Linux ls Command - List Files
The ls command lists the contents of a specified directory. In this post we explain all the options available for the ls command.
ls Commad Options
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| -a | List all entries including ones that start with a dot |
| -A | List all entries excluding . and .. |
| -c | Sort files by change time |
| -d | List directory entries |
| -h | Show sizes in human readable format (i.e. K, M) |
| -H | Same as above only with powers of 1000 instead of 1024 |
| -l | Show contents in long-listing format |
| -o | Long -listing format without group info |
| -r | Show contents in reverse order |
| -s | Print size of each file in blocks |
| -S | Sort by file size |
| –sort | Sort contents by a word. (i.e size, version, status) |
| -t | Sort by modification time |
| -u | Sort by last access time |
| -v | Sort by version |
| -1 | List one file per line |
List Files
The ls command lists the contents of a specified directory, excluding dotfiles. If no directory is specified then, by default, the contents of the current directory are listed.
Listed files are sorted alphabetically, by default, and aligned in columns if they don’t fit on one line.
Example:
$ ls
apt configs Documents Music workspace
bin Desktop git Pictures Public Videos
List Files in a Long Listing Format
The ls command’s -l option prints a specified directory’s contents in a long listing format. If no directory is specified then, by default, the contents of the current directory are listed.
ls -l /etc
Example Output:
total 1204
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 21 03:44 acpi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3028 Apr 21 03:38 adduser.conf
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 11 20:42 alternatives
...
List the Ten Most Recently Modified Files
The following will list up to ten of the most recently modified files in the current directory, using a long listing format (-l) and sorted by time (-t).
ls -lt | head
List All Files Including Dotfiles
A dotfile is a file whose names begin with a .. These are normally hidden by ls and not listed unless requested. For example the following output of ls won’t list the dot files:
$ ls
bin pki
The -a or --all option will list all files, including dotfiles.
Example:
$ ls -a
. .ansible .bash_logout .bashrc
.. .bash_history .bash_profile bin pki
List Files in a Tree-Like Format
The tree command lists the contents of a specified directory in a tree-like format. If no directory is specified then, by default, the contents of the current directory are listed.
Example Output:
$ tree /tmp
/tmp
├── 5037
├── adb.log
└── evince-20965
└── image.FPWTJY.png
Use the tree command’s -L option to limit the display depth and the -d option to only list directories.
Example Output:
$ tree -L 1 -d /tmp /tmp
└── evince-20965
List Files Sorted by Size
The ls command’s -S option sorts the files in descending order of file size.
$ ls -l -S ./Fruits
total 8
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 166703 Jan 28 00:09 apples.jpg
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 134270 Jan 28 00:09 kiwis.jpg
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 30134 Jan 28 00:09 bananas.jpg
When used with the -r option the sort order is reversed.
$ ls -l -S -r ./Fruits
total 8
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 30134 Jan 28 00:09 bananas.jpg
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 134270 Jan 28 00:09 kiwis.jpg
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 166703 Jan 28 00:09 apples.jpg
Conclusion
In this post we learned all the different options to list files using the ls command.