The list/ls command is one of the most frequently used commands in Linux. In this article, we’ll be discussing a basic list or ls command.
To understand this we need to create a directory name HelloWorld. Inside this directory need to create a directory and file.
mkdir HelloWorld
cd HelloWorld
touch index.html #creating file
mkdir js
1. List files using ls with no option
Without an option, we won’t be able to view details like file types, size, modified date and time, permission and links etc.
ls
index.html js
2. List files with option –l
With -l option we would be able to view details like file types, size, modified date and time, permission and links etc.
ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 wayofwebs staff 0 Sep 17 15:30 index.html
drwxr-xr-x 2 wayofwebs staff 64 Sep 17 15:30 js
3. List files with option –a or view hidden files
With -a option, we would be able to View Hidden Files including hidden files starting with ‘.’.
ls -a
. .. index.html js
4. List Files with Human Readable Format with option -lh
With a combination of -lh option, we can show sizes in a human-readable format.
ls -lh
-rw-r--r-- 1 wayofwebs staff 0B Sep 17 15:30 index.html
drwxr-xr-x 2 wayofwebs staff 64B Sep 17 15:30 js
5. List Files and Directories with ‘/’ Character at the end
Using -F option with ls command will add the ‘/’ Character at the end of each directory.
ls -F
index.html js/
6. List Files in Reverse Order
ls -r
js index.html
7. Recursively list Sub-Directories
ls -R option will list very long listing directory trees.
ls -R
index.html js
./js:
8. Sort Files by File Size
With a combination of -lS displays file size in order, will display big in size first.
ls -lS
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 wayofwebs staff 64 Sep 17 15:30 js
-rw-r--r-- 1 wayofwebs staff 0 Sep 17 15:30 index.html
