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LS

Posted On 2007-05-01 by FortyPoundHead
Keywords: Command Reference
Tags: Linux Commandline Linux
Views: 1484

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List information about FILEs, by default the current directory.

SYNTAX
ls [Options]... [File]...

KEY
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuSUX nor --sort.

-a, --all Do not hide entries starting with .

-A, --almost-all Do not list implied . and ..

-b, --escape Print octal escapes for nongraphic characters

--block-size=SIZE Use SIZE-byte blocks

-B, --ignore-backups Do not list implied entries ending with ~

-c Sort by change time; with -l: show ctime

-C List entries by columns

--color[=WHEN] Control whether color is used to distinguish file
types. WHEN may be `never'', `always'', or `auto''

-d, --directory List directory entries instead of contents

-D, --dired Generate output designed for Emacs'' dired mode

-f Do not sort, enable -aU, disable -lst

-F, --classify Append indicator (one of */=@|) to entries

--format=WORD Across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l,
single-column -1, verbose -l, vertical -C

--full-time List both full date and full time

-g (ignored)

-G, --no-group Inhibit display of group information

-h, --human-readable Print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
-H, --si Likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024

--indicator-style=WORD Append indicator with style WORD to entry names:
none (default), classify (-F), file-type (-p)

-i, --inode Print index number of each file

-I, --ignore=PATTERN Do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN

-k, --kilobytes Like --block-size=1024

-l Use a long listing format

-L, --dereference List entries pointed to by symbolic links

-m Fill width with a comma separated list of entries

-n, --numeric-uid-gid List numeric UIDs and GIDs instead of names

-N, --literal Print raw entry names (don''t treat e.g. control
characters specially)

-o Use long listing format without group info

-p, --file-type Append indicator (one of /=@|) to entries

-q, --hide-control-chars Print ? instead of non graphic characters

--show-control-chars Show non graphic characters as-is (default)

-Q, --quote-name Enclose entry names in double quotes
--quoting-style=WORD Use quoting style WORD for entry names:
literal, shell, shell-always, c, escape

-r, --reverse Reverse order while sorting

-R, --recursive List subdirectories recursively

-s, --size Print size of each file, in blocks

-S Sort by file size

--sort=WORD time -t, version -v, status -c
size -S, extension -X, none -U
atime -u, access -u, use -u

--time=WORD Show time as WORD instead of modification time:
atime, access, use, ctime or status;
also use this as a sort key if --sort=time

-t sort by modification time

-T, --tabsize=COLS assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8

-u sort by last access time; with -l: show atime

-U do not sort; list entries in directory order

-v sort by version

-w, --width=COLS assume screen width instead of current value

-x list entries by lines instead of by columns

-X sort alphabetically by entry extension

-1 list one file per line

--help display help and exit

--version output version information and exitThe most common options are -a (all files) and -l (long or details)

When output to file the files are listed one per line.

By default, colour is not used to distinguish types of files. That is equivalent to using --color=none.
Using the --color option without the optional WHEN argument is equivalent to using --color=always.
With --color=auto, color codes are output only if standard output is connected to a terminal (tty).


EXAMPLES

ls -al

total 109
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:12 ./
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:12 ../
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:14 bin/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 Jun 9 20:32 boot/
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 36864 Jul 12 10:26 dev/
drwxr-xr-x 34 root root 4096 Jul 12 10:25 etc/
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:28 home/
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:18 lib/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 16384 Jun 9 21:01 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 24 1999 misc/
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jun 9 20:32 mnt/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 23 1999 opt/
dr-xr-xr-x 63 root root 0 Jul 12 11:25 proc/
drwx------ 13 root root 4096 Jul 12 01:00 root/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:22 sbin/
drwxrwxrwt 9 root root 4096 Jul 12 13:48 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:07 usr/
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 Jun 9 21:22 var/

the first column under long (-l) is the file type
''d'' for directory(folder)
''f'' for file
# list ALL subdirectories
ls *

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About the Author

FortyPoundHead has posted a total of 1974 articles.

 

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