The ls
is a command to list computer files in Unix and Unix-like operating systems. ls
is specified by POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification. When invoked without any arguments, ls lists the files in the current working directory. The command is also available in the EFI shell. In other environments, such as DOS, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows, similar functionality is provided by the dir
command. The numerical computing environments MATLAB and GNU Octave include an ls
function with similar. The ls command examples help you learn Linux command line faster.
NAME: ls – list directory contents
SYNOPSIS
ls [OPTION]… [FILE]…
Description
The ls command is a command-line utility for listing the contents of a directory or directories given to it via standard input. It sorts entries alphabetically if none of cftuvSUX nor –sort is specified.
Options
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 with -l, scale sizes by SIZE when printing them; e.g., '--block-size=M'; 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 -s, print sizes like 1K 234M 2G etc. --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 informa‐ tion for the file the link references rather than for 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 entry names without quoting -o like -l, but do not list group information -p, --indicator-style=slash append / indicator to directories -q, --hide-control-chars print ? instead of nongraphic characters --show-control-chars show nongraphic characters as-is (the 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 (overrides QUOTING_STYLE environment variable) -r, --reverse reverse order while sorting -R, --recursive list subdirectories recursively -s, --size print the allocated size of each file, in blocks -S sort by file size, largest first --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 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 FOR‐ MAT1FORMAT2, then FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FOR‐ MAT2 to recent files. TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect only outside the POSIX locale. Also the TIME_STYLE environment vari‐ able 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.
The main short list options of ls command example with description.
option | description |
---|---|
ls -a | list all files including hidden file starting with ‘.’ |
ls –color | colored list [=always/never/auto] |
ls -d | list directories – with ‘ */’ |
ls -F | add one char of */=>@| to enteries |
ls -i | list file’s inode index number |
ls -l | list with long format – show permissions |
ls -la | list long format including hidden files |
ls -lh | list long format with readable file size |
ls -ls | list with long format with file size |
ls -r | list in reverse order |
ls -R | list recursively directory tree |
ls -s | list file size |
ls -S | sort by file size |
ls -t | sort by time & date |
ls -X | sort by extension name |
Examples
The ls command without options.
List files one per line:
ls -1
The -a option, list all files, including hidden files. Some files begin with .
or ..
and those files are hidden from the user by default.
ls -a
List all files, with trailing/added to directory names:
ls -F
Long format list (permissions, ownership, size and modification date) of all files:
ls -la
Long format list with size displayed using human-readable units (KB, MB, GB):
ls -lh
Long format list sorted by size (descending):
ls -lS
Long format list of all files, sorted by modification date (oldest first):
ls -ltr
I always use the ll command to list all files, directories …
ll