Linux list folder contents

ls command in Linux/Unix

ls is a Linux shell command that lists directory contents of files and directories.

ls syntax

$ ls [options] [file|dir]

ls command options

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

ls command examples

You can press the tab button to auto complete the file or folder names.

List directory Documents/Books with relative path:

List directory /home/user/Documents/Books with absolute path.

List user’s home directory (e.g: /home/user):

List with long format and show hidden files:

Recursive directory tree list:

List only text files with wildcard:

ls redirection to output file:

List files and directories with full path:

ls code generator

Select ls options and press the Generate Code button:

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The Linux LS Command – How to List Files in a Directory + Option Flags

Bolaji Ayodeji

Since the creation of Unix in the 1970s, a lot of operating systems have used it as their foundation. Many of these operating systems failed, while others succeeded.

Linux is one of the most popular Unix based operating systems. It’s open source, and is used all over the world across many industries.

One amazing feature of the Linux operating system is the Command Line Interface (CLI) which allows users to interact with their computer from a shell. The Linux shell is a REPL (Read, Evaluate, Print, Loop) environment where users can enter a command and the shell runs it and returns a result.

The ls command is one of the many Linux commands that allow a user to list files or directories from the CLI.

In this article, we’ll go in depth on the ls command and some of the most important flags you’ll need day-to-day.

Prerequisites

• A computer with directories and files
• Have one of the Linux distros installed
• Basic knowledge of navigating around the CLI
• A smile on your face 🙂

The Linux ls Command

The ls command is used to list files or directories in Linux and other Unix-based operating systems.

Just like you navigate in your File explorer or Finder with a GUI, the ls command allows you to list all files or directories in the current directory by default, and further interact with them via the command line.

Launch your terminal and type ls to see this in action:

How to list Files in a Directory with Options

The ls command also accepts some flags (also known as options) which are additional information that changes how files or directories are listed in your terminal.

In other words, flags change how the ls command works:

PS: The word contents used in throughout the article refers to the files and directories being listed, not the actual contents of the files/directories ?

List files in the current working directory

Type the ls command to list the contents of the current working directory:

List files in another directory

Type the ls [directory path here] command to list the contents of another directory:

List files in the root directory

Type the ls / command to list the contents of the root directory:

List files in the parent directory

Type the ls .. command to list the contents of the parent directory one level above. Use ls ../.. for contents two levels above:

List files in the user’s home directory (/home/user)

Type the ls ~ command to list the contents in the users’s home directory:

List only directories

Type the ls -d */ command to list only directories:

List files with subdirectories

Type the ls * command to list the contents of the directory with it’s subdirectories:

List files recursively

Type the ls -R command to list all files and directories with their corresponding subdirectories down to the last file:

If you have a lot of files, this can take a very long time to complete as every single file in each directory will be printed out. You can instead specify a directory to run this command in, like so: ls Downloads -R

List files with their sizes

Type the ls -s command (the s is lowercase) to list files or directories with their sizes:

List files in long format

Type the ls -l command to list the contents of the directory in a table format with columns including:

• content permissions
• number of links to the content
• owner of the content
• group owner of the content
• size of the content in bytes
• last modified date / time of the content
• file or directory name

List files in long format with readable file sizes

Type the ls -lh command to list the files or directories in the same table format above, but with another column representing the size of each file/directory:

Note that sizes are listed in bytes (B), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB) when the file or directory’s size is larger than 1024 bytes.

List files including hidden files

Type the ls -a command to list files or directories including hidden files or directories. In Linux, anything that begins with a . is considered a hidden file:

List files in long format including hidden files

Type the ls -l -a or ls -a -l or ls -la or ls -al command to list files or directories in a table format with extra information including hidden files or directories:

List files and sort by date and time

Type the ls -t command to list files or directories and sort by last modified date in descending order (biggest to smallest).

You can also add a -r flag to reverse the sorting order like so: ls -tr :

List files and sort by file size

Type the ls -S (the S is uppercase) command to list files or directories and sort by size in descending order (biggest to smallest).

You can also add a -r flag to reverse the sorting order like so: ls -Sr :

List files and output the result to a file

Type the ls > output.txt command to print the output of the preceding command into an output.txt file. You can use any of the flags discussed before like -la — the key point here is that the result will be outputted into a file and not logged to the command line.

Then you can use the file as you see fit, or log the contents of the file with cat output.txt :

Conclusion

There are tons of other commands and combinations you can explore to list out files and directories based on your needs. One thing to remember is the ability to combine multiple commands together at once.

Imagine you want to list a file in long format, including hidden files, and sort by file size. The command would be ls -alS , which is a combination of ls -l , ls -a , and ls -S .

If you forget any command or are unsure about what to do, you can run ls —help or man ls which will display a manual with all possible options for the ls command:

Источник

Useful Linux Commands to List Contents of a Directory

When it comes to Linux commands, there are a ton of them that you can use to run tasks. And if you want to list the contents of a directory just like a file manager, there are a few commands to do so. Let’s check them out.

ls

The most common Linux command to list the content of a directory is ls . By default, ls lists the contents of a directory in columns. Different colors are used to display files and directories.

Directories created by the user have their names displayed within single quotes. Directories created by the system have their names simply displayed. The colors used to display the names of files, directories and scripts depend on the visual theme used by the terminal.

ls just lists the content of the current directory that you are in. If you want to view the content in another directory, you can add the file path in the command:

You can add the -a flag to show hidden files:

or the -l and -h flag to have it display in long-list format and human readable format.

Dir

dir , like ls , also lists the contents of the directory in columns. If any names have special characters in them like spaces, then those characters are preceded by a backslash. All the flags developed for ls have also been made available for dir .

dir behaves similar to the following command:

-C : displays the output in columns
-b : precedes special characters with a backslash

vdir

The next command to show content in a directory is vdir .

This command provides a long listing of the contents of the directory. Again, the special characters in names are preceded with a backslash. In the long listing, details about the permissions associated with a file or directory, link count, the owner, group owner, file size, last modification time and file/directory name are displayed.

vdir behaves similarly to the following command:

-l : provides a long listing of directory contents
-b : precedes special characters with a backslash

Why do we have “dir” and “vdir” when “ls” can do the same job?

Shell commands are often used as a part of scripts. The output of such scripts may be displayed on a terminal screen, redirected to a file or simply piped as input to another command. In certain scenarios, ls did not behave as expected due to some performance issues during script execution. To handle this situation, Linux developers came up with two alternate commands that provide the same output as ls and do not run into such performance issues.

Also, some people consider dir to be the Linux equivalent of the DOS command “dir,” which also lists the contents of the directory. However, this is not a correct assumption.

Fun Fact

In the output of ls , the files and folders are color-coded. In the outputs for dir and vdir , the same colors are used throughout. If you are wondering why, the reason lies in the .bashrc file. In the “~/.bashrc” file, which is a hidden file in the home directory, an alias for “ls” has been defined as shown below,

where ls is equivalent to ls —color=auto . The similar aliases for “dir” and “vdir” have been commented out. You can uncomment them to view the outputs with color. The following command will perform the same activity.

When it comes to Linux commands, there is often more than one way to get things done. Don’t forget to check out some of the commonly-used commands for new users.

Divya divides her time between speculating the existence of aliens and writing about her technical findings.

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