ls

ChatGPT

2025-01-24

List files and directories in a specified directory, provides different levels of information depending on the options used.

Command	Description
`ls`	List files and directories in the current directory
`ls -l`	List files in long format (detailed information)
`ls -a`	List all files, including hidden files (those starting with `.`)
`ls -h`	Show file sizes in human-readable format (e.g., KB, MB)
`ls -R`	List files recursively, including subdirectories
`ls -t`	List files sorted by modification time (newest first)
`ls -S`	List files sorted by size (largest first)
`ls -r`	Reverse the order of the listing
`ls -d */`	List only directories (with trailing `/`)
`ls -1`	List files in a single column

When using ls -l, the output provides detailed information about each file or directory:

Column	Description
1	File type and permissions (e.g., `-rwxr-xr-x`)
2	Number of hard links to the file or directory
3	Owner of the file or directory
4	Group associated with the file or directory
5	File size in bytes
6	Last modification date and time
7	File or directory name

Example of ls -l output:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user group 1234 Jan 24 12:34 filename

-rwxr-xr-x: File type and permissions (regular file, owner can read/write/execute, group/others can read/execute)
1: Number of hard links to the file
user: Owner of the file
group: Group associated with the file
1234: File size (in bytes)
Jan 24 12:34: Last modification date and time
filename: Name of the file