Field notesAUWENSearch
Explore Systems
← Command indexBash / list

ls

List directory contents.

Syntax

UPPERCASE words are placeholders to replace. Brackets in the syntax line describe optional arguments; do not type those brackets literally.

ls [OPTIONS] [PATH]

Example

ls -lah .

Expected result

A long listing including hidden names, with human-readable sizes on GNU ls.

Notes and traps

Do not parse ls output in scripts. Filenames can include spaces and newlines.

Related commands

Related tasks may need different flags and have different semantics. Check the entry before translating a command between shells.

Official reference ↗

Updated 13 September 2026. Examples describe the expected behavior; not every platform is available for execution testing.