Directory Listing with the Command "ls"

Unix / Linux - Getting Started


Here I am going to show you some frequently used commands on a Unix / Linux running computer system.

In this post we will see how to do a directory listing of files and directories.

Command: ls [Options] [FileOrDirectoryName]
Usage: 

$ whatis ls
ls                   (1)  - list directory contents

Examples:

$ ls
bin  bin.tar.bzip2  co  contacts  contacts-new  hello  hi  Mail  man  mbox  mysql-init  test
$

Only directory and file names are listed. No extra or detailed information is displayed along with them.

We can also pass a file or directory name along with ls

$ ls bin
case      child.sh    contacts     hello     parent.sh    readLine.sh   variable.sh
case.man  compVar.sh  dumpHTML.sh  manifest  readFile.sh  scriptPid.sh
$

In the above example we have passed the directory name "bin" as the argument to the command ls so that its contents are displayed.

We can also pass a file name. If it exists then the file name itself is echoed otherwise we get an error:

$ ls contacts
contacts
$ ls salary
ls: salary: No such file or directory
$

For a detailed information we can use "-l" option:

$ ls -l
total 48
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 243 Aug 26 19:15 case
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 289 Aug 26 19:51 case.man
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  26 Aug 30 16:28 child.sh
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 402 Aug 31 16:20 compVar.sh
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 162 Aug 30 18:58 contacts
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 376 Sep  2 20:59 dumpHTML.sh
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Sep  5 18:59 hello
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 156 Aug 27 14:22 manifest
$

To include hidden files (file and directory names that begin with a dot ".") we can pass "-a" option:

$ ls -a
.              .bashrc        contacts        .gstreamer-0.8  Mail            mysql-init  .Xauthority
..             bin            contacts-new    .gtkrc          man             .ssh
.bash_history  bin.tar.bzip2  .fonts.cache-1  hello           mbox            test
.bash_profile  co             .gnome          hi              .mysql_history  .viminfo
$

Sorting the directory list displaying largest to smallest files and directories:

$ ls -lS
total 64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 10240 Oct  6 21:50 hello
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 10240 Oct  6 21:54 hi
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Sep  5 18:59 bin
drwx------  2 root root  4096 Sep 26 15:34 Mail
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  4096 Aug 26 20:59 man
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  4096 Sep 17 14:22 test
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1739 Oct  6 22:12 bin.tar.bzip2
-rw-------  1 root root   784 Sep 26 15:34 mbox
-rw-rw-rw-  1 root root   218 Oct 10 16:13 contacts
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   210 Oct 10 16:04 contacts-new
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   207 Oct  6 22:02 co
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    85 Sep 21 18:53 mysql-init
$

Sorting the directory list displaying newest to oldest files and directories:

 $ ls -lt
total 64
-rw-rw-rw-  1 root root   218 Oct 10 16:13 contacts
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   210 Oct 10 16:04 contacts-new
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1739 Oct  6 22:12 bin.tar.bzip2
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   207 Oct  6 22:02 co
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 10240 Oct  6 21:54 hi
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 10240 Oct  6 21:50 hello
-rw-------  1 root root   784 Sep 26 15:34 mbox
drwx------  2 root root  4096 Sep 26 15:34 Mail
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    85 Sep 21 18:53 mysql-init
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  4096 Sep 17 14:22 test
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Sep  5 18:59 bin
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  4096 Aug 26 20:59 man

To reverse the  sorting, i.e. to sort in descending order, we can use "-r" option. We can use any combination of options. For example to display all the files and directories, including the hidden ones, from oldest to newest we can issue the following command:

$ ls -alrt
total 132
drwx------   2 root root  4096 Jul 27  2004 .gnome
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Jul 27  2004 .gstreamer-0.8
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    59 Sep 16  2004 .fonts.cache-1
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   120 Oct 25  2004 .gtkrc
drwx------   2 root root  4096 Mar 29  2005 .ssh
-rw-------   1 root root   259 Mar 29  2005 .Xauthority
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   207 Aug 26 20:58 .bash_profile
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Aug 26 20:59 man
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep  5 18:59 bin
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Sep 17 14:22 test
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    85 Sep 21 18:53 mysql-init
drwx------   2 root root  4096 Sep 26 15:34 Mail
-rw-------   1 root root   784 Sep 26 15:34 mbox
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 10240 Oct  6 21:50 hello
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 10240 Oct  6 21:54 hi
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   207 Oct  6 22:02 co
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  1739 Oct  6 22:12 bin.tar.bzip2
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root    50 Oct  8 15:44 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   210 Oct 10 16:04 contacts-new
-rw-rw-rw-   1 root root   218 Oct 10 16:13 contacts
-rw-------   1 root root  6215 Oct 10 16:13 .viminfo
drwxr-xr-x  19 root root  4096 Oct 19 19:13 ..
-rw-------   1 root root  3107 Oct 19 19:55 .mysql_history
-rw-------   1 root root 11437 Oct 19 19:55 .bash_history
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Oct 19 20:29 .hidden
drwxr-xr-x  10 root root  4096 Oct 19 20:29 .

 By default only directory names are displayed, i.e. their contents are not displayed. To display sub-directories and their contents recursively we can use "-R" option as shown below:

$ ls -R
.:
bin  bin.tar.bzip2  co  contacts  contacts-new  hello  hi  Mail  man  mbox  mysql-init  test

./bin:
case      child.sh    contacts     hello     parent.sh    readLine.sh   variable.sh
case.man  compVar.sh  dumpHTML.sh  manifest  readFile.sh  scriptPid.sh

./Mail:

./man:
case.l.gz  cat1

./man/cat1:

./test:
tube

./test/tube:
go  goback  year
$

There are many other options available with the command "ls". We can check out the manual page by issuing the following command:

$ man ls