Listing Files & Directories

To output the list of files and directories contained in the current working directory, you can use the ls command — which stands for list:

$ ls

Example

Let's consider this filesystem representation, in which the current working directory is the home directory:

/
├── home
│   └── johndoe         ← Current working directory
│   │   ├── Documents
│   │   └── Downloads

Executing this command will list the content of the /home/johndoe directory in the form of columns:

$ ls
Documents     Downloads

Listing the content of directories

To list the content of one or more directories, you can use the ls command as follows:

$ ls [path ...]

Where path ... is a list of absolute or relative paths to the target directories, separated by a space character.

Note: If the specified paths don't match valid directories in the filesystem, the ls command will output this error message:

ls: path: No such file or directory

Example

Let's consider this filesystem representation, in which the current working directory is the home directory:

/
├── home
│   └── johndoe                  ← Current working directory
│   │   ├── Documents
│   │   │   └── Invoices         ← Target directory
│   │   │   │  └── invoice.pdf
│   │   └── Downloads            
│   │   │   └── ebook.pdf

Executing this command will list the content of the Invoices directory:

$ ls ~/Documents/Invoices
invoice.pdf

And executing this command will list the content of both the Downloads and Invoices directories:

$ ls ./Downloads ./Documents/Invoices
./Downloads:
ebook.pdf

./Documents/Invoices:
invoice.pdf

Listing the content of subdirectories

To list the content of directories, including the content of their subdirectories, and so on, you can use the ls command with the -R flag (short for recursive) as follows:

$ ls -R [path ...]

Example

Let's consider this filesystem representation, in which the current working directory is the home directory:

/
├── home
│   └── johndoe                  ← Current working directory
│   │   ├── Documents
│   │   │   └── Invoices
│   │   │   │  └── invoice.pdf
│   │   └── Downloads            
│   │   │   └── ebook.pdf

Executing this command will recursively list the content of the home directory, including the content of its subdirectories:

$ ls -R
Documents	Downloads

./Documents:
Invoices

./Documents/Invoices:
invoice.pdf

./Downloads:
ebook.pdf

Changing the display of entries

Displaying entries as a list

To list the content of a directory in the form of a list instead of columns, you can use the ls command with the -1 flag as follows:

$ ls -1 [path ...]

Example

Let's consider this filesystem representation, in which the current working directory is the home directory:

/
├── home
│   └── johndoe                  ← Current working directory
│   │   ├── node-project
│   │   │   ├── index.js
│   │   │   ├── logs
│   │   │   ├── node_modules
│   │   │   └── package.json

Executing this command will output the content of the node-project directory in the form of a list:

$ ls -1 node-project
index.js
logs
node_modules
package.json

Distinguishing files from directories

To help you distinguish more easily regular files from directories, you can use the ls command with the -p flag as follows:

$ ls -p [path ...]

Which will add a forward slash character / at the end of each entry that is a directory.

Example

Let's consider this filesystem representation, in which the current working directory is the home directory:

/
├── home
│   └── johndoe                  ← Current working directory
│   │   ├── node-project
│   │   │   ├── index.js
│   │   │   ├── logs
│   │   │   ├── node_modules
│   │   │   └── package.json

Executing this command will output the content of the node-project directory and add a forward slash to the logs and node_modules subdirectories:

$ ls -p node-project
index.js     logs/     node_modules/     package.json

Listing hidden files

On Unix-like operating systems, hidden files and directories, also called dotfiles, are not characterized by the presence of a property that can be turned on and off, but instead, by the presence of a dot character at the beginning of their file name (e.g., .env, .config).

To list the content of a directory, including hidden files and subdirectories, you can use the ls command with the -A flag (short for all) as follows:

$ ls -A [path ...]

Example

Let's consider this filesystem representation, in which the current working directory is the home directory:

/
├── home
│   └── johndoe                  ← Current working directory
│   │   ├── node-project
│   │   │   ├── config
│   │   │   │   ├── .env.development
│   │   │   │   └── .env.production
│   │   │   ├── index.js
│   │   │   └── package.json

Executing this command will not output any files:

$ ls ./node-project/config

Whereas executing this command will display both .env files:

$ ls -A ./node-project/config
.env.development     .env.production

Summary

Here's a summary of what you've learned in this lesson:

• The ls command outputs the content of directories.
• The ls -R command outputs the content recursively.
• The ls -1 command outputs the content in the form of a list.
• The ls -p command adds a forward slash (/) to subdirectories.
• The ls -A command includes hidden files starting with a dot (.).