Title: tree.py - graphically displays the directory structure of a specified path
Submitter: Doug Dahms (other recipes)
Last Updated: 2003/08/21
Version no: 1.0
Category: Files

Description:

The following program displays the directory structure of a specified path using ASCII characters. The program can optionally display files in addition to directories. This program functions similar to the windows 'tree' command.

Source: Text Source

#! /usr/bin/env python

# tree.py
#
# Written by Doug Dahms
#
# Prints the tree structure for the path specified on the command line

from os import listdir, sep
from os.path import abspath, basename, isdir
from sys import argv

def tree(dir, padding, print_files=False):
    print padding[:-1] + '+-' + basename(abspath(dir)) + '/'
    padding = padding + ' '
    files = []
    if print_files:
        files = listdir(dir)
    else:
        files = [x for x in listdir(dir) if isdir(dir + sep + x)]
    count = 0
    for file in files:
        count += 1
        print padding + '|'
        path = dir + sep + file
        if isdir(path):
            if count == len(files):
                tree(path, padding + ' ', print_files)
            else:
                tree(path, padding + '|', print_files)
        else:
            print padding + '+-' + file

def usage():
    return '''Usage: %s [-f] <PATH>
Print tree structure of path specified.
Options:
-f      Print files as well as directories
PATH    Path to process''' % basename(argv[0])

def main():
    if len(argv) == 1:
        print usage()
    elif len(argv) == 2:
        # print just directories
        path = argv[1]
        if isdir(path):
            tree(path, ' ')
        else:
            print 'ERROR: \'' + path + '\' is not a directory'
    elif len(argv) == 3 and argv[1] == '-f':
        # print directories and files
        path = argv[2]
        if isdir(path):
            tree(path, ' ', True)
        else:
            print 'ERROR: \'' + path + '\' is not a directory'
    else:
        print usage()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Discussion:

For some of the projects I have worked on it is necessary to document the directory [and file] structure of a specified path. Manually creating a ASCII tree representation is laborious. In the windows world there exists the 'tree' command to handle this task. However in the Linux/Unix world I was not aware of an equivalent command. Thus I created this program.