How to display a text-based file and folder tree on the command line
If you need to see a visual layout of files and directories from the current directory in a tree, you can do so by piping the output from a recursive "ls" command into a "grep" search, then piping those results into "sed" replacements to build the tree view.
Open a new Terminal window, switch to the directory you'd like to list, then enter this command:
ls -R | grep ":$" | sed -e 's/:$//' -e 's/[^-][^\/]*\//--/g'
-e 's/^/ /' -e 's/-/|/'
Explanation of the commands
ls -R - list all files recursively
grep ":$" - find all lines ending in ":" (a colon)
sed -e 's/:$//'... - remove all trailing ":" (colons), replace "-" (dashes) with "|" (pipes), and replace "/" (forward slashes) with "–" (double dashes)
Example output
|-Outlook Plugins
|-QuickLook Plugins
|-Quicktime Codecs
|---Perian.component
|-----Contents
|-------MacOS
|-------Resources
|---------English.lproj
|-----------main.nib
|---------French.lproj
|-----------main.nib
|---XviD_Codec-r58 (Intel).component
|-----Contents
|-------MacOS
|-------Resources
|---------English.lproj
|---------XviD_Codec.nib
|---------XviD_Export.nib
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