cflat (c♭)

Make your C++ project fall flat.

What is this?

cflat takes your complex directory structure and exports it into a single text file. It merges your entire C/C++ project into one massive stream of code.

Note: It does not actually delete your folders. It just ignores them in the output. Your architecture is safe.

Why?

Civilized people keep files separate. You, apparently, need them together.

• AI Fodder: Feed your entire codebase to an LLM so it can hallucinate a fix for that segfault you've been ignoring.
• Code Reviews: Send a single 50,000-line file to your reviewer. Assert dominance.
• Grepping: Search for a string across the project instantly because you still haven't memorized how to use grep -r.
• Spite: Annoy your lead architect by rendering their carefully crafted folder structure irrelevant.

Features

• Recursive: It hunts down source files in every nested folder. Deep sub-directories are no longer safe places to hide bad code.
• Fake Elegance: It runs clang-format (if installed) so your spaghetti code at least looks professional in the export.
• Hygiene: It ignores obj, bin, .git, and other binary garbage that nobody wants to read.
• Self-Preservation: It automatically adds itself and the output file to .gitignore. This prevents you from accidentally committing a 12MB text file.
• Flexible: Run it on the current folder, a target folder, or exclude specific shameful directories.

Installation

Trusting random scripts from the internet is a key part of the developer experience.

curl -O https://git.alidavid.hu/david/cflat/raw/branch/main/cflat

Make it executable:

chmod +x cflat

Usage

Default Behavior: Run this in your project root to flatten everything.

./cflat

Target a specific folder:

./cflat ../my-other-project/

The "Denial" option (Exclusions): Exclude folders you don't want the world (or the AI) to see.

./cflat -e build -e node_modules -e "legacy_code"

⚠️ Wildcards (Important)

Your shell expands * before the script sees it. If you don't use quotes, the script will break.

# Good:
./cflat -e "*.tmp"

# Bad (The shell expands this and confuses the script):
./cflat -e *.tmp

Need help?

./cflat -?

Output

The script generates a file named cflat-export-YYYY-MM-DD.txt. It contains:

1. Project Stats: How many lines of code you are dealing with.
2. The Tree: A visual map of the directory structure.
3. The Cast: A list of all classes and structs found.
4. The Blob: The full content of every source file, stitched together.

Requirements

• OS: Linux or macOS. (Windows users: please use WSL).
• Shell: Bash.
• Optional:
  • clang-format: For code cleaning.

License

MIT