tree-for-windows

A fast, colorful, feature-rich Windows command-line tree utility written in C++20 using std::filesystem.

📁 .
├── 📁 src
│   └── 📄 main.cpp
├── 📄 .gitignore
├── 📄 LICENSE
├── 📄 Makefile
├── 📄 README.md
└── 📄 cc.py

Features

• 🎨 Colorful output - Customizable colors using native Windows console API
• 📁 Unicode icons - Beautiful icons for directories (📁), files (📄), and symlinks (🔗)
• 🚫 Smart filtering - .gitignore support and automatic hiding of common system folders
• ⚙️ Persistent config - Save your preferences with --set-config
• 🎯 Flexible options - Control depth, ignore patterns, colors, and more
• ⚡ Fast & efficient - Built with C++20 and optimized compilation
• 🛡️ Robust - Handles permission errors and edge cases gracefully

Installation

Prerequisites

• clang++ (via LLVM installer or MinGW-w64)
• Windows 10/11

Build

make

This makes a build directory, Then you need to do:

# Balanced for speed & size
make

# Optimized for Tiny size
make tiny

# Optimized for max speed
make fast

This compiles src/main.cpp into build/tree.exe with C++20 optimizations.

Usage

tree [path] [options]

Options

Option	Description
path	Root directory to list (default: current directory)
--depth=N	Limit recursion depth to N levels (default: unlimited)
--gitignore	Skip files/folders matching .gitignore patterns
--ignore=folder1,folder2	Ignore specific folders or files
--show-hidden	Show .git and other hidden system folders
--color=COLOR	Set directory color: cyan, yellow, blue, magenta, red
--set-config [options]	Save options as defaults for future use
--help, -h	Show help message

Examples

Basic usage:

tree

Limit depth:

tree --depth=3

Use gitignore filtering:

tree --gitignore

Custom color:

tree --color=yellow

Ignore specific folders:

tree --ignore=node_modules,dist,.vscode

Show hidden folders:

tree --show-hidden --gitignore

Save your preferences:

# Set defaults once
tree --set-config --gitignore --color=cyan --depth=5

# Now tree uses these defaults every time
tree

# Override when needed
tree --depth=2 --color=yellow

Clear saved config:

tree --set-config

Default Behavior

By default, tree automatically hides common system and build folders:

• .git
• .cache
• node_modules
• .vscode
• .idea
• __pycache__

Use --show-hidden to display these folders.

Configuration

Your preferences are saved to %APPDATA%\.tree-for-windows\config.txt when using --set-config.

Command-line options always override saved configuration.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

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Made with ❤️ for Windows developers who want a better tree command.