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A Longer Look At Long Format

As we saw before, the “-l” option causes ls to display its results in long format. This for- mat contains a great deal of useful information. Here is the Examples directory from an early Ubuntu system:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3576296 2007-04-03 11:05 Experience ubuntu.ogg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1186219 2007-04-03 11:05 kubuntu-leaflet.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 47584 2007-04-03 11:05 logo-Edubuntu.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44355 2007-04-03 11:05 logo-Kubuntu.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34391 2007-04-03 11:05 logo-Ubuntu.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32059 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-cd-cover.odf

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-derivatives.doc

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27837 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-maxwell.odt

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 98816 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-trig.xls

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 453764 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-welcome.odt

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 358374 2007-04-03 11:05 ubuntu Sax.ogg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3576296 2007-04-03 11:05 Experience ubuntu.ogg

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1186219 2007-04-03 11:05 kubuntu-leaflet.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 47584 2007-04-03 11:05 logo-Edubuntu.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44355 2007-04-03 11:05 logo-Kubuntu.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34391 2007-04-03 11:05 logo-Ubuntu.png

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32059 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-cd-cover.odf

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-derivatives.doc

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27837 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-maxwell.odt

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 98816 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-trig.xls

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 453764 2007-04-03 11:05 oo-welcome.odt

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 358374 2007-04-03 11:05 ubuntu Sax.ogg

Let's look at the different fields from one of the files and examine their meanings:

Table 3-2: ls Long Listing Fields

Field Meaning

Field Meaning

-rw-r--r-- Access rights to the file. The first character indicates the

type of file. Among the different types, a leading dash means a regular file, while a “d” indicates a directory. The next three characters are the access rights for the file's owner, the next three are for members of the file's group, and the final three are for everyone else. The full meaning of this is discussed in Chapter 9 – Permissions.

1 File's number of hard links. See the discussion of links later in this chapter.

root The username of the file's owner.

root The name of the group which owns the file.

32059 Size of the file in bytes.

2007-04-03 11:05 Date and time of the file's last modification.

oo-cd-cover.odf Name of the file.

Determining A File's Type With file

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