How do I print a list of filenames in Mac OS folders as they appear in Finder using Terminal?

ddow77 wrote:

r4lf wrote:

ls -laR '/path/to/folder'

Thanks. Does "path" start with the 'user folder' name or a location higher up than that?

It depends.

A “path” is the term used for a directory specification, or a directory and file specification. A path can be either absolute and starting from root, or it can be relative to the current default directory.

For the simplest case, yes, you can start the path at the / root directory, so it would be:

/Users/{yourshortnamehere}/the/rest/of/the/path 

Though there are wrinkles, the tilde ~ and the variable HOME are the login directory for the current user. The ~ works (“expands”) within the command shell in certain cases, while HOME is a variable that the shell and apps can get at it and its translation.

Which would mean the following syntax can workin most shells:

~/the/rest/of/the/path

There are various descriptions of this around: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/125522/path-syntax-rules#125524

To avoid confusion, PATH (usually in uppercase, though shell syntax details vary) is the name of a variable used to define where the command shell will look for executable tools or scripts matching the name given to the shell; where the tools are located.

Use a command such as:

ls -R '/path/to/folder'

(260167)

You can also add the option -la to it so you're getting all the details of the files (vs abbreviated format)

ls -laR '/path/to/folder'