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Cover image for Living in the Shell #5; ls (List Files/Directories)
Babak K. Shandiz
Babak K. Shandiz

Posted on • Originally published at babakks.github.io on

Living in the Shell #5; ls (List Files/Directories)

#productivity #linux #bash #devops

ls 🚚

Lists directory content.

Long list (detailed format) -l 

cd ~ && ls -l
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drwxr-xr-x 5 babak babak       4096 Nov  1 12:49 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 9 babak babak       4096 Nov 21 18:49 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 babak babak      20480 Nov 23 17:21 Pictures
...

Show directories first --group-directories-first 

cd ~ && ls --group-directories-first
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List directory itself, not its content -d 

cd ~ && ls -lhd Documents
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drwxr-xr-x 9 babak babak 4.0K Nov 21 18:49 Documents

List all files (include dot-files) -a 

cd ~ && ls -a
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Print human-readable sizes -h 

cd ~ && ls -lh
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drwxr-xr-x 5 babak babak 4.0K Nov  1 12:49 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 9 babak babak 4.0K Nov 21 18:49 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 babak babak  20K Nov 23 17:21 Pictures
...

Sort by time -t 

cd ~ && ls -lht
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drwxr-xr-x 2 babak babak  20K Nov 23 17:21 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 9 babak babak 4.0K Nov 21 18:49 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 5 babak babak 4.0K Nov  1 12:49 Desktop

Sort by size -s 

cd ~ && ls -lhs
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Reverse sort order -r 

cd ~ && ls -lhsr
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drwxr-xr-x 2 babak babak  20K Nov 23 17:21 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 9 babak babak 4.0K Nov 21 18:49 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 5 babak babak 4.0K Nov  1 12:49 Desktop

Top comments (2)

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ayaanraj profile image
ayaanraj •

I always use ls -ltr, as it show the last modified one at the bottom

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waylonwalker profile image
Waylon Walker •

My favorites are

ls -laht
ls -1

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