How can I modify my `ls` command?

Question

When I type ls, i get the normal list, or when I type ls -la I get a details version with everything...

But I hate the layout of ls, it's just unintuitive for most of my use.

Is there some way I can modify (without changing the sorcecode of ls, bash scripts are okay however) ls so it's display instead of

-rwxr-xr-x 13 user group 123546 2011-01-01 11:11 filename0
-rwxr-xr-x 13 user group 123546 2011-01-01 11:11 filename1
-rwxr-xr-x 13 user group 123546 2011-01-01 11:11 filename2
drwx------ 13 user group 123546 2011-01-01 11:11 directory0
-rwxr-xr-x 13 user group 123546 2011-01-01 11:11 filename3
drwx------ 13 user group 123546 2011-01-01 11:11 directory1

I can get a list more like:

DIRS
directory0 1293880260 700 user:group
directory1 1293880260 700 user:group

FILES
filename0 1293880260 751 user:group
filename1 1293880260 755 user:group
filename2 1293880260 777 user:group
filename3 1293880260 705 user:group

Or some other variation.

Meanwhile, preserving ability to use flags and other options.

Answer 1

You could write a bash script called ~/bin/ls that should override /bin/ls. remember to run chmod +x ~/bin/ls.

I've just written this which seems to do most of what you want to accomplish (including passing along extra arguments)

#!/bin/bash

DIRS="`/bin/ls --color=auto -l $@ | grep ^d`"
FILES="`/bin/ls --color=auto -l $@ | grep ^\-`"

if [ "$DIRS" ]
then
    echo "DIRECTORIES"
    echo -e "$DIRS\

"
fi

if [ "$FILES" ]
then
    echo "FILES"
    echo "$FILES\

"
fi

Somebody might want to tidy that up a little or improve the output formatting, but there you go. Yours to do whatever you like with.

And here's some genuine sample output:

ls
DIRECTORIES
drwxr-xr-x 4 oli oli     4096 2010-12-16 15:40 markitup
drwxr-xr-x 7 oli oli     4096 2011-01-16 16:58 media
drwxr-xr-x 3 oli oli     4096 2010-12-16 15:41 post
drwxr-xr-x 9 oli oli     4096 2010-09-16 05:23 templates

FILES
-rw-r--r-- 1 oli oli  5361664 2010-09-06 16:32 db.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 oli oli        0 2008-12-11 09:22 __init__.py
-rwxr-xr-x 1 oli oli      542 2008-12-11 09:22 manage.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 oli oli       13 2010-03-23 18:14 settingsdev.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 oli oli     2642 2010-12-16 15:40 settings.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 oli oli     1818 2010-12-16 15:40 urls.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 oli oli      432 2010-06-22 20:54 views.py

And with arguments:

ls -a
DIRECTORIES
drwxr-xr-x  8 oli oli     4096 2011-01-12 00:46 .
drwxr-xr-x 19 oli oli     4096 2011-04-13 17:24 ..
drwxr-xr-x  6 oli oli     4096 2010-02-03 13:50 .bzr
drwxr-xr-x  4 oli oli     4096 2010-12-16 15:40 markitup
drwxr-xr-x  7 oli oli     4096 2011-01-16 16:58 media
drwxr-xr-x  3 oli oli     4096 2010-12-16 15:41 post
drwxr-xr-x  9 oli oli     4096 2010-09-16 05:23 templates

FILES
-rw-r--r--  1 oli oli       65 2010-03-27 07:58 .bzrignore
-rw-r--r--  1 oli oli  5361664 2010-09-06 16:32 db.db
-rw-r--r--  1 oli oli        0 2008-12-11 09:22 __init__.py
-rwxr-xr-x  1 oli oli      542 2008-12-11 09:22 manage.py
-rw-r--r--  1 oli oli       13 2010-03-23 18:14 settingsdev.py
-rw-r--r--  1 oli oli     2642 2010-12-16 15:40 settings.py
-rw-r--r--  1 oli oli     1818 2010-12-16 15:40 urls.py
-rw-r--r--  1 oli oli      432 2010-06-22 20:54 views.py

Answer 2

ls -la | grep "^d" && ls -la | grep "^-" && ls -la | grep "^l"

Shows... directories, normal files, links in that order.

Make it an alias and you are set to go.

Found another method:

ls -l --color -h --group-directories-first

This one does directories first and colors the filenames.

In ~/.bashrc you can create an alias to this command like so:

alias ls1='ls -la | grep "^d" && ls -la | grep "^-" && ls -la | grep "^l"

Sample output:

drwxr-xr-x  5 96 2011-05-20 13:41 .
drwxr-xr-x 16 xxxx uuuu 96 2010-03-05 12:34 ..
drwx------  2 xxxx uuuu 96 2009-02-13 14:31 .ssh
drwxrwxr-x  2 xxxx uuuu 96 2009-12-03 13:49 .xxx
drwxrwxr-x  5 xxxx uuuu  96 2010-12-06 15:51 xxxxxx
-rw-------  1 xxxx uuuu  05 2011-05-20 14:12 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 xxxx uuuu  20 2009-02-12 09:33 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 xxxx uuuu 29 2009-03-06 11:47 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--  1 xxxx uuuu 80 2011-05-20 13:42 fff
-rw-rw-r--  1 xxxx uuuu 03 2011-05-18 10:21 dffff

or for the second one: alias ls2=ls -l --color -h --group-directories-first

Sample output:

drwxrwxr-x 5 xxxx uuuu 4.0K 2010-12-06 15:51 ddddd
-rw-r--r-- 1 xxxx uuuu 339M 2011-05-20 13:42 sssss
-rw-rw-r-- 1 xxxx uuuu 4.6M 2011-05-18 10:21 dxsssss
-rwxrwxr-x 1 xxxx uuuu   68 2011-02-22 15:55 5555
-rwxr--r-- 1 xxxx uuuu  20K 2010-12-06 16:11 ffff

ddddd will be in another color. add -a to also include hidden files.

and you created a command ls1 and ls2 to do this.

Answer 3

Here's my quick jab at it.

$ function lss { ls -l --group-directories-first --time-style +%s $@ | grep -v '^total' | awk 'BEGIN {print("DIRS")} {if (f!=1 && $1 ~ /^-/) {print "\nFILES"; f=1}; printf("%s\t%s %s %s:%s\n", $7, $6, $1, $3, $4);}'; }
$ alias ls='lss'
$ ls
DIRS
directory0  1305901476 drwxr-xr-x ak:ak
directory1  1305901476 drwxr-xr-x ak:ak

FILES
filename0   1305901484 -rw-r--r-- ak:ak
filename1   1305901484 -rw-r--r-- ak:ak
filename2   1305901484 -rw-r--r-- ak:ak
filename3   1305901484 -rw-r--r-- ak:ak

The benefit of this approach is that it does not require multiple directory traversals and prints the output as it is ready. Try running this after touch filename{0..10000} as a test.

Drop the function and alias lines into ~/.bashrc to make it permanent.

Benchmarking from Oli:

oli@bert:~/Desktop$ mkdir test
oli@bert:~/Desktop$ cd test
oli@bert:~/Desktop/test$ mkdir dir{0..100000}
oli@bert:~/Desktop/test$ touch filename{0..100000}

oli@bert:~/Desktop/test$ time /bin/ls>/dev/null

real    0m0.975s
user    0m0.860s
sys         0m0.110s

oli@bert:~/Desktop/test$ time ls --group-directories-first -l >/dev/null

real    0m1.810s
user    0m1.210s
sys         0m0.580s


oli@bert:~/Desktop/test$ time lss>/dev/null  # ændrük's method

real    0m2.035s
user    0m1.810s
sys         0m0.780s

oli@bert:~/Desktop/test$ time ~/bin/ls>/dev/null  # Oli's method

real    0m5.496s
user    0m4.290s
sys         0m1.460s

Answer 4

ls doesn't support much output customization.

Use

 ls --group-directories-first -l

to just get the dirs first.

Have a look at limo (not installed by default) for an alternative to ls that supports more output customization (but doesn't support all the options of ls)

Answer 5

Extending the alias settings in .bashrc is my prefered way of getting more convenient 'ls' commands. I like especially the 'lf' (requires installation of 'tree').

# some more ls aliases
alias ll='ls -alF'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'
alias lf='tree -d -L 1'