Neat alias commands for your Linux/FreeBSD or MacOS.

remember DOS tree — on unix that is just a one-liner

There was the tree command. And the awesome XTREE GOLD. who remembers that?

sceeenshot form Winworld

Instead of installing apps or stuff from Homebrew , apt, or dnf — you probably have all you need for such a tool with just a few alias and sharp commands. But it isn’t a TUI. And especially on MacOS — if you come from Windows on Linux Mint — the finder is well, not the best part of MacOS in my opinion. But the best part of Mac OS — is the terminal. So, here are some file oriented alias and subroutines you can put into .zshrc/.bashrc — should work for all 3 major Unix flavors.

• Directory-Only Tree

alias dirtree="find . -type d | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'"

Intent: Display only directories in a tree-like structure. Focus on directory hierarchy without file clutter. Uses the the sed pattern and filters for directories only.

me@Mac src % pwd
/Users/jon2allen/github/chatybot/src
me@Mac src % dirtree
.
|____chatybot.egg-info
|____chatybot
| |____tinydb1
| | |______pycache__
| |____audio_providers
| | |______pycache__
| |______pycache__

• extcount

extcount() {
  find . -type f | rev | cut -d. -f1 | rev | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | \
  awk '/\// {print "(no extension)"; next} {print "."$1}' | \
  sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | awk '{printf "%6d  %s\n", $1, $2}'
}

Intent: Count and rank files by their extension. Quickly identify which file types dominate a project. The command uses awk, sort, uniq toextract the extension (or filename if no extension), then counts and sorts. This should be universal — MacOS, FreeBSD, Linux.

me@Mac chatybot % extcount | grep chatdsl
    39  .chatdsl
me@Mac chatybot % extcount | head        
  5061  .pyc
  5059  .py
   947  (no
   520  .h
   320  .pyi
   265  .txt
   102  .so
    61  .f90
    57  .md
    53  .typed
me@Mac chatybot % cd src
me@Mac src % extcount       
    45  .pyc
    22  .py
     5  .txt
     1  (no
     1  .toml
     1  .chatdsl

• classic tree

tree='find . -print | sed -e '\''s;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'\'

Intent: Uses find + sed to create visual output from directory structure, like class tree command in DOS.

me@Mac src % tree
.
|____chatybot.egg-info
| |____PKG-INFO
| |____SOURCES.txt
| |____entry_points.txt
| |____requires.txt
| |____top_level.txt
| |____dependency_links.txt
|____chatybot
| |____audio_file_manager.py
| |____chat_config.toml
| |____tinydb1
| | |______init__.py
| | |______pycache__
| | | |______init__.cpython-314.pyc
| | | |____corpus_manager.cpython-311.pyc
| | | |____corpus_manager.cpython-314.pyc
| | | |______init__.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____corpus_manager.py
| |____config_manager.py
| |____image_manager.py
| |____extract_code.py
| |______init__.py
| |____audio_providers
| | |____local_provider.py
| | |______init__.py
| | |____mistral_provider.py
| | |______pycache__
| | | |____base.cpython-314.pyc
| | | |____base.cpython-311.pyc
| | | |____mistral_provider.cpython-311.pyc
| | | |____mistral_provider.cpython-314.pyc
| | | |____openai_provider.cpython-314.pyc
| | | |____openai_provider.cpython-311.pyc
| | | |______init__.cpython-314.pyc
| | | |____local_provider.cpython-311.pyc
| | | |____local_provider.cpython-314.pyc
| | | |______init__.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____openai_provider.py
| | |____base.py
| |____pattern.py
| |______pycache__
| | |____image_generator.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____config_manager.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____pattern.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____main.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____image_generator.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____config_manager.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____pattern.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____main.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____audio_engine.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____chatybot_app.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____chatybot_app.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____audio_engine.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____audio_file_manager.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____logging_manager.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____chatydb.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____image_manager.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____logging_manager.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____chatydb.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____image_manager.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____audio_file_manager.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____buffer_manager.cpython-314.pyc
| | |______init__.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____chatdsl_parse.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____chat_config.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____audio_provider.cpython-314.pyc
| | |____extract_code.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____audio_provider.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____extract_code.cpython-314.pyc
| | |______init__.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____buffer_manager.cpython-311.pyc
| | |____chatdsl_parse.cpython-314.pyc
| |____chatdsl_parse.py
| |____chatybot_app.py
| |____chatydb.py
| |____logging_manager.py
| |____audio_engine.py
| |____main.py
| |____audio_provider.py
| |____buffer_manager.py
| |____macro.chatdsl
| |____image_generator.py

• extsize

extsize() {
  find . -type f -exec du -k {} + | \
  awk '{
    # Get the filename from the path
    split($2, path, "/");
    file = path[length(path)];

    # Extract extension
    if (file ~ /\./) {
      split(file, parts, ".");
      ext = "." tolower(parts[length(parts)]);
    } else {
      ext = "(no extension)";
    }

    # Accumulate size (du -k gives kilobytes)
    size[ext] += $1;
  }
  END {
    for (e in size) {
      printf "%10d KB  %s\n", size[e], e;
    }
  }' | sort -nr
}

Intent: list aggregate size of all files of a certain extension. Extensive use of awk.

On MacOS — this gave me insight into dylib which I was not aware of until today days old. And that I have a lot of them dylib files. Google it, now!

me@Mac chatybot % extsize | head
    103384 KB  .dylib
     92136 KB  .pyc
     71908 KB  .py
     49480 KB  .so
     32976 KB  .txt
     22464 KB  (no extension)
     13308 KB  .png
      8308 KB  .jpg
      6080 KB  .h
      2648 KB  .mp3

• tree_no_git. -> avoid listing .git entries and others

alias tree_no_git='find . \( -name '\''.git'\'' -o -name '\''.svn'\'' -o -name '\''.hg'\'' -o -name '\''node_modules'\'' -o -name '\''__pycache__'\'' -o -name '\''venv'\'' -o -name '\''.mypy_cache'\'' \) -prune -o -print | sed -e '\''s;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'\'

Intent: The same as tree, but reducing random noise from .git and other caches… can be tailored by editing the .svn or other dir names to exclude.

me@Mac chatybot_feb_2026 % pwd
/Users/me/github/chatybot_feb_2026
me@Mac chatybot_feb_2026 % ll .git
total 48
drwxr-xr-x  12 jon2allen  staff   384B Apr 27 18:10 .
drwxr-xr-x  33 jon2allen  staff   1.0K Mar  2 21:20 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 jon2allen  staff   361B Apr 27 18:10 config
-rw-r--r--   1 jon2allen  staff    73B Mar  2 20:37 description
-rw-r--r--   1 jon2allen  staff    25B Mar  2 20:37 HEAD
drwxr-xr-x  16 jon2allen  staff   512B Mar  2 20:37 hooks
-rw-r--r--   1 jon2allen  staff   5.7K Mar  2 20:44 index
drwxr-xr-x   3 jon2allen  staff    96B Mar  2 20:37 info
drwxr-xr-x   4 jon2allen  staff   128B Mar  2 20:37 logs
drwxr-xr-x   4 jon2allen  staff   128B Mar  2 20:37 objects
-rw-r--r--   1 jon2allen  staff   184B Mar  2 20:37 packed-refs
drwxr-xr-x   5 jon2allen  staff   160B Mar  2 20:37 refs
jon2allen@Mac chatybot_feb_2026 % tree_no_git
.
|____dsl_template.chatdsl
|____LICENSE.md
|____tps+20260227_180325.csv
|____fruit
| |____fruit.py
| |____notes_fruit.py
|____tps+20260227_180046.csv
|____nanjing5.chatdsl
|____REFACTORING_REPORT.md
|____chatdsl_bnf.txt
|____pyproject.toml
|____cpp_create_dsl.prompt
|____chatybot.log.20260222_170859
|____fibo.chatdsl
|____chatybot.log.20260227_152517
|____pascal_test2.chatdsl
|____test_refactor.py
|____README.md
|____tps+20260227_175923.csv
|____sonnet
| |____chroma_2.py
| |____extract2.py
| |____notes_extract1.py
| |____extract1.py
| |____notes_extract2.py
| |____notes_chroma_2.py
|____tps+20260227_180217.csv
|____test1_prompt.txt
|____.gitignore
|____tps+20260227_175852.csv
|____.chat_history
|____cleanhouse.sh
|____dsl_prompt_jan_9_2026.prompt
|____tps+20260227_180249.csv
|____dsl_test
| |____chatbot_requirements.txt
| |____test7_variable_substitution.chatdsl
| |____test5_script_execution.chatdsl
| |____notes.txt
| |____test6_multiline_input.chatdsl
| |____test3_file_bank.chatdsl
| |____test4_prompt_engineering.chatdsl
| |____test10_error_handling.chatdsl
| |____test1_basic_commands.chatdsl
| |____test9_streaming_logging.chatdsl
| |____template.txt
| |____test8_conditional_logic.chatdsl
| |____test_master.chatdsl
| |____test.txt
| |____conditional_test.txt
| |____test2_file_handling.chatdsl
| |____test_script.txt
|____chatybot_spec_jan_2025.txt
|____polish_dishes.chatdsl
|____src
| |____chatybot
| | |____chat_config.toml
| | |____tinydb1
| | | |______init__.py
| | | |____corpus_manager.py
| | |____config_manager.py
| | |____extract_code.py
| | |______init__.py
| | |____chatybot_app.py
| | |____chatydb.py
| | |____logging_manager.py
| | |____main.py
| | |____buffer_manager.py

• recent -> find files that have been created in x many dayss

# Usage: recent [path] [days]
recent() { find "${1:-.}" -type f -mtime "-${2:-1}" | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;| ;g'; }

Intent: search for files recently created in ≤ days. grep for the ones you want.

me@Mac chatybot % recent . 1 | grep chatdsl    
| | accuracytest.chatdsl
| chatdsl_bnf.txt
| | | chatdsl_parse.py

• bigfiles — find all files of a certain size

# Usage: bigfiles [path] [size] (e.g., 10M, 1G, 1000k)
bigfiles() { find "${1:-.}" -type f -size "+${2:-10M}" -print0 | xargs -0 ls -lh | sed -e 's/^/[BIG] /'; }

Intent: Find those big suckers and wrangle them into submission.

me@Mac chatybot % bigfiles
[BIG] -rw-r--r--  1 jon2allen  staff    28M Apr 20 16:25 ./imagine_debug_20260420_162425.txt
[BIG] -rw-r--r--@ 1 jon2allen  staff    15M Apr 27 18:15 ./test_audio/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pyarrow/libarrow_compute.2400.dylib
[BIG] -rw-r--r--@ 1 jon2allen  staff    19M Apr 27 18:15 ./test_audio/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pyarrow/libarrow_flight.2400.dylib
[BIG] -rw-r--r--@ 1 jon2allen  staff    44M Apr 27 18:15 ./test_audio/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pyarrow/libarrow.2400.dylib

Thee are those dylib items again… hmmm… more resarch needed.

So, you have all you need as one might say!. The last 2 show you how to put in parameters

These don’t have to be alias — they can exist as functions

sample .zshrc:

extsize() {
  find . -type f -exec du -k {} + | \
  awk '{
    # Get the filename from the path
    split($2, path, "/");
    file = path[length(path)];

    # Extract extension
    if (file ~ /\./) {
      split(file, parts, ".");
      ext = "." tolower(parts[length(parts)]);
    } else {
      ext = "(no extension)";
    }

    # Accumulate size (du -k gives kilobytes)
    size[ext] += $1;
  }
  END {
    for (e in size) {
      printf "%10d KB  %s\n", size[e], e;
    }
  }' | sort -nr
}

invtree() { find "${1:-.}" -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g' | awk '{a[i++]=$0} END {for (j=i-1; j>=0;) print a[j--] }'; }

alias tree_no_git="find . \( -name '.git' -o -name '.svn' -o -name '.hg' -o -name 'node_modules' -o -name '__pycache__' -o -name 'venv' -o -name '.mypy_cache' \) -prune -o -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'"

recent() { find "${1:-.}" -type f -mtime "-${2:-1}" | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;| ;g'; }

bigfiles() { find "${1:-.}" -type f -size "+${2:-10M}" -print0 | xargs -0 ls -lh | sed -e 's/^/[BIG] /'; }

Just my opinion… This is more nimble and quicker than using a GUI tool to zero in on your storage and files.

AI generated — tree with file leaves, and dir branches.

Enjoy your alias commands!