cloc

name	cloc
description	Count lines of code, blank lines, comment lines, and files by language. Use when quickly assessing the size, complexity, and composition of a repository during an audit.

cloc — Code Line Counter

Basic Usage

# Count all code in current directory
cloc .

# Count specific directory
cloc ./src

# Count multiple repos
cloc /path/to/repo1 /path/to/repo2

Common Options

# Output formats
cloc . --csv              # CSV output
cloc . --json             # JSON output
cloc . --yaml             # YAML output

# Exclude directories
cloc . --exclude-dir=node_modules,.git,build,dist

# Show file-level details
cloc . --by-file

# Hide comments/blanks (code only)
cloc . --code-only

When to Use

• Initial assessment of a repository's size and language distribution
• Compare repository composition against benchmarks
• Identify areas with high code volume (potential maintenance burden)
• Fill in profile.json with language statistics

Examples

# JSON output for parsing
cloc . --json --out=cloc.json

# Exclude common non-source dirs
cloc . --exclude-dir=node_modules,.venv,__pycache__,vendor,.git

# Summary only (no per-file details)
cloc . --quiet

Output Fields

Field	Description
Language	Programming language
files	Number of files
blank	Blank lines
comment	Comment lines
code	Actual code lines
SUM	Totals row