---
name: "git-ls-tree"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "git"
version: "2.56.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/git-ls-tree"
---

# git-ls-tree(1)

List the contents of a tree object

## NAME

git-ls-tree - List the contents of a tree object

## SYNOPSIS

```
git ls-tree [-d] [-r] [-t] [-l] [-z]
            [--name-only] [--name-status] [--object-only] [--full-name] [--full-tree] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--format=<format>]
            <tree-ish> [<path>...]
```

## DESCRIPTION

Lists the contents of a given tree object, like what "/bin/ls -a" does in the current working directory. Note that:

• the behaviour is slightly different from that of "/bin/ls" in that the *\<path\>* denotes just a list of patterns to match, e.g. so specifying directory name (without **-r**) will behave differently, and order of the arguments does not matter.

• the behaviour is similar to that of "/bin/ls" in that the *\<path\>* is taken as relative to the current working directory. E.g. when you are in a directory *sub* that has a directory *dir*, you can run *git ls-tree -r HEAD dir* to list the contents of the tree (that is **sub/dir** in **HEAD**). You don’t want to give a tree that is not at the root level (e.g. **git** **ls-tree** **-r** **HEAD:sub** **dir**) in this case, as that would result in asking for **sub/sub/dir** in the **HEAD** commit. However, the current working directory can be ignored by passing --full-tree option.

## OPTIONS

\<tree-ish\>

Id of a tree-ish.

- \-d

  Show only the named tree entry itself, not its children.

- \-r

  Recurse into sub-trees.

- \-t

  Show tree entries even when going to recurse them. Has no effect if **-r** was not passed. **-d** implies **-t**.

- \-l, --long

  Show object size of blob (file) entries.

- \-z

  \\0 line termination on output and do not quote filenames. See OUTPUT FORMAT below for more information.

- \--name-only, --name-status

  List only filenames (instead of the "long" output), one per line. Cannot be combined with **--object-only**.

- \--object-only

  List only names of the objects, one per line. Cannot be combined with **--name-only** or **--name-status**. This is equivalent to specifying **--format=**'%(**objectname**)', but for both this option and that exact format the command takes a hand-optimized codepath instead of going through the generic formatting mechanism.

- \--abbrev\[=\<n\>\]

  Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object lines, show the shortest prefix that is at least *\<n\>* hexdigits long that uniquely refers the object. Non default number of digits can be specified with --abbrev=\<n\>.

- \--full-name

  Instead of showing the path names relative to the current working directory, show the full path names.

- \--full-tree

  Do not limit the listing to the current working directory. Implies --full-name.

- \--format=\<format\>

  A string that interpolates **%**(**fieldname**) from the result being shown. It also interpolates **%%** to **%**, and **%xNN** where **NN** are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code **NN**; for example **%x00** interpolates to **\\0** (NUL), **%x09** to **\\t** (TAB) and **%x0a** to **\\n** (LF). When specified, **--format** cannot be combined with other format-altering options, including **--long**, **--name-only** and **--object-only**.

\[\<path\>...\]

When paths are given, show them (note that this isn’t really raw pathnames, but rather a list of patterns to match). Otherwise implicitly uses the root level of the tree as the sole path argument.

## OUTPUT FORMAT

The output format of **ls-tree** is determined by either the **--format** option, or other format-altering options such as **--name-only** etc. (see **--format** above).

The use of certain **--format** directives is equivalent to using those options, but invoking the full formatting machinery can be slower than using an appropriate formatting option.

In cases where the **--format** would exactly map to an existing option **ls-tree** will use the appropriate faster path. Thus the default format is equivalent to:

```
%(objectmode) %(objecttype) %(objectname)%x09%(path)
```

This output format is compatible with what **--index-info** **--stdin** of *git update-index* expects.

When the **-l** option is used, format changes to

```
%(objectmode) %(objecttype) %(objectname) %(objectsize:padded)%x09%(path)
```

Object size identified by \<objectname\> is given in bytes, and right-justified with minimum width of 7 characters. Object size is given only for blobs (file) entries; for other entries **-** character is used in place of size.

Without the **-z** option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as explained for the configuration variable **core.quotePath** (see [**git-config**(1)](/git-config/1.md)). Using **-z** the filename is output verbatim and the line is terminated by a NUL byte.

Customized format:

It is possible to print in a custom format by using the **--format** option, which is able to interpolate different fields using a **%**(**fieldname**) notation. For example, if you only care about the "objectname" and "path" fields, you can execute with a specific "--format" like

```
git ls-tree --format='%(objectname) %(path)' <tree-ish>
```

## FIELD NAMES

Various values from structured fields can be used to interpolate into the resulting output. For each outputting line, the following names can be used:

objectmode

The mode of the object.

objecttype

The type of the object (**commit**, **blob** or **tree**).

objectname

The name of the object.

objectsize\[:padded\]

The size of a **blob** object ("-" if it’s a **commit** or **tree**). It also supports a padded format of size with "%(objectsize:padded)".

path

The pathname of the object.

## GIT

Part of the [**git**(1)](/git/1.md) suite