Shell command: ls

Options

`-a`	`--all`		By default, `ls` does not list files whose name that start with a dot (such as for example `.profile` etc). This flag causes such files to be included.
`-A`	`--almost -all`		Like `-a` except that `.` (the current directory) and `..` are not listed.
	`--author`		Used together with `-l` to print a file's author as well.
`-b`	`--escape`		Print non-graphic characters in file names with ocal escape numbers (`\0…`). Try for example with `touch $'abc\x05def'; ls -b`
	`--block-size`	`=SIZE`	Used together with `-l`. `SIZE` is an integer followed by a unit. At least one of integer and the unit must be specified. Recognized units are powers of 1024: `K`, `M`, `G`, `T`, `P`, `E`, `Z`, `Y` or powers of 1000: `KB`, `MB`… . Binary prefixes are also recognized (`KiB` (=`K`), `MiB` (=`M`) etc.)
`-B`	`--ignore-backups`		Does not list files whose name end in a `~`.
`-C`
	`--color`	`[=WHEN]`	`WHEN` is one of `always`, `auto` or `never`
`-d`	`--directory`		Do not list the entries of a directory but the entry for the directory itself
`-D`	`--dired`		Create output suitable for Emacs' dired mode.
`-F`	`--classify`		Adds an indicator character to entry names: `*`, `/`, `=`, `>`, `@` or `\|`.
	`--file-type`		Similar to `-F` except that it does not add a `*`
	`--format`	`=WORD`	`WORD` is one of `accross` or `horizontal` (= `-x`), `commas` (= `-m`), `long` or `verbose` (= `-l`), `single-column` (= `-1`)
	`--full-time`		Same as `-l --time-style=full-iso`
`-g`			Like `-l` but without listing entries' owners. Compare with `-G`
	`--group-directories-first`
`-G`	`--no-group`		Used together with `-l` to suppress printing the entries' groups.
`-h`	`--human-readable`		With `-l` or `-s`: prints sizes human readable (for example `1.89G` or `815M`, same idea as also `tree -h` and `numfmt`
	`--si`
`-H`	`--dereference-command-line-symlin-to-dir`		Follow symlinks
	`--hide`	`=PATTERN`	Does not list entries that match `PATTERN` (For example: `ls -l --hide=*.tmp` does not list files with the extension `.tmp`)
	`--hyperlink`	`[=WHEN]`
	`--indicator-style`	`=WORD`
`-i`	`--inode`		Print files' inode numbers
`-I`	`--ignore`	`=PATTERN`	Do not list files that match `PATTERN`
`-k`	`--kibibytes`
`-l`			Long listing. Possibly the most used option for `ls`. Same as `ls --format=verbose`
`-L`	`--dereference`
`-m`			Same as `ls --format=commas`
`-n`	`--numeric-uid-gid`
`-N`	`--literal`		Prints entry-names without quoting; non printable characters as `?`. Compare with `-q`
`-o`			Like `-l` but without printing group information
`-p`	`--indicator-style`	`=slash`	Append a `/` to directories
`-q`	`--hide-control-chars`
	`--show-control-chars`
`-Q`	`--quote-name`
	`--quoting-style`	`=WORD`
`-r`	`--reverse`		Reverse sort order
`-R`	`--recursive`		List entries in subdirectories recusively
`-s`	`--size`		Prints allocated number of blocks rather than file sizes. Compare with `-S` (uppercase).
	`--sort`	`=WORD`	`WORD` is `none` (equal to `-U`), `size` (`-S`), `time` (`-t`), `version` (`-v`), `-extension` (`-X`)
	`--time`	`=WORD`
	`--time-style`	`=TIME_STYLE`
`-T`	`--tabsize`	`=COLS`
`-w`	`--width`	`=COLS`
`-x`			Same as `ls --format=horizontal`
`-Z`	`--context`		Print files' security contexts
`-1`			Emit one entry name per line. Same as `ls --format=single-column`
	`--help`
	`--version`		Print version of `ls`. Compare with `-v`

Options controlling sorting

`-c`	With `-lt`: sorts by and shows ctime. With `-l`: sorts by name and shows ctime.
`-f`	Don't sort, enable `-aU`, disable `-ls --color`
`-t`	Sort by time
`-u`	With `-lt`: show and sort by access time, with `-l`: show access time and sort by name, otherwise: sort by access time
`-v`	Sort according to version numbers detected in file names. Compare with `--version`.
`-S`	Sorts by file size, largest to smallest. Compare with `-s`
`-U`	Do not sort (entries are listed in directory order)
`-X`	Sort by extension

Showing atime, ctime and mtime

-l shows a file's mtime, -lu a file's atime and -lc a file's ctime.

In the following example, a files atime and mtime are changed with the -t option of touch and then shown again with ls -l….

touch                    a-file
touch -a -t 201508282223 a-file
touch -m -t 200101010101 a-file

ls -l  a-file
#
#  -rw------- 1 rene rene 0 Jan  1  2001 a-file

ls -lu a-file
#
#  -rw------- 1 rene rene 0 Aug 28  2015 a-file

ls -lc a-file
#
#  -rw------- 1 rene rene 0 Jun 22 13:55 a-file

Github repository shell-commands, path: /ls/time

-I, --ignore

ls -I (or ls --ignore) does not list files that match the specified pattern.

The following command does not print *.h or *.c files in a directory:

$ ls -l -I '*.h' -I '*.c'

In order to list files , but not directories, that don't match *.h and *.c recursively, the following command might be helpful:

$ find . -type f ! -name "*.h" ! -name "*.c"

-i

-i prints the inode (index number) of the file.

This can be useful to rename or remove files with special characters.

-S - sort by size

With -S (uppercase s), the files are sorted by size.

The following command shows all mp3's in a directory with wide listing, the largest first:

ls -lS *mp3

Compare with ls -s which prints the files' sizes in blocks.

LS_COLORS

This is a script that can be sourced to assign some values to the environment variable LS_COLORS which is used to color the output of ls (with --colors=auto ?)

#
#  TODO:
#    The file should be created with
#       dircolors -p > $LS_COLORS_FILE
#    and then be read in ./profile with
#       eval "$(dircolors -b $LS_COLORS_FILE)"
#
#
. ~/.tq84-dotfile-sequence .ls_colors

#          fg   bg
# -------+----+----
# black  | 30 | 40  
# red    | 31 | 41
# green  | 32 | 42
# yellow | 33 | 43
# blue   | 34 | 44
# pink   | 35 | 45
# cyan   | 36 | 46
# white  | 37 | 47
#
# using 9x instead of 3x and 10x instead of 4x makes
# the color brighter
#
#  0: normal,
# 01: bold,
# 03: cursive
# 04: underlined
# 05: blinking
# 07: swap fg and bg color
# 08: hidden
# 09: strike through

  LS_COLORS=''
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}no=0:"               # normal - used for text other than file names and not assigned colors
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}fi=0:"               # file
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}rs=0:"
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}di=01;34:"           # directory
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}ln=01;36:"           # symbolic link - can be set to 'target' in which case the color of the file pointed to is chosen
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}mh=00:"
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}pi=40;33:"           # pipe
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}so=01;35:"           # socket
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}do=01;35:"           # door
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}bd=40;33;01:"        # block device
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}cd=40;33;01:"        # character device
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}or=40;31;01:"        # orphan - symbolic link that points to non-existing target
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}mi=00:"              # missing (symbolic link???)
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}su=37;41:"           # setuid
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}sg=30;43:"           # setgid
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}ca=30;41:"
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}tw=30;42:"           # directory with sticky bit and world writable (+t, o+w)
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}ow=30;107:"          # directory that is world writable
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}st=37;44:"           # directory with sticky bit
  LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}ex=01;32:"           # executable file

  # Extenions
  # ---------
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tar=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tgz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.arc=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.arj=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.taz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.lha=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.lz4=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.lzh=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.lzma=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tlz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.txz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tzo=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.t7z=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.zip=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.z=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.Z=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.dz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.gz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.lrz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.lz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.lzo=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.xz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.zst=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tzst=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.bz2=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.bz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tbz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tbz2=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.deb=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.rpm=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.jar=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.war=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ear=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.sar=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.rar=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.alz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ace=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.zoo=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.cpio=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.7z=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.rz=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.cab=01;31:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.jpg=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.jpeg=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mjpg=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mjpeg=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.gif=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.bmp=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.pbm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.pgm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ppm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tga=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.xbm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.xpm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tif=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.tiff=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.png=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.svg=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.svgz=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mng=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.pcx=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mov=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mpg=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mpeg=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.m2v=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mkv=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.webm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ogm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mp4=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.m4v=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mp4v=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.vob=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.qt=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.nuv=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.wmv=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.asf=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.rm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.rmvb=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.flc=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.avi=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.fli=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.flv=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.gl=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.dl=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.xcf=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.xwd=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.yuv=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.cgm=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.emf=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ogv=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ogx=01;35:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.aac=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.au=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.flac=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.m4a=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mid=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.midi=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mka=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mp3=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.mpc=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ogg=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.ra=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.wav=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.oga=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.opus=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.spx=00;36:"
# LS_COLORS="${LS_COLORS}*.xspf=00;36:"

export LS_COLORS

Github repository PostLinuxInstallation, path: /dot-files/ls_colors

Show largest files in a directory

The output of ls can be piped into sort in order to show a directory's largest files.

Because we want to sort numerically rather than alphabetically, we use the -n flag of sort

ls -l | sort -nrk 5 | head

-h in ls reports file sizes in human readable format (for example 1.89G or 815M; -h in sort sorts by human readable numbers:

ls -lh | sort -hrk 5 | head