# Formatting directory listings **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 10, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075 "2010-08-10T20:26:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/simonh)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075/1 "2010-08-10T20:26:43Z")
Hi. Given an (imaginary) directory structure like so: Movies/ film1/film1.avi film2/film2.avi film3/film3.avi etc. I’d like to get a directory listing like so: # Movies film1 film2 film3 etc. I don’t want anyone to actually do this for me, rather point me to a tutorial that deals with this sort of thing. By the way, I know that: films = Dir[’\*\*/\*.avi’] will give me an array with the full pathnames. I’m after help with extracting the parent directory name. Thanks for any help. ---
**Author:** ![simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/simonh)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075/2 "2010-08-10T20:59:31Z")
On 10/08/10 20:25 , simonh wrote: > Movies > By the way, I know that: > > films = Dir[’\*\*/\*.avi’] > > will give me an array with the full pathnames. I’m after help with > extracting the parent directory name. > > Thanks for any help. > Checkout Rake::FileList and especially Rake::FileList#pathmap which will > go a long way towards doing what you want. > Cheers, > V.- ---
**Author:** ![simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/simonh)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075/3 "2010-08-10T22:08:02Z")
Thanks Vassilis. I’d prefer to not install anything to accomplish this. Also, I’d like to slightly to rephrase my aim: 1. Start off in ‘Movies’ directory. 2. Go into each subdir and get list of movies for that subdir. I’ve found how to just get the filename instead of full path: Dir[’\*\*/ \*.avi’].collect { |vid| File.basename(vid) } 3. Store which movies are in each subdir. 4. Output the result. ---
**Author:** ![simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/simonh)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075/4 "2010-08-10T22:27:57Z")
On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 4:05 PM, simonh [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Thanks Vassilis. I’d prefer to not install anything to accomplish > this. Also, I’d like to slightly to rephrase my aim: > > 1. Start off in ‘Movies’ directory. > 2. Go into each subdir and get list of movies for that subdir. I’ve > found how to just get the filename instead of full path: Dir[‘\*\*/ > \*.avi’].collect { |vid| File.basename(vid) } [http://ruby-doc.org/core/classes/File.html#M002542](http://ruby-doc.org/core/classes/File.html#M002542) > 1. Store which movies are in each subdir. movie\_store = { “directory1” =\> [“file1”, “file2”, “file3”], “directory2” =\> [“file4”, “file4”, “file6”] } > 1. Output the result. […] ---
**Author:** ![simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/simonh)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 12:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075/5 "2010-08-11T12:52:44Z")
simonh wrote: > By the way, I know that: > > films = Dir[’\*\*/\*.avi’] > > will give me an array with the full pathnames. I’m after help with > extracting the parent directory name. (1) You can strip it textually path = “foo/bar/baz.avi” basename = path.sub(/^.\*//,’’) (2) You can use the Pathname class require ‘pathname’ path = “foo/bar/baz.avi” basename = Pathname.new(path).basename.to\_s (3) You can use Dir.foreach in a specific directory (but that won’t traverse arbitrary subdirectories like \*_/_ does) Dir.foreach("/etc") { |b| puts b } ---
**Author:** ![simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/simonh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075/6 "2010-08-12T00:12:47Z")
On Wed, 11 Aug 2010, simonh wrote: > Thanks Vassilis. I’d prefer to not install anything to accomplish > this. Also, I’d like to slightly to rephrase my aim: > > 1. Start off in ‘Movies’ directory. > 2. Go into each subdir and get list of movies for that subdir. I’ve > found how to just get the filename instead of full path: Dir[’\*\*/ > \*.avi’].collect { |vid| File.basename(vid) } > 3. Store which movies are in each subdir. > 4. Output the result. Try this: files = Hash.new { |hash, key| hash[key] = [] } Dir[’\*\*/\*.avi’].each do |file| files[File.dirname(file)] \<\< File.basename(file) end Not sure how you want the output formatted, but I believe that creates the data structure you’re looking for: irb\> pp files {“movies/film1”=\>[“film1.avi”], “movies/film2”=\>[“film2.avi”], “movies/film3”=\>[“film3.avi”], “tv/mad\_men/season1”=\>[“episode3.avi”, “episode2.avi”, “episode1.avi”]} ---
**Author:** ![simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@simonh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/simonh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/formatting-directory-listings/193075/7 "2010-08-12T21:20:47Z")
Thanks very much mb… That’s just what I was after.