To view a directory’s contents, use the ‘ls’ command. Running the “ls” command without any additional options will list the contents of your current working directory, which is just a technical term for the directory that your terminal is currently in.
$ ls afs boot etc init lib64 media opt root sbin sys usr bin dev home lib lost+found mnt proc run srv tmp var
Here is the breakdown of the output of ls -l and ls -ld <directory name> commands, as well as the stat <file name/directory name> command:
To see the long listing of the files and directories:
# ls -l -rwxrwxrwx . 4 root root 644432 Dec 22 06:49 File name
Below are the brief descriptions of ls -l command output
--> Type of file, in this case, it's a directory.rwx-> Owner permissions, which means the owner of the file has read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions.rwx-> Group permissions, which means the group owner of the file has read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions.rwx-> Others permissions, which means others (users not in the owner group or group owner) have read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions..-> No ACL (Access Control List) permissions applied.4-> The number of links to the file or directory.root-> Owner of the file.root-> Group ownership of the file.644432-> Size of the file.Dec 22 06:49-> Date and Time of the creation or modification of the file.File name-> Name of the file.
How to see the long listing of the directories.
#ls -ld <directory name> d rwx rwx rwx . 2 root root 6 Dec 17 18:00 Directory name
Below are the brief descriptions of ls -ld command output
d-> Type of file, in this case, it's a directory.rwx-> Owner permissions, which means the owner of the file has read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions.rwx-> Group permissions, which means the group owner of the file has read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions.rwx-> Others permissions, which means others (users not in the owner group or group owner) have read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions..-> No ACL (Access Control List) permissions applied.2-> The number of links to the file or directory.root-> Owner of the file.root-> Group ownership of the file.6-> Size of the file.Dec 17 18:00-> Date and Time of the creation or modification of the file.File name-> Name of the file.
How to see the statistics of the file or directory: stat command
stat <file name/directory name>
File: <file name/directory name> Size: 6 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 <file type> Device: fd02h/64770d Inode: 2634200 Links: 2 Access: (0777/drwxrwxrwx) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root) Access: 2021-12-17 18:00:00.000000000 +0000 <creation or modification time> Modify: 2021-12-17 18:00:00.000000000 +0000 <modification time> Change: 2021-12-17 18:00:00.000000000 +0000 <change time> Birth: -
