---
layout: page
category-page: basic
category-title: Basic commands
tags: directory list
author: Alessandro Marinelli
title: ls
previous-page: pages/cmd/basic/2-closeshell.html
next-page: pages/cmd/basic/4-man.html
---
The <code>ls</code> command is used to list a directory content or a file.<br>
The name stands for <i>LiSt</i>.

The default ls command syntax is:

<pre>
ls [flags] [path]
</pre>

Where [flags] are the ls flags, read below for more info,and [path] is the
(optional) path (absolute or relative).If no path is provided the current
directory is listed.<br>

<h3>Usage</h3>

<h4>List the elements on the current working directory</h4>
Let's see how to show a list containing the elements included in the
current working directory

<pre>
ls
    Other Multimedia	my-cat.jpg
    Photos				Videos
</pre>

As you can see, typing <code>ls</code> in the Unix Shell, will give as output
the list of elements contained in the current working directory.<br>
Elements listed can be files (look for exemple at the element<i>my-cat.jpg</i>),
such as other directories (look for example at the folder <i>Photos</i>).<br><br>

<h3>List the elements contained in a directory</h3>
<pre>
ls Photos
    01.jpg		02.jpg
    03.jpg		04.jpg
</pre>

As you can see, now the Unix Shell is showing us the elements contained
in the folder <i>Photos</i>.<br><br>

<h3>Show hidden files</h3>
You can include hidden files (those  which name starts with ".") in
the displayed list using the <code>-a</code> flag.

<pre>
ls -a Photos
    .				01.png
    ..				02.png
    .DS_Store		03.png
    .secret.png		04.jpg
</pre>

As you can see, now the shell shows more files for the same directory.<br><br>

<h3>Show list in long format</h3>

<pre>
ls -l
    total 10816
    -rw-r--r--@ 1 YourName  YourGroup  3143706  4 Ott 13:28 01.png
    -rw-r--r--@ 1 YourName  YourGroup  2269193 28 Ott 18:58 02.png
    -rw-r--r--@ 1 YourName  YourGroup  37900   28 Ott 22:07 03.png
    -rw-r--r--@ 1 YourName  YourGroup  75924   20 Ott 16:01 04.jpg
</pre>

If the <code>-l</code> flag is given, the following information will be displayed for
each file: file mode, number of links, owner name, group name, number of
bytes in the file, abbreviated month, day-of-month file was last modified,
hour file last modified, minute file last modified, and the path.

In addition, for each directory whose contents are displayed, the
total number of 512-byte blocks used by the files in the directory is
displayed on a line by itself, immediately before the information for the
files in the directory.