ls Archives • Linux Tips

List The Files In A Directory

Today’s article is only going to be useful if you are a new user and don’t yet know how to list files in a directory. This is, of course, something you do in a terminal. I do believe this will be a quick and easy article, so read on if you don’t yet know how to list files in a directory.

If you’ve used Linux for more than a month, you can safely ignore this article.

Yes, this has been covered all over the web. This isn’t anything remotely new, nor is it anything all that complicated. However, this is a holiday weekend and I figure it’s a good article for new users who happen to be just browsing around. I’ve also covered some ‘ls’ commands before.

On the other hand, it should be a short article! So, there’s that!

List The Files In A Directory:

Of course, this article requires an open terminal, like many other articles on this site. Should you not know how to open the terminal, you can do so with your keyboard. Press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open.

With that terminal now open, let’s try a simple command:

ls

That will list all the files in the directory. If you’d like to see the output in columns, you can always try this command which lists the output in a denser manner.

ls -l

ls -l

That command doesn’t list dot (hidden) files. Seeing as you’re in the home directory, you should have some hidden files. If you want to use the ‘ls’ command to show files, you need the -a flag. You can combine it with the above and use this command:

ls -la

ls -la

That’s the command I use more often than not. This being Linux, you get to decide which how to use the command. I think I type the ‘ls -la‘ command out of habit.

Closure:

Well, you got an article. Sure, it’s a simple article but someone may find this important information. Of course, they could just use the man page – but what’s the fun in that?

Thanks for reading! If you want to help, or if the site has helped you, you can donate, register to help, write an article, or buy inexpensive hosting to start your site. If you scroll down, you can sign up for the newsletter, vote for the article, and comment.

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How To: Show File Sizes When Listing Files In A Directory

Today we’re going to have an easy article that shows you how to show file sizes when listing files in a directory. It’s a simple set of commands and easy enough for a newbie to learn. Though the title is unwieldy, read on to learn how to show file sizes when listing files in a directory…

We’ll be using the ‘ls’ command for this exercise. Like normal, I’ll go ahead and suggest you read this page about why you shouldn’t parse the output from the ‘ls’ command. There are better ways and that link will explain it, and what you should consider, far better than I can.

Anyhow, the ‘ls’ command defines itself as:

ls – list directory contents

Of course, regular readers will recognize the ls command as we’ve used it numerous times before. Even though you shouldn’t parse the output from the command doesn’t mean it’s not still useful for a variety of other tasks.

Today, we’ll be exploring one of those tasks. We’re going to show you how to show file sizes when listing files in a directory – specifically with the ls command. Don’t worry, you won’t need to install anything. If you’re using any desktop Linux distro, the ls command is certainly available to you by default.

For the record, you should probably view the ls man page (run man ls in the terminal) to learn more about the command. It’s still a useful command – and I do sometimes parse the output from the command, but only when nobody is looking and when the output isn’t all that vital. I use grep with the ls command almost every day! Shh!!!

Show File Sizes When Listing Files In A Directory:

(That’s an unwieldy title!)

Anyhow, it’s the ls command. That’s a terminal-based command. So, of course, you’re going to need an open terminal (like so many of these articles). Press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open. Tada!

With your terminal now open, we can just use your home folder. To run the basic ls command, it’s just that:

ls

Now, to show file sizes when listing files in a directory, you’d start with the -s flag:

ls -s

ls -s

You may find the output from that command is relatively useless without doing a bit of math to go along with it. Fortunately, you can tell the command to show the file size in a ‘human-readable format’. To do that, you’d run this command with the -h flag:

ls -sh

ls -sh

Now, if you wanted to show all the files, including the hidden files in that directory, you’d just add the -a flag. The command would look like this:

ls -ash

ls -ash

And if I was a Linux newbie, that’s the command I’d commit to memory. It doesn’t make a mess. The output is still plenty clear. It’s easy to understand. It’s easy to remember and turn into a habit. This way, when you ran the ls command, you just default to using -ash flags.

If you don’t want columns (and some do not), and you want more information such as file permissions or ownership values, you can just add an -lflag to the above. That’d look like:

ls -lash

ls -lash

So, it’s up to you…

You can remember ‘ash’ or you can remember ‘lash’. You can also not remember either and ignore the flags completely, but I find developing a habit is a good way to remember things. It’s your device, you do what you want!

Closure:

There you have it! You have another article. This one was simple enough and I hope you found it useful. If you’re new and running the ls command is new to you, it’s worth learning some additional flags and gathering more information at a glance. That’s why there’s this relatively simple article that shows you how to show file sizes when listing files in a directory.

Thanks for reading! If you want to help, or if the site has helped you, you can donate, register to help, write an article, or buy inexpensive hosting to start your own site. If you scroll down, you can sign up for the newsletter, vote for the article, and comment.

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Let’s Learn A Little About The ‘dir’ Command

In today’s article, we’re going to learn about the ‘dir’ command. The ‘dir’ and ‘ls’ command are quite similar, but ‘ls’ seems to get all the press. So, today we’ll be looking at the ‘dir’ command. It will be a relatively short article (I suppose) and easy enough for new people to follow.

You’re possibly already familiar with the ‘ls’ command. I’ve written a variety of articles about ‘ls’. We’ve used ‘ls’ in numerous articles along the way. Here are a couple of ‘ls’ articles:

Some Fun With Sorting The Output Of ‘ls’
Let’s Use ‘ls’ To Sort Files By Time

Those are just a couple. WordPress, the backbone of this site, isn’t very good at searching for just two characters like ‘ls’. That’s for good reason and I’m not sure if that behavior can be changed.

Ah well… Root around and I’m sure you’ll find more. I’ve written about 300 articles and can’t possibly remember them all!

Anyhow, we’ll be using the ‘dir’ command in this article. It describes itself pretty well in the man pages, and is similar to the ‘ls’ command. It describes itself as:

dir – list directory contents

So, if you’re familiar with the ‘ls’ command, you’ll find ‘dir’ to be quite similar. I’m sure there’s a reason that both exist – I’m just not sure what that reason is, nor am I sure why both are included by default. Feel free to let me know your thoughts or theories!

Edit: See this link to see why Linux contains both.

Well then, let’s get on with it…

The ‘dir’ Command:

Well, you shouldn’t need to install anything for this article, but you will need to have an open terminal. By now, you know how to open the terminal if you’re a regular reader, but others need only press CTRL + ALT + T and their default terminal should open.

With your terminal now open, let’s just start with the basics. If you just enter the ‘dir’ command it will output a list of all the visible files in that directory. It looks like:

dir

dir

You can also specify a directory, like:

dir ~/Downloads

1	dir ~/Downloads

If you want to show hidden files, you can try this:

dir -a

dir -a

If you want to list things in a single column, in a list format, you can just add the -l flag. This also shows the file’s permissions and modification time. So, you could try:

dir -al

dir -al

If you want to list files with the ‘dir’ command and to do so recursively (digging into the folders within folders), you can do that too. All you need is the -R flag. So, for example:

dir -alR ~/Documents

1	dir -alR ~/Documents

That’s just scratching the surface of the ‘dir’ command. There’s a whole lot more that you can do, so just try the man page for more nifty tricks you can do with ‘dir’.

man dir

man dir

If you have any questions or nifty ‘dir’ information, please feel free to leave a comment. It’s a pretty handy command to have on hand, much like ‘ls’.

Closure:

And there you have it. You have yet another new article, this one about the ‘dir’ command. It’s not terribly complicated and it’s another tool to toss into your toolbox. You never know when you might want to use it instead of the ‘ls’ command, though they’re awfully similar.

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Some Fun With Sorting The Output Of ‘ls’

Today’s article will be relatively short and easy, as we have some fun with sorting the output of ‘ls’. It’ll be a pretty short and simple article, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful. Read on and learn about sorting the output of ‘ls’!

The last article I wrote was:

Some Fun With Formatting The Output From ‘ls’

This article will be remarkably similar, but isn’t about formatting the output of ‘ls’, it’s about sorting the output of ‘ls’. Yes, there is a difference! This is useful for a variety of reasons, but it’s mostly useful for viewing your files categorically. There are just a handful of sorting options, but we’ll cover them all.

Like always, it’s important to know that you should not to parse the output of ‘ls’. Parsing the output of ‘ls’ if full of risks, so you shouldn’t do it! The link explains it better than I can, and it tells you what to do instead of parsing the output of ‘ls’.

Obviously, and again, we’ll be using the ‘ls’ command. The ‘ls’ command defines itself fairly accurately as:

ls – list directory contents

So, just like the last article, there’s no real reason to make the intro longer than it needs to be. Let’s just jump right into the article.

Sorting The Output Of ‘ls’:

This article requires an open terminal, like many other articles on this site. If you don’t know how to open the terminal, you can do so with your keyboard – just press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open.

With your terminal now open, you can stay right there in your /home directory, or you can ‘cd‘ into a directory of your choice – preferably one with a variety of files in it.

When you’re done picking a directory, you have the following choices:

ls --sort=extension
ls --sort=size
ls --sort=time
ls --sort=version
ls --sort=none

ls --sort=extension

ls --sort=size

ls --sort=time

ls --sort=version

ls --sort=none

See? I even alphabetized them for you! The list of what they do should be fairly obvious, with ls --sort=version being the most unusual and only applying to versioned files. Also, while included, there’s not a whole lot of reason to use ls --sort=none, as that’s just the default output.

I find sorting by time to be pretty handy, as well as sorting by size. I don’t have much of a reason to use the rest, but they’re there if you need them. I figured I’d include ’em all, rather than just those that I find useful.

Closure:

There you have it, another short article! It’s also another article about the ‘ls’ command, but this time we’re sorting the output of ‘ls’. I figured I’d do this article right after the other one, mostly so that I’d remember to actually cover it.

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Some Fun With Formatting The Output From ‘ls’

Today’s article will be a nice and simple one, in which we’ll have some fun with formatting the output from ‘ls’. It’s just a quick article today, as there’s no real reason to make this all that difficult. Read on, my dear readers!

While it’s true that you shouldn’t parse the output from the ‘ls’ command, you can format it to get an output that more suits your needs. You might want to do this to more easily understand the output from ‘ls’. There are a half dozen or so formatting options and we’ll show them all to you in this article. One (or more) of them might tickle your fancy.

Obviously, we’ll be using the ‘ls’ command. The ‘ls’ command describes itself like this:

ls – list directory contents

Which is exactly what it does. It’s not a very complicated command, as far as some commands go, but there are a lot of options. Like always, I highly suggest that you read the man page (man ls) to get more information than will be contained in this article.

Anyhow, I said this will be a short article, so I will just get right into the meat of the article instead of typing a bunch of additional fluff. You’re welcome!

Formatting The Output From ‘ls’:

With your terminal now open, you can choose to view the output of ‘ls’ with a variety of formats. They’re more or less self-explanatory, so I’m just going to show them all to you. If you’re confused by any of them, try them in your terminal, which ~~will~~ should make it more clear.

ls –-format=across
ls --format=comma
ls --format=horizontal
ls --format=long
ls --format=single-column
ls --format=verbose
ls --format=vertical

ls –-format=across

ls --format=comma

ls --format=horizontal

ls --format=long

ls --format=single-column

ls --format=verbose

ls --format=vertical

I even made you an alphabetized list! See? I am helpful today!

So, for ls --format=across you’ll get the output spread across your screen (as much as possible). If you use ls --format=comma, the files will be separated by a comma.

Out of all of them, I tend to use ls --format=verbose more often than I use any of the other ways of formatting the output from ‘ls’. It gives me just enough information, from file modification date and time to the file’s permissions. So, out of all of them, that’s the one I’ll use most often.

Feel free to flip through and try them all. You’re bound to find something interesting in there. The ‘ls’ command is surprisingly useful, and it’s harmless enough for you to explore it at length.

Closure:

See? I told you that it’d be a pretty short article today. I just showed you some ways of formatting the output from ‘ls’ and that’s all I’ve done. There’s no reason to make this longer than necessary. I think my readers are smart enough to take it from here, and figure out what they like most, or find the most useful.

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