The ls command is used to list files. "ls" on its own lists all files in the current directory except for hidden files. "ls *.tex" lists only those files ending in ".tex". There are a large number of options; here are some of the most useful. Options can be combined [this is a general principle of Unix commands] - for example "ls -la" gives a long listing of all files.
- ls -a will list all files including hidden files [files with names beginning with a dot].
- ls -F gives a full listing, indicating what type files are by putting a slash after directories and a star after executable files [programs you can run].
- ls -l gives a long listing of all files. Here is an example section of the output of ls -l :
drwxr-xr-x 6 eva users 1024 Jun 8 16:46 sabon -rw------- 1 eva users 1564 Apr 28 14:35 splus -rw------- 1 eva users 1119 Apr 28 16:00 splus2 -rw-r--r-- 1 eva users 9753 Sep 27 11:14 ssh_known_hosts -rw-r--r-- 1 eva users 4131 Sep 21 15:23 swlist.out -rw-r--r-- 1 eva users 94031 Sep 1 16:07 tarnti.zip
What does it all mean?
- The first column gives the type of the file [e.g., directory or ordinary file] and the file permissions.
- The second column is the number of links to the file i.e., [more or less] the number of names there are for the file. Generally an ordinary file will only have one link, but a directory will have more, because you can refer to it as ``dirname'', ``dirname/.'' where the dot means ``current directory'', and if it has a subdirectory named ``subdir'', ``dirname/subdir/..'' [the ``..'' means ``parent directory''].
- The third and fourth columns are the user who owns the file and the Unix group of users to which the file belongs. Unless you are working together on the same file, you need not worry about Unix groups.
- The fifth column is the size of the file in bytes.
- The next three columns are the time at which the file was last changed [for a directory, this is the time at which a file in that directory was last created or deleted].
- The last column is the name of the file.
- ls -R gives a recursive listing, including the contents of all subdirectories and their subdirectories and so on.
- ls -t lists the files in order of the time when they were last modified [newest first] rather than in alphabetical order.
- ls -r lists the files in the reverse of the order that they would otherwise have been listed in. Thus, ls -lrt will give a long listing, oldest first, which is handy for seeing which files in a large directory have recently been changed.
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Learn how to use the ls command to list files in the terminal with this Linux tutorial. To list files on a computer with a graphical interface, you usually open a file manager [Files on Linux,
Finder on MacOS, Windows Explorer on Windows], and look at the files.
To list files in a terminal, you use the ls command to list all files in the current directory. The pwd commands tells you what directory you're currently in.
$ pwd
/home/tux
$ ls
example.txt
Documents
Downloads
Music
Pictures
Templates
Videos
You can view hidden files with the --all option:
$ pwd
/home/tux
$ ls --all
. Downloads
.. .local
.bashrc Music
.config Pictures
example.txt Templates
Documents Videos
As you can see, the first items listed are dots. The single dot is actually a meta location meaning the folder you are currently in. The two dots indicate that you can move back from this location. That is, you are in a folder in another folder. Once you start moving around within your computer, you can use that information to create shortcuts for yourself or to increase the specificity of your paths.
Files and folders and how to tell the difference
You may notice that it's hard to tell a file from a folder. Some Linux distributions have some nice colors set up so that all folders are blue and the files are white and binary files are pink or green, and so on. If you don't see those colors, you can try ls --color. If you're color blind or on a display that doesn't provide colors, you can alternately use the --classify option:
$ pwd
/home/tux/Downloads
$ ls --classify
android-info.txt
cheat/
test-script.sh*
As you can see, folders are given a trailing slash [/] to denote that they are steps within your file
system. Binary entities, like zip files and executable programs, are indicated swith an asterisk [*].
Seth Kenlon is a UNIX geek, free culture advocate, independent multimedia artist, and D&D nerd. He has worked in the film and computing industry, often at the same time.
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