Command to list all files in a folder as well as sub-folders in windows

Question

I tried searching for a command that could list all the file in a directory as well as subfolders using a command prompt command. I have read the help for "dir" command but coudn't find what I was looking for. Please help me what command could get this.

The below post gives the solution for your scenario. [SubDirectory Files Listing command][1] [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3447503/how-to-get-a-list-of-sub-folders-and-their-files-ordered-by-folder-names — , Mar 05 '13 at 02:10
If you are in europe you may want to do a `chcp 1252` before any of the below solutions to get our special characters right in windows.. — TaW, Dec 07 '21 at 22:43

score 421 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '21 at 10:29

421

The below post gives the solution for your scenario.

dir /s /b /o:gn

/S Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories.

/B Uses bare format (no heading information or summary).

/O List by files in sorted order.

Then in :gn, g sorts by folders and then files, and n puts those files in alphabetical order.

edited May 04 '21 at 10:29

Freerey

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answered Mar 05 '13 at 02:13

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A description of the switches used would greatly improve this answer. – Gusdor May 03 '17 at 11:34
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This outputs the path + filename not just the filename. This doesn't work. When recursive /s is added, DIR will always output the full paths in outputs. So a FOR script would likely be needed to recursively find all filenames inside a directory tree and output them in alphabetical order in a text file. – Rocket Spaceman Jul 08 '17 at 01:14
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This is a great option. However, it sadly doesn't seem to work in PowerShell, which means I seem to be unable to use this command on a UNC path. – m-smith Oct 12 '17 at 10:49
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For PowerShell, try `dir -s` instead of the `/s` format for flags. – Bryan Rayner Jul 31 '18 at 15:23
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Great answer. In addition to this, because of how difficult it is to do things like copy specific parts of text from a vanilla command prompt, it can be good to append `>list.txt` to make it output to a file to be more easily used. So the command would be: `dir /s /b /o:gn >list.txt` – SubJunk Jun 28 '19 at 02:55

score 166 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 24 '16 at 13:49

166

If you want to list folders and files like graphical directory tree, you should use tree command.

tree /f

There are various options for display format or ordering.

Check example output.

Answering late. Hope it help someone.

answered Aug 24 '16 at 13:49

Somnath Muluk

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Works fine inside of Windows 10 installing window! – Jimmy Adaro Nov 06 '16 at 20:40
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How to print this to file? I tried >f.txt but not print exact i see – Ajith May 04 '17 at 13:24
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I know the OP asked for a command, but I'm wondering if you know of a GUI-style way of getting the same tree-like display of directories and files? – RenniePet Jan 09 '18 at 03:26
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To answer my own comment, you can use WinDirStat. See here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37169035/253938 – RenniePet Jan 22 '18 at 02:53
@Ajith you need to write the command properly. Example: cd C:\Users\username\Desktop tree /F #Shows the tree only tree /F>C:\Users\username\Desktop\tree.doc #Saves the tree to tree.doc file – MGB.py Dec 13 '19 at 09:48
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use tree /a /f > output.doc .. to generate the tree as a file – Christian Stengel Mar 05 '20 at 10:11

score 77 · Answer 3 · edited May 24 '20 at 12:57

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An addition to the answer: when you do not want to list the folders, only the files in the subfolders, use /A-D switch like this:

dir ..\myfolder /b /s /A-D /o:gn>list.txt

edited May 24 '20 at 12:57

micstr

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answered May 15 '15 at 09:39

Laszlo Lugosi

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This solution worked great with the added bonus of exporting the list to a .txt file. – Jason May 27 '15 at 23:09
Wow, great solution. You literally saved me 25 minutes... to create folders and copy files manually – tno2007 Nov 10 '17 at 16:48
great answer >>> – Muath Sep 25 '18 at 18:01
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Found this way to get the relative path (it uses `powershell`, though) `powershell.exe "Get-ChildItem -Recurse . | Resolve-Path -Relative"` [Courtesy](https://superuser.com/questions/1029558/list-files-in-a-subdirectory-and-get-relative-paths-only-with-windows-command-li) – sj_959 Dec 21 '21 at 13:33

Zameer Ansari · Answer 4 · 2020-09-17T05:00:09.260

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If you simply need to get the basic snapshot of the files + folders. Follow these baby steps:

Press Windows + R
Press Enter
Type cmd
Press Enter
Type dir -s
Press Enter

edited Sep 17 '20 at 05:00

answered Jun 21 '17 at 12:52

Zameer Ansari

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Without any arguments, `dir` only gives information about the files and directories in the current folder, but the OP wants the return to include files in subfolders as well. – Vyren Nov 26 '17 at 17:58
@Vyren Thanks a lot for highlighting this! Can you please [suggest an edit](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/44676699/edit)? I am more than happy for improvements :) – Zameer Ansari Apr 09 '20 at 09:45

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 09 '17 at 12:56

An alternative to the above commands that is a little more bulletproof.

It can list all files irrespective of permissions or path length.

robocopy "C:\YourFolderPath" "C:\NULL" /E /L /NJH /NJS /FP /NS /NC /B /XJ

I have a slight issue with the use of C:\NULL which I have written about in my blog

https://theitronin.com/bulletproofdirectorylisting/

But nevertheless it's the most robust command I know.

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 24 '22 at 13:23

The below post gives the solution for your scenario.

**dir /s /b /o:gn**

/S Displays files in specified directories and all subdirectories.

/B Uses bare format (no heading information or summary).

/O List by files in sorted order.

:gn, g sorts by folders and then files, and n puts those files in alphabetical order.

Just for all files except long path, write the following command:

**dir /b /o:gn**

For Tree: write in your cmd

tree /f

Command to list all files in a folder as well as sub-folders in windows

6 Answers6

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