ct-lines

A command-line tool for counting lines of code, comments, and blank lines in files within a directory. This tool is based on the vscode-counter VS Code extension and provides similar functionality in a CLI environment.

Features

• Counts lines of code, comments, and blank lines in files
• Supports multiple programming languages out of the box
• Customizable language definitions
• Respects .gitignore files
• Multiple output formats (text, JSON, CSV)
• Progress bar for long-running operations
• Configurable file inclusion/exclusion patterns
• Detailed statistics by language and directory

Installation

npm install -g ct-lines

Usage

ct-lines <directory> [options]

Options

• -i, --include <pattern>: Glob patterns for files to include (can be specified multiple times). Default: ['**/*']
• -e, --exclude <pattern>: Glob patterns for files/directories to exclude (can be specified multiple times)
• --use-gitignore: Use .gitignore files found in the target directory to exclude files. Default: true
• --language-conf <path>: Path to a custom JSON file defining or overriding language configurations
• -f, --output-format <format>: Format for the summary output. Options: text, json, csv. Default: text
• -o, --output-dir <path>: Directory to save detailed results files (results.json, results.txt, etc.)
• --encoding <encoding>: File encoding to use when reading files. Default: utf8
• --ignore-unsupported: Ignore files for which no language definition is found. Default: true
• --include-incomplete-line: Count the last line even if it doesn't end with a newline. Default: false
• --print-commas: Print numbers with commas. Default: true

Examples

Count lines in the current directory:

ct-lines .

Count lines in a specific directory, excluding test files:

ct-lines src --exclude "**/*.test.*" --exclude "**/__tests__/**"

Count lines and save results in multiple formats:

ct-lines . --output-dir results

Use a custom language configuration:

ct-lines . --language-conf custom-languages.json

Language Configuration

The tool comes with built-in language definitions for common programming languages. You can override or extend these definitions by providing a custom JSON file with the --language-conf option.

Example language configuration:

{
  "typescript": {
    "aliases": ["ts"],
    "extensions": [".ts", ".tsx"],
    "lineComments": ["//"],
    "blockComments": [["/*", "*/"]],
    "blockStrings": [["`", "`"]],
    "lineStrings": ["'", "\""]
  }
}

Output Formats

Text Format

The default text format provides a human-readable table with statistics organized by language, directory, and individual files.

JSON Format

The JSON format provides a structured representation of the results, including:

• Total statistics
• Statistics by language
• Statistics by directory
• Individual file statistics

CSV Format

The CSV format provides a tabular representation of the results, with one row per file and columns for:

• Filename
• Language
• Code lines per language
• Comment lines
• Blank lines
• Total lines

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

See the LICENSE file for the full license text.

Versioning and Release Process

This project uses semantic-release to automate version management and package publishing. The release process is triggered on every push to the main branch and follows the Angular Commit Message Convention.

How It Works

1. Analyzes commit messages since the last release
2. Determines the next version number based on the types of changes
3. Generates/updates the CHANGELOG.md
4. Creates a new GitHub release with release notes
5. Updates package.json with the new version
6. Publishes to npm (if configured)

Commit Message Convention

We follow the Angular Commit Message Convention. Example:

feat(cli): add new option for output format
fix(core): handle empty files gracefully

Breaking changes should include BREAKING CHANGE: in the commit body or a ! after the type/scope.

Manual Release

To trigger a release manually:

1. Ensure you're on the main branch
2. Run:

npx semantic-release

See .releaserc.json for configuration details.