Linux Pocket Guide

Name

ls [options] [files] — coreutils

Synopsis

/bin stdin stdout - file -- opt --help --version

The ls command (pronounced as it is spelled, ell ess) lists attributes of files and directories. You can list files in the current directory:

$ ls

in given directories:

$ ls dir1 dir2 dir3

or individually:

$ ls file1 file2 file3

The most important options are -a and -l. By default, ls hides files whose names begin with a dot; the -a option displays all files. The -l option produces a long listing:

-rw-r--r--    1 smith users       149 Oct 28  2002 my.data

that includes, from left to right: the file’s permissions (-rw-r--r--), owner (smith), group (users), size (149 bytes), last modification date (Oct 28 2002) and name. See File Protections for more information on permissions.

Useful options
-a	List all files, including those whose names begin with a dot.
-l	Long listing, including file attributes. Add the -h option (“human-readable”) to print file sizes in kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes, instead of bytes.
-F	Decorate certain filenames with meaningful symbols, indicating their types. Appends “/” to directories, “*” to executables, “@” to symbolic links, “|” to named pipes, and “=” to sockets. These are just visual indicators for you, not part of the filenames!
-i	Prepend the inode numbers of the files.
-s	Prepend the size of the file in blocks, useful for sorting files by their size: $ ls -s | sort -n
-R	If listing a directory, list its contents recursively.
-d	If listing a directory, do not list its contents, just the ...