Use ‘ls’ command to get the list of files and directory.
Basic Usage
By default(without any option) the ‘ls’ command will show a list of the files and directories of current working directory-
$ ls
composer.phar go go1.21.6.linux-amd64.tar.gz redis redis_backup wwwUse the ‘-l‘ option, to see the list in a long list format-
$ ls -l
total 67932
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 2837394 Aug 7 2023 composer.phar
drwxr-xr-x 4 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Feb 11 18:52 go
-rw-r--r-- 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 66704768 Jan 10 2024 go1.21.6.linux-amd64.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 9 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jul 17 2023 redis
drwxr-xr-x 2 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Dec 19 2023 redis_backup
drwxr-xr-x 6 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 29 17:37 wwwThe ‘-a‘ option shows us all the files and directories. If a file or directory name starts with a dot(.) then it is considered as hidden file or direct.
The ‘-a‘ option will show those hidden files and directories. This option will also show a dot(.) for the current directory and two dots(..) for the parent directory.
$ ls -la
total 68108
drwxr-x--- 22 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jul 19 17:16 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 8 15:14 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4135 Jun 29 18:51 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 12 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 8 15:12 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 3 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 20 23:14 .cargo
drwxr-xr-x 3 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Feb 12 17:17 .kube
drwxr-xr-x 5 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Mar 23 22:51 .npm
drwxr-xr-x 8 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jan 23 22:37 .nvm
-rw-r--r-- 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 828 Jun 20 23:14 .profile
drwxr-xr-x 6 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 20 23:20 .rustup
drwx------ 2 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 29 17:44 .ssh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 2837394 Aug 7 2023 composer.phar
drwxr-xr-x 4 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Feb 11 18:52 go
-rw-r--r-- 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 66704768 Jan 10 2024 go1.21.6.linux-amd64.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 9 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jul 17 2023 redis
drwxr-xr-x 2 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Dec 19 2023 redis_backup
drwxr-xr-x 6 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 29 17:37 wwwUse the ‘-h‘ option to get a human-readable format of the size values. Check the usage below-
$ ls -lah
total 1.2M
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4.0K Jul 22 00:46 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4.0K Jul 21 00:45 ..
drwxr-xr-x 4 webhkp webhkp 4.0K Jul 21 20:33 a
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 112 Jul 21 18:22 bigboxcode.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 0 Jul 21 20:57 bigboxcode11.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 176 Aug 9 00:15 bigboxcode12.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 16 Jul 21 18:23 bigboxcode2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 1.2M Aug 9 00:20 bigboxcode3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 0 Jul 21 20:31 file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 0 Jul 21 20:31 file2
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 4.7K Aug 9 00:17 file3
-rw-r--r-- 1 webhkp webhkp 0 Jul 21 20:31 file4
drwxr-xr-x 2 webhkp webhkp 4.0K Jul 21 20:33 k
drwxr-xr-x 2 webhkp webhkp 4.0K Jul 23 00:59 srcWe can mention the path for the ‘ls‘ command. just write the relative or absolute path-
# Check the content of /var directory
$ ls -lah /var
total 56K
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4.0K Feb 16 2023 .
drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4.0K Aug 4 19:18 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Apr 18 2022 backups
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4.0K Feb 16 2023 cache
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4.0K Mar 27 2023 crash
drwxr-xr-x 34 root root 4.0K Apr 15 22:40 lib
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 4.0K Apr 18 2022 local
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Oct 26 2022 lock -> /run/lock
drwxrwxr-x 10 root syslog 4.0K Mar 20 2023 log
drwxrwsr-x 2 root mail 4.0K Oct 26 2022 mail
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Oct 26 2022 opt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Oct 26 2022 run -> /run
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4.0K Oct 26 2022 snap
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K Oct 26 2022 spool
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4.0K Apr 30 00:44 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Feb 16 2023 wwwThere is an alias of “ls -la“, that is “ll”. Use “ll” command and get the full output like the below-
$ ll
total 68108
drwxr-x--- 22 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jul 19 17:16 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 8 15:14 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4135 Jun 29 18:51 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 3 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 20 23:14 .cargo/
drwx------ 7 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Feb 10 15:29 .config/
drwxr-xr-x 16 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Sep 18 2023 .gvm/
drwxr-xr-x 3 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Feb 12 17:17 .kube/
drwxr-xr-x 6 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 20 23:20 .rustup/
drwx------ 2 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 29 17:44 .ssh/
-rw------- 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 12958 Jun 29 18:51 .viminfo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 2837394 Aug 7 2023 composer.phar*
drwxr-xr-x 4 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Feb 11 18:52 go/
-rw-r--r-- 1 bigboxcode bigboxcode 66704768 Jan 10 2024 go1.21.6.linux-amd64.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 9 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jul 17 2023 redis/
drwxr-xr-x 2 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Dec 19 2023 redis_backup/
drwxr-xr-x 6 bigboxcode bigboxcode 4096 Jun 29 17:37 www/We can use the “ls” command to show the content of multiple directories at the same. Just write the directories separated by space-
# Show file and directory list of
# - Home directory
# - /var
# - /etc/cron.d
$ ls ~ /var /etc/cron.d
/etc/cron.d:
e2scrub_all php
/home/bigboxcode:
a bigboxcode.txt bigboxcode11.txt bigboxcode12.txt
bigboxcode2.txt bigboxcode3.txt file1 file2 file3 file4 k src
/var:
backups cache crash lib local lock log
mail opt run snap spool tmp wwwCommand Info
$ ls --help
Usage: ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.
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 information 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 change the default of using modification times;
access time (-u): atime, access, use;
change time (-c): ctime, status;
birth time: birth, creation;
with -l, WORD determines which time to show;
with --sort=time, sort by WORD (newest first)
--time-style=TIME_STYLE time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below
-t sort by time, newest first; see --time
-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).
Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.
The TIME_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, or +FORMAT.
FORMAT is interpreted like in date(1). If FORMAT is FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2,
then FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files.
TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect only outside the POSIX locale.
Also the TIME_STYLE environment variable 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.
Exit status:
0 if OK,
1 if minor problems (e.g., cannot access subdirectory),
2 if serious trouble (e.g., cannot access command-line argument).