Is it possible to show the size of files next to the file names inside Sublime sidebar?

Question

I run an application that generates and updates a number of files in a specific folder. While the application runs, I observe the content of the folder through the sublime sidebar. Because I am interested to see the current size of each file while the application runs, I have an open terminal (Mac) where I use the following command to get the live state of the folder.

watch -d ls -al -h folderName

I was wondering if I can obtain this information directly from sublime.

So my question is: Is it possible to have the size of each file next to the file-names in the sublime sidebar? And if yes, how?

Answer 1

Since the sidebar is not in the official API, I don't think this is possible or at least it is not easy.

However getting the information into sublime text is easy. You can archive this by using a view. Just execute the ls command and write the result in the view.

I wrote a small (ST3) plugin for this purpose:

import subprocess
import sublime
import sublime_plugin

# change to whatever command you want to execute
commands = ["ls", "-a", "-s", "-1", "-h"]
# the update interval
TIMEOUT = 2000  # ms


def watch_folder(view, watch_command):
    """create a closure to watch a folder and update the view content"""
    window = view.window()

    def watch():
        # stop if the view is not longer open
        open_views = [v.id() for v in window.views()]
        if view.id() not in open_views:
            print("closed")
            return

        # execute the command and read the output
        output = subprocess.check_output(watch_command).decode()
        # replace the view content with the output
        view.set_read_only(False)
        view.run_command("select_all")
        view.run_command("insert", {"characters": output})
        view.set_read_only(True)

        # call this function again after the interval
        sublime.set_timeout(watch, TIMEOUT)
    return watch


class WatchFolderCommand(sublime_plugin.WindowCommand):
    def run(self):
        folders = self.window.folders()
        if not folders:
            sublime.error_message("You don't have opened any folders")
            return
        folder = folders[0]  # get the first folder
        watch_command = commands + [folder]

        # create a view and set the desired properties
        view = self.window.new_file()
        view.set_name("Watch files")
        view.set_scratch(True)
        view.set_read_only(True)
        view.settings().set("auto_indent", False)

        # create and call the watch closure
        watch_folder(view, watch_command)()

Just open the User folder (or any other sub-folder of Packages), create a python file (e.g. watch_folder.py) and paste the source code.

You can bind it to a keybinding by pasting the following to your keymap:

{
    "keys": ["ctrl+alt+shift+w"],
    "command": "watch_folder",
},