`ls` List directory contents

Shows what is in a folder. With no arguments it lists the current directory, one name at a time. Add flags to see sizes, hidden files, dates and who owns what.

Synopsis

ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Common options

Option or form	What it does
`-l`	Long format: permissions, link count, owner, group, size and modification time
`-a`	Include hidden files (names starting with a dot), plus the . and .. entries
`-A`	Like -a, but leaves out the . and .. entries
`-h`	Human-readable sizes such as 4.2K or 1.3G. Use it together with -l
`-t`	Sort by modification time, newest first
`-S`	Sort by size, largest first
`-r`	Reverse the sort order
`-R`	List sub-folders recursively
`-d`	List a folder itself instead of its contents

Examples

Everything in the current folder, with details

ls -la

Biggest files first, with readable sizes

ls -lhS

Newest files first

ls -lt

Only the folders in the current directory

ls -d */

docs/
photos/

A folder and everything under it

ls -R docs

Only the JPEG files in a folder

ls photos/*.jpg

photos/a.jpg
photos/b.jpg

Notes

Hidden files are not a security feature. A leading dot only hides a name from a plain ls. Use -a to see them, and -A to see them without the . and .. entries.
When ls writes to a terminal it prints in columns. When its output goes into a pipe or a file it prints one name per line, which is what scripts see.
Colours need a flag: ls -G on macOS and BSD, ls --color=auto on GNU/Linux.
-h only changes anything alongside -l (or -s). On its own it does nothing visible.
Don't parse ls output in scripts. Names can contain spaces and newlines. Use a shell glob such as *.txt or the find command instead.

ls List directory contents

Synopsis

Common options

Examples

Notes

See also

`ls` List directory contents