Linux and Unix tree command

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About tree
Syntax
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About tree

List the contents of directories in a tree-like format.

Syntax

tree [-adfgilnopqrstuxACDFNS] [-L level [-R]] [-H baseHREF] [-T title] [-o filename] [--nolinks] [-P pattern] [-I pattern] [--inodes] [--device] [--noreport] [--dirsfirst] [--version] [--help] [directory ...]

--help	Outputs a verbose usage listing.
--version	Outputs the version of tree.
-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.
-f	Prints the full path prefix for each file.
-i	Makes tree not print the indentation lines, useful when used in conjunction with the -f option.
-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.
-x	Stay on the current file-system only. Ala find -xdev.
-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 single character not listed in brackets) and `\|' separates alternate patterns.
-I pattern	Do not list those files that match the wild-card pattern.
--noreport	Omits printing of the file and directory report at the end of the tree listing.
-p	Print the protections for each file (as per ls -l).
-s	Print the size of each file along with the name.
-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.
-D	Print the date of the last modification time for the file listed.
--inodes	Prints the inode number of the file or directory
--device	Prints the device number to which the file or directory belongs
-F	Append a `/' for directories, a `=' for socket files, a `*' for executable files and a `\|' for FIFO's, as per ls -F
-q	Print non-printable characters in filenames as question marks instead of the default carrot notation.
-N	Print non-printable characters as is instead of the default carrot notation.
-r	Sort the output in reverse alphabetic order.
-t	Sort the output by last modification time instead of alphabetically.
--dirsfirst	List directories before files.
-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.
-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 will eventually be depreciated.
-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.
-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://host-name.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 stylesheet, 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.
--charset charset	Set the character set to use when outputting HTML and for line drawing.
--nolinks	Turns off hyperlinks in HTML output.
-o filename	Send output to filename.

Examples

tree

running the command without any option will give a tree output of the current directory and alls sub directories. Therefore if you're at root it's not a good idea to run this command alone otherwise it will list every file and directory on the computer.

tree -L 1

List the directories and files in the current directory. Below is an example of what this may look like.

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Linux and Unix tree command

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