dir-kill 🗂️

A Rust-based directory management tool that helps you find and manage directories. It provides terminal user interface for discovering directories matching specific patterns.

What it does

dir-kill scans your file system to find directories that match specified patterns. It's particularly useful for finding and deleting stale project directories like node_modules, target, dist, and other build artifacts to help clean up disk space.

CLI Usage

Basic Commands

# Find all node_modules directories
dir-kill ls <pattern> <path-directory (default: .)>

Command Options

dir-kill ls <pattern> [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS:
    -h, --help             Show help information
    -i, --ignore <PATTERNS>    Comma-separated regex patterns for directories to ignore

Examples

# Find node_modules directories
dir-kill ls node_modules

# Find node_modules directories but ignore .git and temp directories
dir-kill ls node_modules --ignore "\.git,temp"

# Find target directories but ignore specific project directories
dir-kill ls target --ignore "important-project,\.cargo"

# Find dist directories with multiple ignore patterns
dir-kill ls dist -i "node_modules,\.git,backup"

Nested Pattern Avoidance

dir-kill automatically avoids nested pattern matches to prevent infinite recursion and redundant results. For example:

• When searching for node_modules, it won't scan inside existing node_modules directories
• When searching for dist, it won't scan inside existing dist directories
• When searching for target, it won't scan inside existing target directories

This behavior:

• Prevents infinite recursion in deeply nested directory structures
• Improves performance by avoiding redundant scanning
• Reduces noise in results by focusing on top-level matches
• Works automatically for any pattern you search for

Examples:

# Will find /project/node_modules but skip /project/node_modules/some-package/node_modules
dir-kill ls node_modules

# Will find /project/dist but skip /project/dist/build/dist  
dir-kill ls dist

# Will find /project/target but skip /project/target/debug/target
dir-kill ls target

Installation

From Source

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/saiumesh535/dir-kill.git
cd dir-kill
cargo build --release

# Run directly
cargo run -- ls node_modules

From release

1. Download the latest release from here
2. chmod +x dir-kill
3. mv dir-kill /usr/local/bin/dir-kill

dir-kill ls node_modules