find_duplicates

find_duplicates(directory, method='content')

Finds duplicate files within a given directory and its subdirectories. This is the main function that will call the other functions.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
directory	str	The path to the directory to search for duplicates.	required
method	str	The method to use for finding duplicates. Can be ‘name’, ‘size’, or ‘content’.	'content'

Returns

Name	Type	Description
	dict	A dictionary where keys are duplicate identifiers and values are lists of matching file paths. Empty if none.

Raises

Type	Description
ValueError	If the provided method is not one of ‘name’, ‘size’, or ‘content’.
FileNotFoundError	If the provided directory path does not exist or is not a directory.

Examples

>>> import tempfile
>>> import os
>>> with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
...     path_1 = os.path.join(tmp, "a.txt")
...     path_2 = os.path.join(tmp, "b.txt")
...     _ = open(path_1, "w").write("same")
...     _ = open(path_2, "w").write("same")
...     duplicates = find_duplicates(tmp, method="content")
...     any(len(paths) > 1 for paths in duplicates.values())
True