Top 17 ls command options

We are going to learn about Linux command called ls. It is regular usage command in any distro of Linux to list out the directories and files in the current directory.

• To list out the directories and files in the working directory simply use the command

ls

1) Classification of Files

ls -F

• Here we have to note the indicator patterns at the end of the directories and files to determine the type.
  • Regular file: No indicator
  • Directory: /
  • Executable file: *
  • Symbolic link: @
  • Unix domain socket: =
  • Named pipe (FIFO): |
  • Socket: =

2) Long Listing of Files

ls -l

• Displays detailed information about each file, including permissions, number of links, owner, group, size, and time of last modification.
• It's a daily driver command, alias could be

alias ll="ls -l"

3) List the files with human readable

ls -lh

• When used with -l, this option shows file sizes in human-readable format (e.g., KB, MB) instead of bytes, mostly for the files present in the current directory.

4) List all Files

ls -a

• List all the files and directories including hidden ones those starting with .

5) Recursive

ls -R

• Lists all files in the current directory and all sub-directories recursively.

6) Sort by time

ls -lt

• Sorts the files by the time of last modification, with the most recently modified files appearing first.

7) Sort by Size

ls -lS

• Sorts files by size, with the largest files appearing first.

8) One file per line

ls -1

• Lists one file per line. Mostly useful when there are many files in the current Directory.

9) Directories only

ls -d */

• Lists directories themselves, not their contents.

10) Inode Number

ls -li

• Displays the inode number of each file, which is a unique identifier for the file on the filesystem.

11) Sort by Extension

ls -lX

• Sort the files or directories alphabetically.

12) Natural Sort by order

ls -lv

• Sorts files by natural version number order, which is useful when filenames contain numbers (e.g., file1, file2, file10).

13) Group the Directories

ls --group-directories-first

• Lists directories first, then files, rather than mixing them together.

14) Color the output

ls --color=auto

• Forces the output to be colorized or not (never, always, or auto).

15) Time style on long listing

ls -l --time-style=long-iso

• Customizes the format of the time stamps. Common styles include full-iso, long-iso, and iso.

16) Access Time Sorting

ls -lu

• Sorts files by their last access time instead of modification time.

17) Ignore pattern

ls --ignore-pattern=*.tmp

• Excludes files matching the specified pattern (e.g., *.tmp) from the output, very useful if there is lot of files with same extension

Mastering the ls command enhances your efficiency by customizing directory listings. I hope you found this content helpful and learned something new.