Command Linux LS: How to List Files and Directories in Linux | Learn Now!
In the world of Linux, the ls command is an essential tool for listing files and directories. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, understanding how to use the ls command effectively is crucial for navigating and managing your files in the Linux operating system.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through the various options and parameters of the ls command, providing you with a solid foundation for using this powerful tool. From basic usage to advanced techniques, you’ll learn everything you need to know to become proficient in listing files and directories in Linux.
So, if you’re ready to take your Linux skills to the next level and master the ls command, keep reading!
Introduction
In this section, we’ll provide an overview of the ls command and its importance in the Linux ecosystem. We’ll explore its basic usage and explain why it’s a fundamental tool for managing files and directories.
What is the ls command in Linux?
The ls command is a command-line utility in Linux that allows users to list files and directories in a specified location. It provides a detailed view of the contents of a directory, including file names, permissions, ownership, size, and modification timestamps.
By default, the ls command lists the files and directories in the current working directory. However, you can also specify a different directory as an argument to list its contents.
Basic Usage of the ls command
In this section, we’ll cover the basic usage of the ls command. We’ll explore the different options and parameters that can be used to customize the output and provide more detailed information about the files and directories.
Listing Files and Directories
ls
The simplest form of the ls command is just “ls” without any options or arguments. This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory in a basic format.
For example:
$ ls
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files “file1.txt” and “file2.txt” and the directories “directory1” and “directory2” in the current working directory.
ls -l
The “-l” option is used to display the files and directories in a long format. This format provides more detailed information about each file and directory, including permissions, ownership, size, and modification timestamps.
For example:
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 1024 Jan 1 10:00 file1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 2048 Jan 1 11:00 file2.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group 4096 Jan 1 12:00 directory1
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group 4096 Jan 1 13:00 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in a long format, displaying the permissions, ownership, size, and modification timestamps for each entry.
ls -a
The “-a” option is used to display all files and directories, including hidden files and directories that start with a dot (“.”)
For example:
$ ls -a
. .. file1.txt file2.txt .hidden_directory
This command lists all files and directories in the current working directory, including hidden files and directories.
ls -al
The combination of the “-a” and “-l” options (“-al”) is commonly used to display all files and directories in a long format.
For example:
$ ls -al
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 user group 4096 Jan 1 10:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 10 user group 4096 Jan 1 09:00 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 1024 Jan 1 10:00 file1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 2048 Jan 1 11:00 file2.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group 4096 Jan 1 12:00 directory1
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group 4096 Jan 1 13:00 directory2
This command lists all files and directories in the current working directory in a long format, including hidden files and directories.
ls -lh
The “-lh” option is used to display the file sizes in a human-readable format, such as kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), or gigabytes (GB).
For example:
$ ls -lh
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 1.0K Jan 1 10:00 file1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 2.0K Jan 1 11:00 file2.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group 4.0K Jan 1 12:00 directory1
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group 4.0K Jan 1 13:00 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in a long format, displaying the file sizes in a human-readable format.
ls -R
The “-R” option is used to list files and directories recursively. This means that it will list the contents of subdirectories as well.
For example:
$ ls -R
.:
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
./directory1:
file3.txt
./directory2:
file4.txt
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, as well as the contents of the subdirectories “directory1” and “directory2”.
ls -t
The “-t” option is used to sort the files and directories by modification time, with the most recently modified files or directories appearing first.
For example:
$ ls -t
file2.txt file1.txt directory2 directory1
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, sorted by modification time in descending order.
ls -S
The “-S” option is used to sort the files and directories by size, with the largest files or directories appearing first.
For example:
$ ls -S
directory2 directory1 file2.txt file1.txt
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, sorted by size in descending order.
ls -r
The “-r” option is used to reverse the order of the listing, displaying the files and directories in reverse order.
For example:
$ ls -r
directory2 directory1 file2.txt file1.txt
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory in reverse order.
ls -i
The “-i” option is used to display the inode number of each file and directory.
For example:
$ ls -i
123456 file1.txt 234567 file2.txt 345678 directory1 456789 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, displaying the inode number for each entry.
ls -d
The “-d” option is used to list directories themselves, rather than their contents.
For example:
$ ls -d
directory1 directory2
This command lists the directories “directory1” and “directory2” in the current working directory, without listing their contents.
ls -F
The “-F” option is used to add a trailing character to each entry to indicate its type. For example, a “/” is added to directories, a “*” is added to executable files, and a “|” is added to symbolic links.
For example:
$ ls -F
file1.txt file2.txt directory1/ directory2/
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, with a trailing “/” added to directories.
Advanced Usage of the ls command
In this section, we’ll explore some advanced usage of the ls command. We’ll cover additional options and parameters that can be used to further customize the output and perform more specific listing operations.
ls –color
The “–color” option is used to enable colorized output, making it easier to distinguish between different types of files and directories.
For example:
$ ls --color
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory with colorized output.
ls –help
The “–help” option is used to display a help message that provides information about the ls command and its available options.
For example:
$ ls --help
Usage: ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-a, --all do not ignore entries starting with .
-A, --almost-all do not list implied . and ..
--author with -l, print the author of each file
-b, --escape print C-style escapes for nongraphic characters
--block-size=SIZE scale sizes by SIZE before printing them; e.g.,
'--block-size=M' prints sizes in units of
1,048,576 bytes; see SIZE format below
-B, --ignore-backups do not list implied entries ending with ~
-c with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last
modification of file status information);
with -l: show ctime and sort by name;
otherwise: sort by ctime, newest first
-C list entries by columns
--color[=WHEN] colorize the output; WHEN can be 'always' (default
if omitted), 'auto', or 'never'; more info below
-d, --directory list directories themselves, not their contents
-D, --dired generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
-f do not sort, enable -aU, disable -ls --color
-F, --classify append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries
--file-type likewise, except do not append '*'
--format=WORD across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l,
single-column -1, verbose -l, vertical -C
--full-time like -l --time-style=full-iso
-g like -l, but do not list owner
--group-directories-first
group directories before files;
can be augmented with a --sort option, but any
use of --sort=none (-U) disables grouping
-G, --no-group in a long listing, don't print group names
-h, --human-readable with -l and/or -s, print human readable sizes
(e.g., 1K, 234M, 2G)
--si likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
-H, --dereference-command-line
follow symbolic links listed on the command line
--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir
follow each command line symbolic link
that points to a directory
--hide=PATTERN do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
(overridden by -a or -A)
--hyperlink[=WHEN] hyperlink file names; WHEN can be 'always'
(default if omitted), 'auto', or 'never'
--indicator-style=WORD append indicator with style WORD to entry names:
none (default), slash (-p),
file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)
-i, --inode print the index number of each file
-I, --ignore=PATTERN do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
-k, --kibibytes default to 1024-byte blocks for disk usage;
used only with -s and per directory totals
-l use a long listing format
-L, --dereference when showing file information for a symbolic
link, show information for the file the link
references rather than the link itself
-m fill width with a comma separated list of entries
-n, --numeric-uid-gid like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs
-N, --literal print raw entry names (don't treat e.g. control
characters specially)
-o like -l, but do not list group information
-p, --indicator-style=slash
append / indicator to directories
-q, --hide-control-chars print ? instead of non graphic characters
--show-control-chars show non graphic characters as-is (default
unless program is 'ls' and output is a terminal)
-Q, --quote-name enclose entry names in double quotes
--quoting-style=WORD use quoting style WORD for entry names:
literal, locale, shell, shell-always,
shell-escape, shell-escape-always, c, escape
--sort=WORD sort by WORD instead of name: none (-U), size (-S),
time (-t), version (-v), extension (-X)
--time=WORD with -l, show time as WORD instead of default
modification time: atime or access or use (-u);
ctime or status (-c); also use specified time
as sort key if --sort=time (newest first)
--time-style=TIME_STYLE time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below
-t sort by modification time, newest first
-T, --tabsize=COLS assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
-u with -lt: sort by, and show, access time;
with -l: show access time and sort by name;
otherwise: sort by access time, newest first
-U do not sort; list entries in directory order
-v natural sort of (version) numbers within text
-w, --width=COLS set output width to COLS. 0 means no limit
-x list entries by lines instead of by columns
-X sort alphabetically by entry extension
-Z, --context print any security context of each file
-1 list one file per line. Avoid 'n' with -q or -b
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
SIZE may be (or may be an integer optionally followed by) one of following:
KB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, and so on for G, T, P, E, Z, Y.
The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024).
Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000).
The TIME_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, or +FORMAT.
FORMAT is interpreted like in date(1). If FORMAT is FORMAT1FORMAT2,
then FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files.
TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect only outside the POSIX locale.
Also the TIME_STYLE environment variable sets the default style to use.
Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and
with --color=never. With --color=auto, ls emits color codes only when
standard output is connected to a terminal. The LS_COLORS environment
variable can change the settings. Use the dircolors command to set it.
Exit status:
0 if OK,
1 if minor problems (e.g., cannot access subdirectory),
2 if serious trouble (e.g., cannot access command-line argument).
This command displays a help message that provides detailed information about the ls command and its available options.
ls –version
The “–version” option is used to display the version information of the ls command.
For example:
$ ls --version
ls (GNU coreutils) 8.30
Packaged by Homebrew
This command displays the version information of the ls command.
ls –ignore
The “–ignore” option is used to specify a pattern of files and directories to ignore when listing the contents of a directory.
For example:
$ ls --ignore=*.txt
directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring any files with the “.txt” extension.
ls –ignore-backups
The “–ignore-backups” option is used to ignore backup files when listing the contents of a directory. Backup files are typically created by text editors and have a “~” character appended to their names.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-backups
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring any backup files with the “~” character appended to their names.
ls –ignore-case
The “–ignore-case” option is used to perform a case-insensitive listing of files and directories.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-case
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, performing a case-insensitive listing.
ls –ignore-glob
The “–ignore-glob” option is used to specify a glob pattern of files and directories to ignore when listing the contents of a directory.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-glob=*.txt
directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring any files with the “.txt” extension.
ls –ignore-special
The “–ignore-special” option is used to ignore special files when listing the contents of a directory. Special files include device files, named pipes, and sockets.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-special
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring any special files.
ls –ignore-time
The “–ignore-time” option is used to ignore the timestamps of files and directories when listing their contents.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-time
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring their timestamps.
ls –ignore-vcs
The “–ignore-vcs” option is used to ignore version control system files and directories when listing the contents of a directory. This option is useful when you want to exclude version control files from the listing.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-vcs
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring any version control system files and directories.
ls –ignore-vcs-ignores
The “–ignore-vcs-ignores” option is used to ignore the ignore patterns specified by the version control system when listing the contents of a directory. This option is useful when you want to include ignored files in the listing.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-vcs-ignores
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring the ignore patterns specified by the version control system.
ls –ignore-vcs-files
The “–ignore-vcs-files” option is used to ignore version control system files when listing the contents of a directory. This option is useful when you want to exclude version control files from the listing.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-vcs-files
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring any version control system files.
ls –ignore-vcs-dirs
The “–ignore-vcs-dirs” option is used to ignore version control system directories when listing the contents of a directory. This option is useful when you want to exclude version control directories from the listing.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-vcs-dirs
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring any version control system directories.
ls –ignore-vcs-all
The “–ignore-vcs-all” option is used to ignore all version control system files and directories when listing the contents of a directory. This option is useful when you want to exclude all version control files and directories from the listing.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-vcs-all
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory, ignoring all version control files and directories.
ls –ignore-vcs-untracked
The “–ignore-vcs-untracked” option is used to ignore untracked files and directories when listing the contents of a directory. This option is useful when you want to exclude untracked files and directories from the listing.
For example:
$ ls --ignore-vcs-untracked
file1.txt file2.txt directory1 directory2
This command lists the files and directories in the current working directory,
