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How-To Geek

Linux

How to Use the ls Command to List Files

and Directories on Linux
DAVE MCKAY
DEC 3, 2019, 8:00 AM EST
| 8 MIN READ

Fatmawati Achmad Zaenuri/Shutterstock

We use the Linux ls command every day without thinking

about it. That’s a pity. Pay it some attention, and you’ll find
many useful options—including some you should add to your
command-line arsenal.

ls Lists Files and Directories

The ls command is probably the first command most Linux

users encounter. Those of us who hang around the command
line use it day in and day out without even thinking about it.
That might explain why there is more to this command than
most users realize. We list files with it to see what’s in a
directory. We list files in long format when we want to look at
the permissions on a file. Beyond that, it gets little
consideration.

The ls command
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is one of those
10 Basic Linux
commands with a
Commands for
wealth of options. Beginners
Perhaps this is
part of the problem. There are so many options, how do you
sift through them to find the useful ones? And having found
them, how do you remember them?

Useful permutations of the ls command with their strings of

options and parameters are the perfect candidates for aliases.
In fact, in most distributions, what you think of as the “naked”
ls command is actually an alias. Amongst other things, the
type command can be used to show the underlying definition
of aliases. Let’s look at the definition of ls:

type ls

The --color=auto parameters are included automatically

every time you use the ls command. This is what provides the
different colors for the different file types in the listings.

RELATED: How to Create Aliases and Shell Functions on Linux

Simple ls Listings
Everyone who’s spent some time using the Linux terminal
knows that, by default, ls lists the files and directories in the
current directory.

ls

If you want to have your listing produced ina single column,

use the -1 (one file per line) option:

ls -1
We’ll discuss that weird-looking filename at the top of the
listing in a minute.

Using ls on Different Directories

To have ls list the files in a directory other than the current

directory, pass the path to the directory to ls on the command
line. You can also pass more than one directory to ls, and
have them listed one after the other. Here, we’re asking ls to
list the files in two directories, one called “Help” and the other
called “gc_help.”

ls Help gc_help

When ls has listed the contents of the first directory it lists the
contents of the second. It prints the name of each directory as
it processes them:
Using File Patterns

To selectively list a set of files, use pattern matching. The

question mark “?” will represent any single character and the
asterisk “*” will represent any string of characters. To list any
files or directories that have names starting with “ip_” use this
format:

ls ip_*

To list files that have “.c” extensions, use this format:

ls *.c
You can also use ls with grep , and use grep‘s pattern
matching capabilities. Let’s look for any files that have the
string “_pin_” in their name:

ls | grep _pin_

This is almost the same as using ls on its own, with two

wildcards:

ls | grep _pin_

ls *_pin_*

Why almost the same? Note the different layouts. grep forces

the output to a single filename per line format.
Non-Printing Characters

It is possible to find yourself with a filename that has a non-

printing or control-character in its filename. Typically this can
happen when you expand an archive you’ve downloaded from
the web or retrieved a git repository, and the original author
made a mistake creating a file but didn’t spot it.

Our weird file is one of these:

If we look at it in the file browser and press “F2” to rename it,

the non-printing characters are represented by a strange
symbol.

You can use the -b (escape) option to allow you to see what
the file name actually contains. This option causes ls to use
the escape sequences of the C programming language to
represent the control-characters.

ls -b a*

The mysterious character is revealed to be a newline character,

represented in C as “\n.”

Ignoring Files

To have certain files omitted from a listing, use the --hide

option. Suppose you don’t want to see the backup “.bak” files
in the listing. You could use this command:

ls

ls --hide=*.bak

The “.bak” files are not included in the second listing.

The Long Format Listing

The -l (long listing) option causes ls to provide detailed
information about each file.

ls -l

There’s a lot of information here, so let’s step through it.

The first thing ls displays is the total size of all the files in the
listing. Then each file or directory is displayed on a line by
itself.

The first set of ten letters and dashes are the file type and the
owner, group and other file permissions.

The very first character represents the file type. It will be one
of:

–:  A regular file.

b: A block special file.

c: A character special file.

d: A directory.

l: A symbolic link.
 n: A network file.

p: A named pipe.

s: A socket.

The next nine characters are three groups of three characters

displayed contiguously. Each group of three represent the read,
write, and execute permissions, in that order. If the permission
is granted, there will be an r, w, or x present. If the permission
is not granted, a hyphen - is shown.

The first set of three characters are the permissions for the file
owner. The second set of three permissions are for group
members, and the last set of three permissions is for others.

Sometimes the execution permission for the owner is

represented by an s. This is the setuid bit. If it is present, it
means that the file is executed with the privileges of the file
owner, not the user executing the file.

The execution permission for the group can also be an s.  This
is the setgid bit. When this is applied to a file, it means the file
will be executed with the privileges of the ower’s group. When
used with a directory, any files created inside it will take their
group permissions from the directory they’re being created in,
not from the user who is creating the file.

The execution permission for the others can sometimes be

represented by a t. This is the sticky bit. It is usually applied to
directories. If this is set, regardless of the write and executable
privileges that are set on the files in the directory, only the file
owner, the directory owner, or the root user can rename or
delete files in the directory.

A common use for the sticky bit is on folders such as “/tmp”.

This is writable by all users on the computer. The sticky bit on
the directory ensures that users—and processes launched by
the users—can only rename or delete their own temporary
files.

We can see the sticky bit on the “/tmp” directory. Note the use
of the -d (directory) option. This causes ls to report on the
details of the directory. Without this option, ls will report on
the files inside the directory.

ls -l -d /tmp

RELATED: How to Use the chmod Command on Linux

The number following the permissions is the number of hard

links to the file or directory. For a file, this is usually one, but if
other hard links are created, this number will increase. A
directory typically has at least two hard links. One is a link to
itself, and the other is its entry in its parent directory.

The name of the owner and group are displayed next. They are
followed by the file size and the date of the last modification of
the file. Finally, the filename is given.

Human Readable File Sizes

Having the file sizes in bytes is not always convenient. To see

the file sizes in the most appropriate units (Kilobytes,
Megabytes, etc.) use the -h (human-readable) option:

ls -l -h
Showing Hidden Files

To see hidden files, use the -a (all) option:

ls -l -a

The two entries “.” and “..” represent the current directory and
the parent directory, respectively. A file called “.base_settings”
is now visible for the first time.
Omitting . and .. from Listings

If you don’t want your listing cluttered up with the “.” and “..”
entries, but you do want to see hidden files, use the -A (almost
all) option:

ls -l -A

The hidden file is still listed, but the “.” and “..” entries are
suppressed.

Listing Directories Recursively

To have ls list the files in all subdirectories use the -R

(recursive) option

ls -l -R
ls works its way through the entire directory tree below the
starting directory, and lists the files in each subdirectory.

Displaying the UID and GID

To have the user ID and group ID displayed instead of the user

name and group name, use the -n (numeric uid and gid)
option.

ls -n
Sorting The Listings

You can sort the listing by extension, file size, or modification

time. These options don’t have to be used with the long listing
format, but it usually makes sense to do so. If you’re sorting by
file size, it makes sense to see the file sizes in the
listing. When you’re sorting by extension type, the long listing
format isn’t so important.

To sort by extension, use the -X (sort by extension) option.

ls -X -1
The directories are listed first (no extensions at all) then the
rest follow in alphabetical order, according to the extensions.

To sort by file size, use the -S (sort by file size) option.

ls -l -h -S

The sort order is largest to smallest.

To sort the listing by modification time, use the -t (sort by

modification time) option.
 ls -l -t

The listing is sorted by the modification time.

If the file modification time is within the current year, the

information displayed is the month, day, and time. If the
modification date was not in the current year, the information
that is displayed is the month, day, and the year.

A quick way to get the newest and oldest files in a directory is

to use ls with the head and tail commands.

To get the newest file or directory, use this command:

ls -t | head -1

To get the oldest file or directory, use this command:

ls -t | tail -1
To Reverse the Sort Order

To reverse any of the sort orders, use the -r (reverse) option.

ls -l -h -S -r

The listing is now ordered from the smallest file to the largest
file.

And there’s more

Check out the man page for ls, there are many more options.
Some of them satisfy somewhat obscure use cases, but once
in a while, you’ll be glad you know about them.

Do you need to see the file timestamps with the maximum

precision that Linux can provide? Use the full-time option:
 ls --full-time

Perhaps you want to see the inode number of the files? Use
the inode option:

ls -i

Are you working on a monochrome display and want to

remove all risk of confusing files for directories and links? Use
the classify option, and ls will append one of these to each
listing entry:

/: A directory.

@: A symlink.

|: A named pipe.

=: A socket.

*: An executable files

ls -F

Do some digging. You’ll find that ls is a rich vein, and you’ll

keep turning up gems.

Linux Commands

Files tar · pv · cat · tac · chmod · grep · diff · sed

· ar · man · pushd · popd · fsck · testdisk ·
seq · fd · pandoc · cd · $PATH · awk · join ·
jq · fold · uniq · journalctl · tail · stat · ls ·
fstab · echo · less · chgrp · chown · rev ·
look · strings · type · rename · zip · unzip ·
mount · umount · install · fdisk · mkfs · rm ·
rmdir · rsync · df · gpg · vi · nano · mkdir ·
 du · ln · patch · convert · rclone · shred ·
srm

alias · screen · top · nice · renice · progress

· strace · systemd · tmux · chsh · history · at
· batch · free · which · dmesg · chfn ·
usermod · ps · chroot · xargs · tty · pinky ·
Processes lsof · vmstat · timeout · wall · yes · kill ·
sleep · sudo · su · time · groupadd ·
usermod · groups · lshw · shutdown ·
reboot · halt · poweroff · passwd · lscpu ·
crontab · date · bg · fg

netstat · ping · traceroute · ip · ss · whois ·

fail2ban · bmon · dig · finger · nmap · ftp
Networking
· curl · wget · who · whoami · w · iptables ·
ssh-keygen · ufw

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DAVE MCKAY
Dave McKay first used computers when
punched paper tape was in vogue, and he has
been programming ever since. After over 30
years in the IT industry, he is now a full-time
technology journalist. During his career, he has worked as a
freelance programmer, manager of an international software
development team, an IT services project manager, and, most
recently, as a Data Protection Officer. His writing has been
published by  howtogeek.com, cloudsavvyit.com,
itenterpriser.com, and opensource.com. Dave is a Linux
evangelist and open source advocate. READ FULL BIO »
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