Linux ls command

On Unix-like operating systems, the ls command lists information about files and directories.

This page covers the GNU/Linux version of ls.

Description

ls lists files and directories, and their associated metadata, such as file size, ownership, and modification time. With no options, ls lists the files contained in the current directory, sorting them alphabetically.

Syntax

ls [option ...] [file]...

ls [-a | --all] [-A | --almost-all] [--author] [-b | --escape]
   [--block-size=size] [-B | --ignore-backups] [-c] [-C] [--color[=when]] 
   [-d | --directory] [-D | --dired] [-f] [-F | --classify] [--file-type]
   [--format=word] [--full-time] [-g] [--group-directories-first]
   [-G | --no-group] [-h | --human-readable] [--si] 
   [-H | --dereference-command-line] [--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir]
   [--hide=pattern] [--indicator-style=word] [-i | --inode]
   [-I | --ignore=pattern] [-k | --kibibytes] [-l] [-L | --dereference] 
   [-m] [-n | --numeric-uid-gid] [-N | --literal] [-o] 
   [-p | --indicator-style=slash] [-q | --hide-control-chars]
   [--show-control-chars] [-Q | --quote-name] [--quoting-style=word]
   [-r | --reverse] [-R | --recursive] [-s | --size] [-S] [--sort=word]
   [--time=word] [--time-style=style] [-t] [-T | --tabsize=cols]
   [-u] [-U] [-v] [-w | --width=cols] [-x] [-X] [-Z | --context] [-1]

ls [--help | --version]

Options

Size Format

size is an integer and optional unit (example: 10M is 10*1024*1024). Units are K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y (powers of 1024) or KB, MB, ... (powers of 1000).

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

Information shown in a "long" listing

To view extended information about files, use the -l option to create a "long" listing. For instance:

ls -l file.txt

...displays something like the following:

-rwxrw-r-- 1   hope   hopestaff  123   Feb 03 15:36   file.txt

Here's what each part of this information means:

Examples

ls -l

Lists the total files in the directory and subdirectories, the names of the files in the current directory, their permissions, the number of subdirectories in directories listed, the size of the file, and the date of last modification.

ls -laxo

Lists files with permissions, shows hidden files, displays them in a column format, and suppresses group information.

ls ~

List the contents of your home directory by adding a tilde after the ls command.

ls /

List the contents of your root directory.

ls ../

List the contents of the parent directory.

ls */

List the contents of all subdirectories.

ls -d */

Display a list of directories in the current directory.

ls *.{htm,php,cgi}

List all files containing the file extension .htm, .php, or .cgi

ls -ltr

List files sorted by the time they were last modified in reverse order (most recently modified files last).

ls [aeiou]*

In the above example, only files that begin with a vowel (a, e, i, o, or u).

ls myfile.txt 2>/dev/null

Silences or suppresses any error message if the ls command does not find the file.

Related commands

chmod — Change the permissions of files or directories.
df — Report the amount of available disk space on file systems.
diff — Identify the differences between two files.
du — Report the amount of disk space used by a file or files.
file — Determine a file's type.
grep — Search for and output lines that match a specified pattern.
stat — Display the status of a file or filesystem.
tree — List the contents of a file hierarchy visually in a tree format.