One thing we miss about Mac OS 9 is the ability to print Finder window content for media archival purposes. Sure, you could select all items in a Finder window, copy them, and then paste the data into a text editor, but you’d wind up with a chaotic list of file names with no order. Fortunately, Unix can take organization up a notch. Using the Terminal, you can create a file that lists a folder’s contents, which you can then edit and print.
Need a printout of a folder’s contents? Choose a names list (left) or full file stats (right), and use the Terminal to create a printable file.
Step 1: Make the List
If you just want file names, type ls in the Terminal window after the prompt. If you want file names, sizes, and dates, type ls -lhTR. The -l flag lists the results in long format (including file sizes, owners, and times), the -h flag displays file sizes in meaningful units (like 253KB) rather than bytes (259072) . The -T flag displays the complete time info, and the -R flag lists subfolder contents. Type a space and then drag the desired folder from a Finder window into the Terminal window to display its path.
You can list just file names—type ls (or ls -R to include subfolder contents)—or get detailed information.
Step 2: Create the File
To output the results in a text file, type a right-facing arrow >, a space, a quotation
mark ", a name for your file with a .txt extension, and another quotation mark. (For example, >"File Listing.txt".) Press Return to create a file. This gets stored in your Home folder by default if you haven’t changed directories since launching the Terminal. You can then open this file using any word processor, edit and print it.
With full stats, you see names, owners, sizes, dates, and more.