Linux: View Directory as Tree

The command tree prints a dir in a visual tree format, similar to pstree for processes.

to install:

sudo apt-get install tree

For example, here's a tree view of /etc/X11 dir.

Tree view is useful, for example:

• Get overview of the dir structure of a large project.
• You need to organize your files and see each's file size.

Useful Options

Here's some of the most useful options.

-f

Show full path.

-L level

Specify depth.

-P pattern

Using wildcard to match file names to limit listing. For example, -P '*html' to show only html files. Note: this will still show directories even if it doesn't contain matching file.

-d

Show dirs only.

-r

Reverse order.

-t

Sort output by last modification time.

--dirsfirst

List dir before files.

--filelimit n

Don't go into dir that's more than n files.

-F

Display file type indicator. For example, “/” for dir, “*” for executable, etc.

-p

Show file perm and type.

-h

Print file size in human readable format.

See man tree for more options.