Print structure of a folder with recursive function Shell script

Question

I want to print a structure of a folder with shell script. So it would look like this

File : linux -3.14/COPYING
File : linux -3.14/CREDITS
   Directory : linux -3.14/Documentation
      File : linux -3.14/Documentation/00 - INDEX
      Directory : linux -3.14/Documentation/ABI
         File : linux -3.14/Documentation/ABI/README

and this is my script. The problem is that it prints out all files and folders for the current directory but it will not print for the subfolders. Maybe I do recursion wrong

dirPrint() {
    # Find all files and print them first
    file=$1
    for f in $(ls ${file}); do
        if [ -f ${f} ]; 
            then
                path="$(pwd)/$f"
                echo "File: $path"
        fi
    done

    # Find all directories and print them
    for f in $(ls ${file}); do
        if [ -d ${f} ];
            then
                path="$(pwd)/$f"
                echo "Directory: $path"
                echo "  $(dirPrint "$path")"
        fi
    done
}
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
    dirPrint .
else
    dirPrint "$1"
fi

And also what is the difference between using $1, "$1" and "${1}"?

My kubuntu don't have tree command. This is an exercise so i don't know if my tutor has tree command in their linux — Tống Việt Dũng
– Tống Việt Dũng, Commented May 7, 2020 at 16:17

choroba · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-07 23:12:15Z

2

There are various problems in your script. You shouldn't parse the output of ls, iterate over the expansion of a wildcard instead. Always double quote the variables to prevent spaces in filenames from breaking your commands.

#! /bin/bash
dir_find () {
    local dir=$1
    local indent=$2
    for f in "$dir"/* ; do
        printf '%s%s\n' "$indent${f##*/}"
        if [[ -d $f ]] ; then
            dir_find "$f" "    $indent"
        fi
    done
}

dir_find .

edited May 7, 2020 at 23:12

answered May 7, 2020 at 16:14

choroba

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7 Comments

Tống Việt Dũng Over a year ago

Thank you. And what's meaning of using [[]] here? What is indent?

choroba Over a year ago

It's a more modern version of [] that exists in bash. See man bash for help.

choroba Over a year ago

[[ -d $f ]] returns true if $f is a directory.

Tống Việt Dũng Over a year ago

What is indent short for?

choroba Over a year ago

$indent stores spaces for indentation.

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