We are going to learn about Linux command called ls. It is regular usage command in any distro of Linux to list out the directories and files in the current directory.

• To list out the directories and files in the working directory simply use the command

ls

1) Classification of Files

ls -F

• Here we have to note the indicator patterns at the end of the directories and files to determine the type.
  • Regular file: No indicator
  • Directory: /
  • Executable file: *
  • Symbolic link: @
  • Unix domain socket: =
  • Named pipe (FIFO): |
  • Socket: =

2) Long Listing of Files

ls -l

• Displays detailed information about each file, including permissions, number of links, owner, group, size, and time of last modification.
• It's a daily driver command, alias could be

alias ll="ls -l"

3) List the files with human readable

ls -lh

• When used with -l, this option shows file sizes in human-readable format (e.g., KB, MB) instead of bytes, mostly for the files present in the current directory.

4) List all Files

ls -a

• List all the files and directories including hidden ones those starting with .

5) Recursive

ls -R

• Lists all files in the current directory and all sub-directories recursively.

6) Sort by time

ls -lt

• Sorts the files by the time of last modification, with the most recently modified files appearing first.

7) Sort by Size

ls -lS

• Sorts files by size, with the largest files appearing first.

8) One file per line

ls -1

• Lists one file per line. Mostly useful when there are many files in the current Directory.

9) Directories only

ls -d */

• Lists directories themselves, not their contents.

10) Inode Number

ls -li

• Displays the inode number of each file, which is a unique identifier for the file on the filesystem.

11) Sort by Extension

ls -lX

• Sort the files or directories alphabetically.

12) Natural Sort by order

ls -lv

• Sorts files by natural version number order, which is useful when filenames contain numbers (e.g., file1, file2, file10).

13) Group the Directories

ls --group-directories-first

• Lists directories first, then files, rather than mixing them together.

14) Color the output

ls --color=auto

• Forces the output to be colorized or not (never, always, or auto).

15) Time style on long listing

ls -l --time-style=long-iso

• Customizes the format of the time stamps. Common styles include full-iso, long-iso, and iso.

16) Access Time Sorting

ls -lu

• Sorts files by their last access time instead of modification time.

17) Ignore pattern

ls --ignore-pattern=*.tmp

• Excludes files matching the specified pattern (e.g., *.tmp) from the output, very useful if there is lot of files with same extension

Mastering the ls command enhances your efficiency by customizing directory listings. I hope you found this content helpful and learned something new.