2006 01 18: ls - List directory contents
The first in this series, tool of the day..
This is perhaps the most important and common command there is on any unix system..
It might be coloured, it might be plain..
That all depends on your ls version and some enviroment variables we'll get into later..
The most common uses is ls (options) file(or folder).
Don't forget that you can use wildcards (*) with ls like most commands.
The ls command can do much more then just list these files..
A common arguement given to ls is the -l option, use a long listing format.
This gives a line like this..
Next up are username and group, filesize, last moidified date and time and the filename..
The filesize is normally in blocks... To make it more readable use the -h or --human-readable option. This changes the display units for filesize to improve readability for example, the vallue in the ls line above will become 46K.
Normally ls orders the files and folders alphabetically.
To reverse this order use the -r or --reverse option.
You can also disable the ordering with the -f option and just list them in the order the filesystem has them in..
Sorting on size -S, version -v, modifiction time -t or extension -X.
Another common option is -R or --recursive to also show content of any subfolder(s).
Some filtering, -d or --directory will list directory entries instead of contents.
The -I or --ignore= option expects a pattern and will not output matches to that pattern.
There are some more options, but they are not that commonly used (atleast by me).
So for more info, just man ls !
This information was based on ls from coreutils 5.2.1
This is perhaps the most important and common command there is on any unix system..
~$ ls
Well that just shows us a list of files and folders in your current working dir.It might be coloured, it might be plain..
That all depends on your ls version and some enviroment variables we'll get into later..
~$ ls --version
ls (coreutils) 5.2.1
Written by Richard Stallman and David MacKenzie.
Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
ls (coreutils) 5.2.1
Written by Richard Stallman and David MacKenzie.
Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
The most common uses is ls (options) file(or folder).
Don't forget that you can use wildcards (*) with ls like most commands.
The ls command can do much more then just list these files..
A common arguement given to ls is the -l option, use a long listing format.
This gives a line like this..
-rw-r--r-- 1 the_jinx users 47039 2005-10-01 23:15 filename.ext
The first
part with the dashes and the letters are the permissions, the number that follows is the number of inodes the file uses.. Next up are username and group, filesize, last moidified date and time and the filename..
The filesize is normally in blocks... To make it more readable use the -h or --human-readable option. This changes the display units for filesize to improve readability for example, the vallue in the ls line above will become 46K.
Normally ls orders the files and folders alphabetically.
To reverse this order use the -r or --reverse option.
You can also disable the ordering with the -f option and just list them in the order the filesystem has them in..
Sorting on size -S, version -v, modifiction time -t or extension -X.
Another common option is -R or --recursive to also show content of any subfolder(s).
Some filtering, -d or --directory will list directory entries instead of contents.
The -I or --ignore= option expects a pattern and will not output matches to that pattern.
There are some more options, but they are not that commonly used (atleast by me).
So for more info, just man ls !
This information was based on ls from coreutils 5.2.1
