixed", "glob", or "regex". Controls how ignore is matched against basenames.
max_depth

Integer. Maximum depth to traverse. NULL for unlimited.
show_hidden

Logical (TRUE/FALSE). Whether to include hidden files/directories (starting with ".").
project

One of "auto", "root", "none".

  • "auto": use path as-is (no upward search)

  • "root": walk upward from path to find a project root (via root_markers) and use it if found

  • "none": never attempt root detection; print the tree from path

search_paths

Character vector. Used only when path is not an existing directory (treated as a project name). Paths are searched in order.
root_markers

Character vector. Markers used when project = "root" to detect a root directory. Special value ".Rproj" means "any file ending in .Rproj". Common markers include "DESCRIPTION" (R package root) and "_quarto.yml" (Quarto project root).
format

One of "ascii" or "unicode". "ascii" is portable for all terminals.
return_lines

Logical. If TRUE, invisibly return the printed character vector of lines.
quiet

Logical. If TRUE, suppress console output. Useful with return_lines = TRUE.
count_footer

Logical. If TRUE, append a summary like "3 directories, 12 files".
git

Logical. If TRUE, annotate files and directories with porcelain ⁠git status⁠ markers when path is inside a Git work tree.
git_legend

Logical. If TRUE and git = TRUE, append a short legend explaining the Git status markers.
prune

Logical. If TRUE, omit directories with no displayable children.
snapshot

Logical. If TRUE, gives a visual snapshot of tree.
snapshot_file

Text. Snapshot PNG name if snapshot is set as TRUE.
snapshot_width

Integer. Default set at 800.
snapshot_bg

Either white or black for snapshot background. If white, tree text appears black and vice.
snapshot_path

Character. If snapshot_path is provided, the file is saved there.

Value

Invisible NULL, or a character vector of printed lines if return_lines = TRUE.

Examples

# Create a small example directory tree
demo <- file.path(tempdir(), "printtree-demo")
if (dir.exists(demo)) unlink(demo, recursive = TRUE)
dir.create(demo, recursive = TRUE)
dir.create(file.path(demo, "R"))
file.create(file.path(demo, "R", "hello.R"))
file.create(file.path(demo, "README.md"))

# Print the tree
print_rtree(demo)

# Limit depth
print_rtree(demo, max_depth = 1)

# Save a PNG snapshot to a temporary file
png_file <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")
print_rtree(demo, snapshot = TRUE, snapshot_file = png_file)

Write a Directory Tree to a Text or Markdown File

Description

Builds a directory tree with the same options as print_rtree() and writes it to a plain text or Markdown file.

Usage

write_tree(
  path = NULL,
  file,
  format = c("txt", "md"),
  title = NULL,
  create_dirs = TRUE,
  ...
)

Arguments

path

Character. Directory path, project name, or .Rproj file. If NULL, uses current directory.
file

Character. Output file path.
format

One of "txt" or "md".
title

Optional Markdown heading used when format = "md".
create_dirs

Logical. If TRUE, create the output file's parent directory when it does not exist.
...

Additional arguments passed to print_rtree(), such as ignore, max_depth, git, or prune.

Value

Invisibly returns the output file path.

Examples

demo <- file.path(tempdir(), "printtree-write-demo")
if (dir.exists(demo)) unlink(demo, recursive = TRUE)
dir.create(demo, recursive = TRUE)
file.create(file.path(demo, "README.md"))

out <- tempfile(fileext = ".md")
write_tree(demo, out, format = "md")