Listing files & directories in Linux

Listing files & directories in Linux/Unix-based systems is very easy. Also, there are some options that you may find useful in the day-to-day usage of Unix-based operating systems. We have curated a list of useful commands with multiple options and examples.

The ls Command

ls

Simple ls command

This ls command lists the names of the files and directories in tab-separated format. The command returns only the files and folders in the current directory. Here is a sample output..

someDir  some-file.txt  some-other-file.txt  zebra.png

Sample output

Format Output

If you want to change the output format, the same ls command can be used with different options and combinations to fulfill your needs.

List one file per line: with -l option

To print exactly one file per line in the output, you can use ls -l

ls -l

ls -l command

Output:

linux@revist.tech:~$ ls -l
total 4658
drwxr-xr-x 2 linux linux 4096 Jan  7 00:22 someDir
-rw-r--r-- 1 linux linux   15 Jan 10 01:17 some-file.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 linux linux   21 Jan 10 01:17 some-other-file.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 linux linux  526 Jan 10 02:34 zebra.png

Sample output of ls -l

You may have noticed that this ls -l prints a verbose output in each line along with its file permissions, ownership, size (in bytes), etc.

Print file-names-only in each line : with -1 option

If you want to print only the names of the file and directories, one in each line, you can use the option -1

ls -1

Command to print only filenames in each line, no other details

Output:

linux@revist.tech:~$ ls -1
someDir
some-file.txt
some-other-file.txt
zebra.png

Sample output of `ls -1`

Printing hidden files and folders: with -a option

If there are any hidden files or directories then the plain ls command does not show it in the output. This is because it respects the hidden permission of the files and folders by default. But in case, you want to list the hidden files and directories as well, you can use ls -a option.

ls -a

Command to include hidden files and directories also in the output

Output:

linux@revist.tech:~$ ls -a
someDir  some-file.txt  some-other-file.txt  zebra.png .hidden.txt

Sample output of ls -a

Combining options

List one file per line + include hidden files too

To show list of each file and directories in separate lines including the hidden files and folders, you can use combination of -l and -a together by writing as ls -la.

ls -la

Command to print files and folders with details including hidden files and directories

Output:

linux@revist.tech:~$ ls -la
total 4680
drwxr-xr-x 2 linux linux 4096 Jan  7 00:22 someDir
-rw-r--r-- 1 linux linux   15 Jan 10 01:17 some-file.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 linux linux   21 Jan 10 01:17 some-other-file.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 linux linux  526 Jan 10 02:34 zebra.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 linux linux   22 Jan 10 02:40 .hidden.txt

Sample output of ls -la

List only file and directory names per line + include hidden files too

To show all files one per line including hidden ones but with no additional information, you can use -1 and -a together as ls -1a.

ls -1a

Command to list file-names only per line including hidden files and folders

Output:

linux@revist.tech:~$ ls -1a
someDir
some-file.txt
some-other-file.txt
zebra.png
.hidden.txt

Sample output of command `ls -1a`