ddupe

ddupe is a fast, safe, cross-platform command-line tool for finding and removing duplicate files.
Duplicates are detected by hashing file contents using SHA-256, so files are matched by content, not name or location.

Useful for cleaning up:

• Photo collections
• Download folders
• Backups / archives
• Source trees
• Any directory full of near-identical files

ddupe works recursively and will scan an entire directory tree.

📘 Summary

🚀 Capabilities at a Glance

• 🔎 Deep recursive scanning of entire directory trees
• 🧠 Content-based detection using SHA-256 hashes
• 🎨 Readable output with colours and group markers
• 📊 Progress bars for large scans
• 🧪 Dry-run mode for safe previews
• 🗑️ Optional deletion with clear KEEP/DUPE status
• 💾 Total space estimate before removing anything
• 🧰 Pure Rust library + thin CLI wrapper
• 🌍 Cross-platform binaries via GitHub Actions

❓ Why ddupe?

Most duplicate cleaners rely on filenames, heuristics, or metadata.
ddupe instead:

• hashes the actual file content
• groups truly identical files regardless of name or location
• avoids false matches or “smart guessing”
• works the same on Linux, macOS, and Windows
• is scriptable, testable, and written with safe Rust practices

✨ Features

• 🔍 Fast recursive scanning
• 🧠 Content-based deduplication (SHA-256)
• 🎨 Colourised output for clarity
• 📊 Progress bar while hashing
• 🧮 Reports how much disk space can be freed
• 👟 Interactive mode (-i) to accept/reject each duplicate (or keep all)
• 🔒 Safe by default – always asks before deleting
• 🧪 Dry-run mode (--dry-run) to preview deletions
• 🧾 JSON report output (--json-output <file>) that never deletes or prompts
• 💥 Optional Windows/Linux/macOS binaries (cross-compiled)

📦 Installation

🔧 Build from source (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/yourname/ddupe.git
cd ddupe
cargo build --release
# binary will be at target/release/ddupe

🧾 JSON report (no deletions)

Export a structured report without deleting or prompting:

ddupe --json-output /path/to/report.json /path/to/scan

This behaves like a dry run: it never deletes files, produces no terminal output, and writes the analysis to the specified JSON file. In the JSON report, all files in a duplicate group are listed (no preselected “keep”). It skips the KEEP/DUPE listing but still shows the header and progress.

🛠️ Development

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test