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Print an R Project or Directory Tree

Source: R/print_rtree.R
print_rtree.Rd

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.

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"))
#> [1] TRUE
file.create(file.path(demo, "README.md"))
#> [1] TRUE

# Print the tree
print_rtree(demo)
#> printtree-demo/
#> |-- R/
#> |   `-- hello.R
#> `-- README.md
#> 
#> 1 directory, 2 files 

# Limit depth
print_rtree(demo, max_depth = 1)
#> printtree-demo/
#> |-- R/
#> `-- README.md
#> 
#> 1 directory, 1 file 

# Save a PNG snapshot to a temporary file
png_file <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")
print_rtree(demo, snapshot = TRUE, snapshot_file = png_file)
#> printtree-demo/
#> |-- R/
#> |   `-- hello.R
#> `-- README.md
#> 
#> 1 directory, 2 files