TREE(1) General Commands Manual TREE(1)
NAME
tree - list contents of directories in a tree-like format.
SYNOPSIS
tree [-acdfghilnpqrstuvxACDFQNSUX] [-L level [-R]] [-H baseHREF] [-T title] [-o filename] [--nolinks] [-P pattern] [-I pattern] [--inodes]
[--device] [--noreport] [--dirsfirst] [--version] [--help] [--filelimit #] [--si] [--prune] [--du] [--timefmt format] [directory ...]
DESCRIPTION
Tree is a recursive directory listing program that produces a depth indented listing of files, which is colorized ala dircolors if the
LS_COLORS environment variable is set and output is to tty. With no arguments, tree lists the files in the current directory. When direc-
tory arguments are given, tree lists all the files and/or directories found in the given directories each in turn. Upon completion of
listing all files/directories found, tree returns the total number of files and/or directories listed.
By default, when a symbolic link is encountered, the path that the symbolic link refers to is printed after the name of the link in the
format:
name -> real-path
If the `-l' option is given and the symbolic link refers to an actual directory, then tree will follow the path of the symbolic link as if
it were a real directory.
OPTIONS
Tree understands the following command line switches:
LISTING OPTIONS
-a All files are printed. By default tree does not print hidden files (those beginning with a dot `.'). In no event does tree print
the file system constructs `.' (current directory) and `..' (previous directory).
-d List directories only.
-l Follows symbolic links if they point to directories, as if they were directories. Symbolic links that will result in recursion are
avoided when detected.
-f Prints the full path prefix for each file.
-x Stay on the current file-system only. Ala find -xdev.
-L level
Max display depth of the directory tree.
-R Recursively cross down the tree each level directories (see -L option), and at each of them execute tree again adding `-o
00Tree.html' as a new option.
-P pattern
List only those files that match the wild-card pattern. Note: you must use the -a option to also consider those files beginning
with a dot `.' for matching. Valid wildcard operators are `*' (any zero or more characters), `?' (any single character), `[...]'
(any single character listed between brackets (optional - (dash) for character range may be used: ex: [A-Z]), and `[^...]' (any sin-
gle character not listed in brackets) and `|' separates alternate patterns.
-I pattern
Do not list those files that match the wild-card pattern.
--prune
Makes tree prune empty directories from the output, useful when used in conjunction with -P or -I. See BUGS AND NOTES below for
more information on this option.
--noreport
Omits printing of the file and directory report at the end of the tree listing.
--charset charset
Set the character set to use when outputting HTML and for line drawing.
--filelimit #
Do not descend directories that contain more than # entries.
--timefmt format
Prints (implies -D) and formats the date according to the format string which uses the strftime(3) syntax.
-o filename
Send output to filename.
FILE OPTIONS
-q Print non-printable characters in filenames as question marks instead of the default.
-N Print non-printable characters as is instead of as escaped octal numbers.
-Q Quote the names of files in double quotes.
-p Print the file type and permissions for each file (as per ls -l).
-u Print the username, or UID # if no username is available, of the file.
-g Print the group name, or GID # if no group name is available, of the file.
-s Print the size of each file in bytes along with the name.
-h Print the size of each file but in a more human readable way, e.g. appending a size letter for kilobytes (K), megabytes (M), giga-
bytes (G), terabytes (T), petabytes (P) and exabytes (E).
--si Like -h but use SI units (powers of 1000) instead.
--du For each directory report its size as the accumulation of sizes of all its files and sub-directories (and their files, and so on).
The total amount of used space is also given in the final report (like the 'du -c' command.) This option requires tree to read the
entire directory tree before emitting it, see BUGS AND NOTES below. Implies -s.
-D Print the date of the last modification time or if -c is used, the last status change time for the file listed.
-F Append a `/' for directories, a `=' for socket files, a `*' for executable files, a `>' for doors (Solaris) and a `|' for FIFO's, as
per ls -F
--inodes
Prints the inode number of the file or directory
--device
Prints the device number to which the file or directory belongs
SORTING OPTIONS
-v Sort the output by version.
-r Sort the output in reverse alphabetic order.
-t Sort the output by last modification time instead of alphabetically.
-c Sort the output by last status change instead of alphabetically. Modifies the -D option (if used) to print the last status change
instead of modification time.
-U Do not sort. Lists files in directory order. Disables --dirsfirst.
--dirsfirst
List directories before files. This is a meta-sort that alters the above sorts. This option is disabled when -U is used.
GRAPHICS OPTIONS
-i Makes tree not print the indentation lines, useful when used in conjunction with the -f option.
-A Turn on ANSI line graphics hack when printing the indentation lines.
-S Turn on ASCII line graphics (useful when using Linux console mode fonts). This option is now equivalent to `--charset=IBM437' and
may eventually be depreciated.
-n Turn colorization off always, over-ridden by the -C option.
-C Turn colorization on always, using built-in color defaults if the LS_COLORS environment variable is not set. Useful to colorize
output to a pipe.
XML
/HTML OPTIONS
-X Turn on XML output. Outputs the directory tree as an XML formatted file.
-H baseHREF
Turn on HTML output, including HTTP references. Useful for ftp sites. baseHREF gives the base ftp location when using HTML output.
That is, the local directory may be `/local/ftp/pub', but it must be referenced as `ftp://hostname.organization.domain/pub'
(baseHREF should be `ftp://hostname.organization.domain'). Hint: don't use ANSI lines with this option, and don't give more than one
directory in the directory list. If you wish to use colors via CCS style-sheet, use the -C option in addition to this option to
force color output.
-T title
Sets the title and H1 header string in HTML output mode.
--nolinks
Turns off hyperlinks in HTML output.
MISC OPTIONS
--help Outputs a verbose usage listing.
--version
Outputs the version of tree.
FILES
/etc/DIR_COLORS System color database.
~/.dircolors Users color database.
ENVIRONMENT
LS_COLORS Color information created by dircolors
TREE_COLORS Uses this for color information over LS_COLORS if it is set.
TREE_CHARSET Character set for tree to use in HTML mode.
LC_CTYPE Locale for filename output.
LC_TIME Locale for timefmt output, see strftime(3).
TZ Timezone for timefmt output, see strftime(3).
AUTHOR
Steve Baker (ice@mama.indstate.edu)
HTML output hacked by Francesc Rocher (rocher@econ.udg.es)
Charsets and OS/2 support by Kyosuke Tokoro (NBG01720@nifty.ne.jp)
BUGS AND NOTES
Tree does not prune "empty" directories when the -P and -I options are used by default. Use the --prune option.
The -h and --si options round to the nearest whole number unlike the ls implementations which rounds up always.
Pruning files and directories with the -I, -P and --filelimit options will lead to incorrect file/directory count reports.
The --prune and --du options cause tree to accumulate the entire tree in memory before emitting it. For large directory trees this can
cause a significant delay in output and the use of large amounts of memory.
The timefmt expansion buffer is limited to a ridiculously large 255 characters. Output of time strings longer than this will be undefined,
but are guaranteed to not exceed 255 characters.
XML trees are not colored, which is a bit of a shame.
Probably more.
SEE ALSO
dircolors(1), ls(1), find(1), du(1), strftime(3)
Tree 1.6.0 TREE(1)