Prerequisites

Before running cloc, check if it is installed:

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which cloc

If not found, install it:

•macOS: brew install cloc
•npm: npm install -g cloc
•Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install cloc
•Red Hat/Fedora: sudo yum install cloc

About cloc

cloc counts blank lines, comment lines, and physical lines of source code in 200+ programming languages. It can analyze files, directories, archives (tar, zip, .whl, .ipynb), and git commits/branches.

Common Usage

Count a directory (default: current project):

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cloc .

Count using git file list (respects .gitignore):

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cloc --vcs=git

Count a specific path:

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cloc $ARGUMENTS

Count by file (detailed breakdown):

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cloc --by-file --vcs=git

Diff between two git refs:

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cloc --git --diff <ref1> <ref2>

Exclude directories:

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cloc --exclude-dir=node_modules,vendor,.git .

Output Formats

Use these flags for machine-readable output:

•--json — JSON
•--yaml — YAML
•--csv — CSV
•--md — Markdown table
•--xml — XML

Useful Flags

Flag	Purpose
`--by-file`	Per-file breakdown instead of per-language
`--vcs=git`	Use git to get file list (respects .gitignore)
`--git`	Treat arguments as git targets (commits, branches)
`--diff <a> <b>`	Show added/removed/modified lines between two sources
`--exclude-dir=<d1,d2>`	Skip directories
`--exclude-lang=<l1,l2>`	Skip languages
`--include-lang=<l1,l2>`	Only count these languages
`--force-lang=<lang>,<ext>`	Map file extension to a language
`--processes=N`	Parallel processing (N cores)
`--quiet`	Suppress progress output

Guidelines

•Prefer --vcs=git over bare . to avoid counting generated/vendored files
•Use --json when the user needs to process the output programmatically
•When comparing versions, use --git --diff <ref1> <ref2>
•For large repos, consider --processes=N to speed things up