git list files in a local and remote branch

To list the files in a Git branch, you can use the git ls-tree or git ls-files commands.

1. Using git ls-tree:

This command allows you to list the contents of a tree object, which represents the state of a directory in a specific commit or branch.

git ls-tree -r <branch_name> --name-only

• <branch_name>: Replace this with the name of the branch you want to inspect (e.g., master, dev, HEAD for the current branch).
• -r: This option makes git ls-tree recurse into subdirectories.
• --name-only: This option displays only the filenames, without additional information like mode, type, or object hash.

Example:

git ls-tree -r master --name-only

This will list all the files in the master branch.

2. Using git ls-files:

This command lists the files in the Git index (staging area) or the working tree. When used without options, it lists all tracked files in the current branch.

git ls-files

• To list files in a specific branch other than the current one, you would first need to switch to that branch:

git checkout <branch_name><br>git ls-files

Example:

git checkout dev<br>git ls-files

This will list all the tracked files in the dev branch after switching to it.

In summary:

• Use git ls-tree -r <branch_name> --name-only to list files in any specified branch without changing your current branch.
• Use git checkout <branch_name> followed by git ls-files to list files in a specific branch after checking it out.

Remote Repository

To list files in a Git remote branch, you can use the git ls-tree command after fetching the remote branch’s information. Fetch the remote branch information.

This updates your local repository with the latest information from the remote, including remote branches.

    git fetch origin

(Replace origin with the name of your remote if it’s different.) List files in the remote branch.

Use git ls-tree with the -r (recursive) and --name-only options, specifying the remote branch.

    git ls-tree -r origin/branch-name --name-only

(Replace branch-name with the actual name of the remote branch you want to inspect.)

This command will output a list of all files in the specified remote branch, including files in subdirectories. If you only want to see files within a specific directory in that remote branch, you can append the directory path:

    git ls-tree -r origin/branch-name:path/to/directory --name-only