This bash script receives a local folder as argument and generate a JSON object with the nested tree structure of that directory, including subdirectories and files. I'm then using this data together with rc-tree to visualize my folders in a web application. Sample usage: ./generate_dir_tree.sh /Users/antonio/myDir

generate_dir_tree.sh

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 <folder_path>"
    exit 1
fi

generate_id() {
    echo $(( RANDOM % 1000 + 1 ))
}

generate_json() {
    local dir="$1"
    local id="$2"
    local json=""

    local items=("$dir"/*)
    local count=0

    for item in "${items[@]}"; do
        if [ -d "$item" ]; then
            if [ $count -gt 0 ]; then
                json="$json,"
            fi
            sub_id=$(generate_id)
            sub_json=$(generate_json "$item" "$sub_id")
            if [ "$sub_json" != "" ]; then
                json="$json$sub_json"
                count=$((count+1))
            fi
        elif [ -f "$item" ]; then
            if [ $count -gt 0 ]; then
                json="$json,"
            fi
            json="$json{\"id\": $(generate_id), \"name\": \"$(basename "$item")\"}"
            count=$((count+1))
        fi
    done

    if [ "$json" != "" ]; then
        json="{\"id\": $id, \"name\": \"$(basename "$dir")\", \"content\": [$json]}"
    fi

    echo "$json"
}

folder_path="$1"
output_file="tree_structure.json"

main_json=$(generate_json "$folder_path" "$(generate_id)")

main_json=$(echo "$main_json" | jq '.content')

echo "$main_json" > "$output_file"

echo "Tree structure JSON generated and saved to $output_file"