Windows "tree" command sorts randomly

Question

When I run tree /a /f > output.txt in Windows' cmd, I get a nicely formatted directory structure. But the directory listing is not in any particular order. How can I get the tree to sort folders and files in alphabetical order?

Note: I need the output formatted as a hierarchy, so using dir will probably not be sufficient. I probably need to use tree.

An excerpt from the output of tree

+---HCM Documents
|   +---Interfaces
|   +---Process Flows
|   +---Workshops
|   |   \---Overviews
|   +---Approvals
|   +---Requirements
|   \---Misc
+---Testing Documents
+---Communications
|   +---Statuses 
|   +---Meeting Minutes 
+---Finance Documents
|   +---Taxes
|   +---General Ledger
|   +---Business
|   +---Process Flows
|   +---Purchases
|   \---Workshops
+---Unfiled
+---Infrastructure Documents
+---Financials
|   +---Issue and Risk Log
|   +---Timelines
|   +---Templates
|   \---Decisions Log

Note that the folder names are not in alphabetical order. They are also not in order of modified date or size, or any other order I can think of.

Also, this is the default order I get when I run dir without specifying sort order.

These documents are being accessed over a network drive but I don't see why that should make a difference. (Though when I run tree on local folders, they do seem to be in alphabetical order. Perhaps this is actually a factor?)

Answer 1

Tree is a very simple program which loops through all the directories (and if specified the files). It does not do buffering. You can see this because it builds the tree of directories directly on screen (if the output is not redirected). With lots of directories this is slow and output begins right away.

Because tree does not read all the directories at once it can do no sorting. So it is dependent on the filesystem to present the directories in order. If the filesystem does not do this, tree will not be ordered.

If you want an ordered list you will have to go for a utility that can read all the directory and files at once and then present an ordered tree-like view.

Answer 2

There are two options known by me:

1. Total Commander and its tree invoked by AltF10. Then you can find the tree nicely sorted in c:\Users\your_username\AppData\Local\GHISLER\ in file treeinfoC.wc. You may need to remove brackets [] then by some editor and its regular expression replace function.

2. Use console (cmd.exe) command:

   dir /b /s /ad c:\
   

   which can be redirected to a file by:

   dir /b /s /ad c:\ > c:\all_c_drive_folders.txt
   

Answer 3

Here's what I did: Create the tree structure to your TEMP directory:

cd /d %TEMP%
md TREEDIR
cd TREEDIR

Then copy the directory structure to the source

xcopy /t /e SOURCEDIR .

now tree will give you a nice alpha-sorted tree output.