Questions tagged [ls]

Questions relating to the Linux 'list' command (ls)

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487 votes
5 answers
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What do the different colors mean in ls?

What do the different colours in Ubuntu's ls command mean? For example, when I type the ls command in one of my folders, I get one of the files in light green, the other (which is a folder) in blue ...
Rafid's user avatar
  • 5,397
279 votes
13 answers
493k views

How do I change the color for directories with ls in the console?

On my console the color for directories is such a blue, that it is hard to read on a dark background. How can I change the color definitions for ls?
rubo77's user avatar
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16 votes
2 answers
111k views

What does 'ls -la' do?

When I entered the -al attribute with the ls command, I got the following: anupam@JAZZ:~/blog$ ls -al total 76 drwxrwxr-x 13 anupam anupam 4096 Aug 28 21:45 . drwxr-xr-x 34 anupam anupam 4096 Aug 28 ...
lazarus's user avatar
  • 1,553
91 votes
5 answers
95k views

Difference between 'dir' and 'ls' terminal commands?

I've been trying to find the difference between using the dir and ls commands in terminal. I know ls is the traditional UNIX method of viewing the files in a directory, and that dir is the windows ...
BretD's user avatar
  • 1,248
29 votes
2 answers
11k views

Why does `ls -l` count more files than me?

Apparently I cannot count. I think there are three files in /media $ tree /media /media ├── foo ├── onex └── zanna 3 directories, 0 files However, ls -l finds 12. $ ls -l /media total 12 drwxr-xr-x ...
Zanna's user avatar
  • 70.4k
13 votes
2 answers
20k views

What does each part of the `ls -la` output mean? [duplicate]

What do the following numbers represent?
LearningIsFun's user avatar
243 votes
25 answers
885k views

How to show only hidden files in Terminal?

I have a directory that contains thousands of files, some of which are hidden. The command ls -a lists all files, including hidden ones, but I need to just list hidden files. What command should I use?...
nux's user avatar
  • 38k
44 votes
2 answers
29k views

Why does ls -l output a different size from ls -s?

I can't figure out why I'm getting the following results: ls -l tells me the size of a given file (HISTORY) is "581944": $ ls -l HISTORY -rw-rw-r-- 1 waldyrious waldyrious 581944 Feb 22 10:...
waldyrious's user avatar
  • 2,187
2 votes
2 answers
3k views

How to make locate output look like `ll` or `ls -la` but nicer?

The locate command output is a little bland: $ time locate etc/profile /etc/profile /etc/profile.d /etc/profile.d/appmenu-qt5.sh /etc/profile.d/apps-bin-path.sh /etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh /etc/...
WinEunuuchs2Unix's user avatar
20 votes
3 answers
11k views

What does the l command do?

There is a command l available on my machine which appears to do nothing. which l also produces no output. Is this a real command, and does it actually do anything?
Armand's user avatar
  • 497
17 votes
1 answer
91k views

Difference between ls -l , ls -ltr and ll?

When i am using these commands , i am getting the same output but only order is getting changed for ls -ltr command. Can anyone please tell me what is the difference between the below commands? ll ls ...
vishal's user avatar
  • 343
203 votes
5 answers
908k views

How to Search for Files Recursively into Subdirectories

I am trying to look for all XML files in a particular directory and all sub-directories (recursively) inside it. ls -R *.xml is only listing files in the current directory. I am quite sure, the sub-...
Shamim Hafiz - MSFT's user avatar
68 votes
10 answers
184k views

Count total number of files in particular directory with specific extension

I want to count the total number of files in particular directory that ends with ".mp4" extension. I am getting following command: ls -F |grep -v / | wc -l It count all the files in particular ...
Prakash V Holkar's user avatar
38 votes
5 answers
26k views

What does the second column in the output of 'ls -n' mean?

When I run: ls -n I get something like: -rwxrwxrwx 1 1000 1000 765528 2009-10-15 18:41 file1 drwxr-xr-x 10 1000 1000 4096 2010-12-07 20:50 dir1 drwxr-xr-x 3 1000 1000 4096 2010-10-24 16:...
Nathan Osman's user avatar
  • 32.1k
33 votes
8 answers
10k views

Why doesn't the command "ls | file" work?

I've been studying about the command line and learned that | (pipeline) is meant to redirect the output from a command to the input of another one. So why does the command ls | file doesn't work? ...
IanC's user avatar
  • 931
5 votes
2 answers
15k views

What is the la command?

I just mistyped ls as la. Without noticing, I ran it: tim@Hairy:~$ la detection.sh output-2.jpg output-4.jpg output-6.jpg output-8.jpg Test1.pdf output-1.jpg output-3.jpg output-5.jpg output-...
Tim's user avatar
  • 32.8k
13 votes
2 answers
38k views

Best way to list 100 first files in a directory sorted by time

What would be the best way to list 100 first files in a directory sorted by the created timestamp (oldest first). The directory is quite large (around 100000 files). ls piped to head takes an awful ...
user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
28k views

File permissions: why can't I list a directory? [duplicate]

I am able to list directories in a root shell, root@ThinkPad:~# ll /media/ total 36 drwxr--r-- 6 root root 4096 2011-05-12 16:41 ./ drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 2011-05-12 13:14 ../ drwxr-xr-x 5 ...
RusAlex's user avatar
  • 289
-1 votes
1 answer
650 views

Why do `ls` and `du` commands show a different size for the same file? [duplicate]

I am currently using Ubuntu 20.04. When I check a file's size using the du command, I get the following output: ubuntu@ip-172-31-49-39:/myxfs$ du -h newquota 4.0K newquota With the ls -la command, ...
Alakananda S's user avatar
35 votes
10 answers
9k views

Will ls always list the files that rm will remove?

Something I feel I ought to know for sure: if I ls <something>, will rm <something> remove exactly the same files that ls displayed? Are there any circumstances where rm could remove files ...
B.Tanner's user avatar
  • 2,636
33 votes
4 answers
61k views

How can I direct a pipe input to ls command?

When I type something like: find . -name *foo* | ls -lah it returns the same result as a plain ls command, as though it had no input. However: ls -lah $( find . -name *foo* ) works well, but only ...
Lasall's user avatar
  • 3,703
28 votes
8 answers
146k views

listing files in a directory without listing subdirectories and their contents in that directory

I want to create a list of all the files in a directory, without listing any of the subdirectories that reside in that same directory, and print that list to a new file. ls -d * > filelist will ...
janet's user avatar
  • 589
21 votes
5 answers
54k views

How to find all PDF files in directories and their subdirectories?

I want to list all PDF files in the directories of the current working directory. What command can do this? I remember a combination of ls and */*.pdf but don't remember what exact combination.
ashim's user avatar
  • 485
19 votes
6 answers
8k views

What's the difference between ls and la? Why do they give the same output?

I entered la accidentally instead of ls to view the contents of a directory and it produces exactly the same output as ls... Why is this? Surely it doesn't make sense to have two commands that do the ...
TellMeWhy's user avatar
  • 17.5k
15 votes
4 answers
3k views

Tell `ls` to sort by regular ASCII codes, not "intelligently"

I have a couple files and ls sorts them like this: a _b c but I want to have _b a c How can I do that?
Martin Ueding's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
4k views

ls system command not showing terminal colors

I've just been fooling around with some code in C, an example of a really basic program is as follows which just, obviously, lists the directories using the ls system command. #include <stdio.h>...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why does ls show wrong permissions for the group when using ACL?

I have the following script for setting permissions for the Joomla CMS directory: #!/bin/bash if [ ! -d "$1" ]; then echo "Error: Folder does not exist or no folder given." echo "" exit 1 fi # ...
Wieger's user avatar
  • 148
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

ls command very slow after deletion of thousand files on a directory

I have a dir under /home/myuser dir which an application stores and deletes millions of temporary files. When I do ls on this dir (now it only has a hundred files only) it is too slow (actually I do ...
Alexandros's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
169 views

ls -d not doing what I'm told it should

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Straight machine, no dual boot or anything. I am in ~/scratch I want a list of directories only. tree -dL 1 Got it! man ls says: -d List directories only instead of their ...
ReyKev's user avatar
  • 319
276 votes
10 answers
1.1m views

How to list all symbolic links in a directory

I have a symbolic link in my /var/www/ directory that links to WordPress. When I run the command ls -la from the /var/www/ directory the link to WordPress doesn't show up. Is there a way to list all ...
Isaac's user avatar
  • 2,955
124 votes
5 answers
207k views

How to exclude certain files in `ls`?

I would like to run ls and exclude certain files in the output. When I run the following command, I get all files, each on a separate line: $ ls -1 file1 file2 file3 temp I would like to run this ...
Alice Ryhl's user avatar
  • 1,517
45 votes
10 answers
84k views

How to list all the files in a tree (a directory and its subdirs)?

For a task of mine I need to list all the files in a tree (a directory, all its subdirs, all subdirs of those, etc.). I'd prefer to see them in Nautilus or Krusader, but a command-line solution is ...
Ivan's user avatar
  • 57k
43 votes
5 answers
68k views

How to activate pagination for ls command?

What is the equivalent option for the ls command to activate pagination as in DOS the dir /p does?
NES's user avatar
  • 33.2k
36 votes
5 answers
24k views

Why is ls -R called "recursive" listing?

I understand that ls -R displays a listing of directories. But why is it recursive? How is recursion used in the process?
Mint.K's user avatar
  • 775
33 votes
2 answers
8k views

How to make ls produce ISO 8601 format

In older versions of Ubuntu, like 9.10, ls(1) produced ISO 8601 format by default, in the way ls -l --time-style=long-iso does it. With 12.04, we're back at the older Unix style. Thus replacing the ...
false's user avatar
  • 1,852
24 votes
2 answers
3k views

Filenames with space showing as 'file name' after upgrade to 18.04

After a upgrade to 18.04, from 16.04, all file names with spaces shows as 'file name'. Previously it was simply file name. File names without space shows up normally: $ ls bar 'foo bar' While it ...
vidarlo's user avatar
  • 22.7k
23 votes
3 answers
21k views

What does the 's' in srwxr-xr-x in the 'ls' output mean?

I have a directory entry as follows srwxr-xr-x 1 ubuntu ubuntu 0 May 29 05:03 0.0.0.0= I do not know what the s means and also that is a strange file name and I wonder what it is good for. Could ...
hol's user avatar
  • 333
19 votes
1 answer
4k views

What do the symbols like =, * and | in the output of "ls -F" mean?

I am working on creating a 'cheat sheet' of shell commands. I am currently researching the ls command and its flags. For the -F flag I know what the majority of the appended indicators mean but for; = ...
Dan1676's user avatar
  • 345
18 votes
5 answers
4k views

What does `ls --directory` stand for?

In my Ubuntu version the man ls has the next info about --directory: list directory entries instead of contents, and do not dereference symbolic links So I'm a little confused how it works. I used ...
Pau Chorro's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
61k views

List files of particular extension

Ok this is strange. I am using this code, ls *.prj To list all the files with the .prj extension in the dir but I am getting this error, bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long I eventually wish ...
Sam007's user avatar
  • 4,373
7 votes
3 answers
3k views

How do you get details from the output of the locate command?

When I run the ls -l command I get details about the files in the current directory like permissions, owner, group, file size. Is there a way I can get these same details instead of just the ...
user784637's user avatar
  • 10.9k
6 votes
3 answers
50k views

Find all files in the current directory and its subdirectories with the extension .png [duplicate]

In a directory and its subfolders I need to see all the files with the png extension. For this, I used the command ls -R *.png I get an error saying that the directory *.png doesn't exist. I am ...
Mr Brown's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
762 views

Nautilus sort order with ls

I am creating image sprites and have neatly named around 100 files. I am using the following to generate an image sprite from individual images: convert $(ls -w 1000) +append sprite.png I have just ...
Gibbs's user avatar
  • 921
4 votes
3 answers
3k views

How to view list of files in Google Drive?

When I list directory components with $ ls /run/user/1000/gvfs/google-drive:host=gmail.com,user=address 1BzrSykm6X7BBm09yZ7Qcsj_5lL1dMtrN 1p55c8zr6M617qoFU8BopppxaLh0qJTd8 ...
Fakhamatia's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
3k views

Is it possible to rename files selected by ls?

I have some files I downloaded recently and I want to name. It is possible to do something like: rename 's/ /_/g' $(ls -t | head -n5) Actually, I would like to rename last downloaded 5 files. ...
dmx's user avatar
  • 1,977
3 votes
2 answers
348 views

Use read line to iterate over variables

I have the following files: $ ls *.png | egrep -i "am|pm" output-0 11.42.30 AM.png output-0 5.10.12 PM.png .... I want to remove them but get this error: $ ls *.png | egrep -i "am|pm" | while read ...
user10726006's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
7k views

how can I recursively run chmod -x?

So I have my music collection living on my 12.04.2 server. This Collection has traveled with me over the years from a Windows machine to a MacBook Pro, and then finally to where it is today on the ...
Luis Flores III's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
2k views

Accidently make ls colors (folders, files, links...) to white

I accidentally delete/change LS colors when listing directories with the 'ls' command, so I tried the command "ls --color=auto" it works temporarily because when I reboot my terminal ls ...
Moez Ben Rebah's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
236 views

Display all the files with read and write permissions and display result in a file

I need to display all the files with read and write permissions and save the result in a file. Can anybody help me with that? It's easy but I am little bit confused, so please help me on this.
Jaimin's user avatar
  • 141