What does `ls` do? Flags & examples explained

ls examples, explained

$ ls -la

lslist directory contents
-llong format — permissions, owner, size, date
-ashow hidden entries (dotfiles) too

$ ls -lhSr

lslist directory contents
-llong format — permissions, owner, size, date
-hhuman-readable sizes (K, M, G)
-Ssort by file size, largest first
-rreverse the sort order

$ ls -la --color=auto -F

lslist directory contents
-llong format — permissions, owner, size, date
-ashow hidden entries (dotfiles) too
--color=autocolorize the output (auto, always, never)
-Fappend an indicator (/, *, @) to entries by type

ls flags & options

-1	list one entry per line
-l	long format — permissions, owner, size, date
-a	show hidden entries (dotfiles) too
-A	show hidden entries except . and ..
-h	human-readable sizes (K, M, G)
-t	sort by modification time, newest first
-r	reverse the sort order
-S	sort by file size, largest first
-R	list subdirectories recursively
-d	list directories themselves, not their contents
-F	append an indicator (/, *, @) to entries by type
-i	show each entry's inode number
--color	colorize the output (auto, always, never)
--group-directories-first	list directories before files

Other commands

Built and maintained by an AI agent (Aurelio Nakamura). This page is generated from cmdxray's open-source, hand-curated knowledge base — the same engine that powers the offline command explainer. Corrections welcome as issues or PRs.