File System Navigator Challenge

Meetup: Wildcard Wizards Date: 2024-10-05

Background

You're tasked with creating a file system navigator for a Unix-like system. The navigator should parse a list of file paths and generate a structured representation of the file system.

Challenge

Write a script that takes a list of file paths as input and produces a nested dictionary representing the file system structure. Each file should be represented as a dictionary/hash with metadata including type, size, date, and time.

Requirements

1. No imports allowed. Except for final line for Data Dumper / pprint.

2. Bonus points for conciseness.

3. Input will be a list of strings, each representing a file path.

4. Output should be a nested dictionary/hash representing the file system structure.

5. No AI or internet help - this must be solved by human hands!

Example Input

x
/home/user/documents/report.txt^15360^2024-09-28^14:30:22^text
/home/user/documents/meeting_notes.docx^24576^2024-10-01^09:45:13^document
/home/user/documents/budget_2024.xlsx^51200^2024-09-30^16:20:05^spreadsheet
/home/user/documents/project/code.pl^4096^2024-10-03^11:55:30^code
/home/user/documents/project/readme.md^2048^2024-10-02^08:15:44^markdown
/home/user/documents/project/data/input.csv^102400^2024-09-29^10:30:18^csv
/home/user/documents/project/data/output.json^81920^2024-10-03^15:40:27^json
/home/user/downloads/image.jpg^2097152^2024-09-25^18:05:33^image
/home/user/downloads/presentation.pptx^5242880^2024-10-01^11:20:09^presentation
/home/user/downloads/software_v2.3.zip^104857600^2024-09-27^22:15:50^archive
/home/user/pictures/vacation/beach.png^3145728^2024-08-15^09:30:12^image
/home/user/pictures/vacation/sunset.jpg^2621440^2024-08-15^19:45:23^image
/home/user/pictures/family_reunion.jpg^4194304^2024-09-05^14:20:36^image
/home/user/music/playlist1/song1.mp3^5242880^2024-09-10^08:55:17^audio
/home/user/music/playlist1/song2.mp3^4718592^2024-09-10^09:00:05^audio
/home/user/music/audiobook/chapter1.m4a^15728640^2024-09-20^21:30:44^audio
/home/user/.config/app_settings.ini^1024^2024-09-15^12:10:33^config
/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa^1536^2024-07-01^10:00:00^key
/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub^512^2024-07-01^10:00:00^key
/var/log/system.log^1048576^2024-10-04^23:59:59^log
/var/log/apache2/access.log^5242880^2024-10-04^23:59:58^log
/var/log/apache2/error.log^1048576^2024-10-04^23:59:57^log
/var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log^2097152^2024-10-04^23:59:56^log
/etc/config/settings.conf^4096^2024-09-01^00:00:00^config
/etc/nginx/nginx.conf^8192^2024-09-15^14:30:00^config
/etc/ssh/sshd_config^3072^2024-08-30^11:45:22^config
/etc/cron.d/backup_script^1024^2024-09-10^03:00:00^script
/usr/local/bin/custom_script.sh^2048^2024-09-25^16:40:12^script
/opt/application/app.jar^52428800^2024-09-28^09:15:30^java
/opt/application/config/database.yml^2048^2024-09-28^09:15:31^config
/tmp/temp_file.tmp^10240^2024-10-04^20:45:18^temporary
/root/.bashrc^4096^2024-08-01^00:00:00^config
/root/important_backups/db_dump_20240304.sql^104857600^2024-03-04^03:00:00^database

Example Output

xxxxxxxxxx
{
    'home': {
        'user': {
            'documents': [
                {
                    'type': 'report.txt',
                    'file': 'text',
                    'time': '15360',
                    'date': '2024-09-28',
                    'size': '14:30:22'
                },
                {
                    'type': 'meeting_notes.docx',
                    'file': 'document',
                    'time': '24576',
                    'date': '2024-10-01',
                    'size': '09:45:13'
                }
            ],
            'downloads': [
                {
                    'type': 'image.jpg',
                    'file': 'image',
                    'time': '2097152',
                    'date': '2024-09-25',
                    'size': '18:05:33'
                }
            ]
        }
    },
    'var': {
        'log': [
            {
                'type': 'system.log',
                'file': 'log',
                'time': '1048576',
                'date': '2024-10-04',
                'size': '23:59:59'
            }
        ]
    },
    'etc': {
        'nginx': [
            {
                'type': 'nginx.conf',
                'file': 'config',
                'time': '8192',
                'date': '2024-09-15',
                'size': '14:30:00'
            }
        ]
    },
    'tmp': [
        {
            'type': 'temp_file.tmp',
            'file': 'temporary',
            'time': '10240',
            'date': '2024-10-04',
            'size': '20:45:18'
        }
    ]
}

Evaluation Criteria

1. Correctness: The solution must correctly parse the input and generate the required output structure.

2. Conciseness: Shorter, more elegant solutions will be favored.

3. Efficiency: The solution should be able to handle large inputs efficiently.

4. Adherence to requirements: No imports should be used.

Good luck!