ls Command: Tutorial & Examples

List the contents of a directory

The ls command is a utility that is used to list the contents of a directory on a Linux system. It is one of the most commonly used commands and is often used to navigate the file system with cd and view the files and directories that are available.

To list the contents of the current directory, you can simply type ls:

ls

This will display the names of the files and directories in the current directory, one per line.

You can use the -l flag to display the contents of the directory in a long format, which includes additional information about each file, such as its size, permissions, and modification date:

ls -l

You can use the -a flag to include hidden files in the listing:

ls -a

You can use the -R flag to list the contents of directories recursively:

ls -R

You can also specify the name of a directory to list its contents:

ls /path/to/directory

ls is a simple and useful tool for listing the contents of directories on a Linux system. It is often used in combination with other commands, such as grep or less, to filter and process the output of those commands.