Unnest_Renest_directory.R

if (!"here" %in% installed.packages()[,"Package"]) install.packages('here')

library(here)

dir_home <- here()

# Function to un-nest all files in sub directories.
unnest_dir <- function(.root, sep="_DIR_SEP_"){
  #list all the files in the directory and sub dirs
  files <- list.files(.root, full.names = F, recursive = T)
  # generate new names for the files
  new_names <- lapply(files, function(x) file.path(.root, gsub("/", sep, x)))
  # get the full paths for the original names
  old_names_full <- lapply(files, function(x) file.path(.root, x))
  # map the renaming across all files
  mapply(function(x,y) file.rename(x, y),old_names_full, new_names)
  #remove redundant folders
  lapply(list.dirs(dir_home,recursive = F), 
         function(x) unlink(x, recursive=T, force=T))
  
  message('Files have been un-nested!')
  
}

# run un-nest function...
unnest_dir(dir_home)

# function to re-nest files based on the `sep` value in unnest_dir()
renest_dir <- function(.root, sep="_DIR_SEP_"){
  # list all files in sub directories
  files <- list.files(.root, full.names = F, recursive = T)
  # created new names for nested files
  nested_names <- lapply(files, function(x) file.path(.root, gsub(sep, "/", x)))
  # recreate directories for all files
  lapply(nested_names, function(x) 
    if (!dir.exists(dirname(x))) dir.create(dirname(x), recursive = T))
  # get current full path names
  current_names <- lapply(files, function(x) file.path(.root, x))
  # map renaming function
  mapply(function(x,y) file.rename(x, y),current_names, nested_names)
  
  message('Files have been re-nested!')
  
}


renest_dir( dir_home)