rtree

A fast, deterministic directory tree visualization tool written in Rust. A clone of the classic Unix tree command with async filesystem traversal.

Features

• Deterministic output: Repeated runs over the same filesystem state produce identical output
• Human-friendly: ASCII tree scaffold clearly communicates directory nesting
• Complete traversal: Displays all visible entries including dotfiles
• Flexible filtering: Limit depth with -L, exclude patterns with -I, show directories only with -d
• Customizable sorting: Use --dirsfirst to list directories before files
• Robust error handling: Permission errors are reported inline without crashing
• Symlink-safe: Symlinks are displayed but not followed, preventing cycles

Installation

Homebrew

brew tap mattjmcnaughton/tap
brew install mattjmcnaughton/tap/rtree

This also creates a tree symlink, so you can use either rtree or tree.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/mattjmcnaughton/rtree.git
cd rtree
cargo build --release
# Binary will be at target/release/rtree

Usage

# Display tree for current directory
rtree

# Display tree for a specific path
rtree /path/to/directory

# Display help
rtree --help

Options

Flag	Description
-L <depth>	Limit display to <depth> levels of directories
-I <pattern>	Exclude files/directories matching pattern (pipe-separated, supports * and ? globs, e.g., *.log|node_modules)
-d	List directories only
--dirsfirst	List directories before files
-a	Show all files (default behavior, included for tree compatibility)

Examples

# Show only 2 levels deep
rtree -L 2

# Ignore node_modules and dist directories
rtree -I "node_modules|dist"

# Ignore all .log files using glob pattern
rtree -I "*.log"

# Show only directories, sorted before files
rtree -d --dirsfirst

# Combine options: 3 levels, ignore .git, dirs first
rtree -L 3 -I .git --dirsfirst

Example Output

.
|-- Cargo.lock
|-- Cargo.toml
|-- README.md
`-- src/
    |-- cli.rs
    |-- core/
    |   |-- mod.rs
    |   |-- render.rs
    |   `-- walk.rs
    |-- fs/
    |   |-- mock.rs
    |   |-- mod.rs
    |   `-- real.rs
    |-- lib.rs
    |-- main.rs
    `-- models/
        |-- entry.rs
        |-- mod.rs
        `-- tree.rs

Output Format

ASCII Connectors

• |-- prefix for entries with siblings following
• `-- prefix for the last entry in a directory
• | vertical continuation when ancestor directories have more siblings
• (4 spaces) when ancestor directory was the last entry

Naming Conventions

• Directories are suffixed with /
• Entries are sorted by name (byte/Unicode codepoint order)
• Files and directories are interleaved in sort order

Error Handling

When a directory cannot be read, the error is displayed inline:

`-- secret/ [error: Permission denied]

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, project structure, and contribution guidelines.

Acknowledgments

This project is inspired by and aims to be compatible with the classic Unix tree command by Steve Baker.

License

GPL v2