More Fun With ls from the Linux command line by OnWorks

Skip to content

More Fun With ls

The ls command is probably the most used command, and for good reason. With it, we can see directory contents and determine a variety of important file and directory at- tributes. As we have seen, we can simply enter ls to see a list of files and subdirectories contained in the current working directory:

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls

Desktop Documents Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls

Desktop Documents Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

Besides the current working directory, we can specify the directory to list, like so:

me@linuxbox ~]$ ls /usr

bin games kerberos libexec sbin src etc include lib local share tmp

me@linuxbox ~]$ ls /usr

bin games kerberos libexec sbin src etc include lib local share tmp

Or even specify multiple directories. In this example we will list both the user's home di- rectory (symbolized by the “~” character) and the /usr directory:

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls ~ /usr

/home/me:

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls ~ /usr

/home/me:

Desktop Documents Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

/usr:

bin games kerberos libexec sbin src etc include lib local share tmp

Desktop Documents Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

/usr:

bin games kerberos libexec sbin src etc include lib local share tmp

We can also change the format of the output to reveal more detail:

[me@linuxbox ~]$ ls -l