gitclean

A fast Rust CLI to scan and clean files and directories ignored by .gitignore across your project. It detects ignored items, shows sizes, and lets you interactively delete them.

Features

• Recursively collects .gitignore rules (supports nested .gitignore)
• Extra ignore patterns via CLI (-i ".env*,.config*")
• Preserves common secret/config files by default (negated patterns)
• Parallel size computation (WalkDir + Rayon)
• TUI multiselect (inquire) with sizes, sorted descending
• Informative spinners and logs (indicatif + console)

Install

Build from source:

cargo install --path .

Or build a release binary:

cargo build --release
./target/release/gitclean .

Usage

gitclean <PATH> [--ignores|-i "pattern1,pattern2,..."]

Examples:

# Current directory
gitclean .

# Custom root path
gitclean /path/to/project

# Add extra ignore patterns (comma-separated)
gitclean . -i ".env*,.config*,*.log"

Logs & UX

• Startup header: shows version, root, default and extra pattern counts
• Spinners for: loading .gitignore, scanning ignored items, computing sizes
• Summary after scanning: total ignored (dirs/files)
• Deletion logs include size per item

Library usage

Core logic is exposed as a library for reuse:

use gitclean::{gather_gitignores, scan_ignored_files, calculate_sizes, format_size};
use indicatif::ProgressBar;
use std::path::Path;

let root = Path::new(".").canonicalize().unwrap();
let spinner = ProgressBar::hidden();
let extra: Vec<String> = vec![];
let map = gather_gitignores(&root, &spinner, &extra)?;
let ignored = scan_ignored_files(&root, &map, &spinner)?;
let items = calculate_sizes(ignored, &spinner, &root)?;
println!("{} items", items.len());

Module layout

• src/lib.rs: public re-exports
• src/patterns.rs: default ignore patterns
• src/types.rs: shared types (ItemWithSize)
• src/ignore.rs: .gitignore loading (gather_gitignores)
• src/scan.rs: scan logic (scan_ignored_files, is_path_ignored)
• src/size.rs: size computation (calculate_sizes)
• src/fsops.rs: file ops (remove_item)
• src/util.rs: helpers (format_size)
• src/main.rs: thin CLI using the library

Development

# Run tests
cargo test

# Build release
cargo build --release

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and follow the CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.

License

MIT © 2025 Jordy Fontoura