braces

Convert file paths into compact braces expansion syntax.

Examples

use braces::{brace_paths, BraceConfig};

// Basic usage
let paths = vec!["foo/bar.rs", "foo/baz.rs"];
let result = brace_paths(&paths, &BraceConfig::default())?;
assert_eq!(result, "foo/{bar,baz}.rs");

Stem Splitting

Factor out common character prefixes within path segments:

let config = BraceConfig {
    allow_stem_split: true,
    ..Default::default()
};
let paths = vec!["foo/bar.rs", "foo/baz.rs"];
let result = brace_paths(&paths, &config)?;
assert_eq!(result, "foo/ba{r,z}.rs");

Segment Splitting

Control whether to create empty alternatives when one path is a prefix of another:

// Enabled (default) - creates empty alternative
let paths = vec!["a/b", "a/b/c"];
let result = brace_paths(&paths, &BraceConfig::default())?;
assert_eq!(result, "a/b{,/c}");

// Disabled - keeps paths whole
let config = BraceConfig {
    allow_segment_split: false,
    ..Default::default()
};
let result = brace_paths(&paths, &config)?;
assert_eq!(result, "a/{b,b/c}");

Sorting

// Default: sorted within braces
let paths = vec!["z.rs", "b.rs"];
let result = brace_paths(&paths, &BraceConfig::default())?;
assert_eq!(result, "{b,z}.rs");

// Preserve input order
let config = BraceConfig {
    preserve_order_within_braces: true,
    ..Default::default()
};
let result = brace_paths(&paths, &config)?;
assert_eq!(result, "{z,b}.rs");

Depth Limiting

Limit brace nesting to prevent performance issues:

let config = BraceConfig {
    max_depth: 2,
    ..Default::default()
};
let paths = vec!["a/b/c/1", "a/b/c/2", "a/b/d/3"];
let result = brace_paths(&paths, &config)?;
assert_eq!(result, "a/b/{c/{1,2},d/3}");

// With max_depth: 1
// Result: a/b/{c/1,c/2,d/3}

CLI Usage

# From arguments
braces foo/bar.rs foo/baz.rs
# Output: foo/{bar,baz}.rs

# From stdin
echo -e "foo/bar.rs\nfoo/baz.rs" | braces
# Output: foo/{bar,baz}.rs

# With options
braces --sort --stem-split foo/bar.rs foo/baz.rs

# With syntax highlighting (requires highlight feature)
braces --highlight --pretty foo/bar.rs foo/baz.rs

CLI Options

braces [OPTIONS] [PATHS...]

Option	Description
`--pretty`	Pretty-print the output with indentation
`--highlight`	Highlight brace groups with colors (requires `highlight` feature)
`--sort`	Sort items within braces alphabetically
`--stem-split`	Enable stem-level character splitting
`--no-segment-split`	Disable segment splitting (no empty components)
`--disallow-empty`	Output separate paths instead of empty braces
`--no-dedup`	Don't remove duplicate paths
`--reprocess`	Expand and reprocess existing braces
`--allow-mixed-sep`	Normalize mixed separators
`--preserve-order`	Maintain exact input order within braces
`--separator SEP`	Set path separator (default: `/`)
`--max-depth N`	Maximum brace nesting depth (default: `5`)
`--max-brace-size N`	Maximum items per brace group
`-0, --null`	Read NUL-separated input (like `xargs -0`)
`-h, --help`	Print help message

Configuration

BraceConfig options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
`path_separator`	`String`	`"/"`	Path separator to use
`max_depth`	`usize`	`5`	Maximum brace nesting depth
`max_brace_size`	`Option<usize>`	`None`	Maximum items per brace group
`allow_stem_split`	`bool`	`false`	Factor out character-level prefixes
`allow_segment_split`	`bool`	`true`	Allow empty alternatives like `{,/c}`
`sort_items`	`bool`	`false`	Sort items alphabetically
`disallow_empty_braces`	`bool`	`false`	Output separate paths instead of empty alternatives
`preserve_order_within_braces`	`bool`	`false`	Maintain exact input order within braces
`allow_mixed_separators`	`bool`	`false`	Normalize different separators to `path_separator`
`deduplicate_inputs`	`bool`	`true`	Remove duplicate paths before processing
`reprocess_braces`	`bool`	`false`	Expand and reprocess existing braces syntax
`highlight`	`bool`	`false`	Highlight braces with colors (requires `highlight` feature)

Installation

Add to your project:

cargo add braces

The easiest way to install the CLI is via cargo binstall (which pulls pre-built binaries from the release).

cargo binstall braces

To build it yourself:

# Basic CLI
cargo install braces --features cli

# CLI with syntax highlighting
cargo install braces --features cli-highlight

# CLI with all features
cargo install braces --features cli-full

Features

The crate supports the following feature flags:

cli - Enables the command-line interface
highlight - Enables syntax highlighting for brace output
cli-highlight - Convenience feature enabling both cli and highlight
cli-full - Alias for cli-highlight with all CLI features

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT license at your option.

braces 0.2.6