Commands using ls sorted by votes

Commands using ls (517)

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Show permissions of current directory and all directories upwards to /

Useful if a different user cannot access some directory and you want to know which directory on the way misses the x bit. Show Sample Output

dir=$(pwd); while [ ! -z "$dir" ]; do ls -ld "$dir"; dir=${dir%/*}; done; ls -ld /

hfs · 2009-12-14 14:38:11 3

Write a listing of all directories and files on the computer to a compressed file.

This command is meant to be used to make a lightweight backup, for when you want to know which files might be missing or changed, but you don't care about their contents (because you have some way to recover them). Explanation of parts: "ls -RFal /" lists all files in and below the root directory, along with their permissions and some other metadata. I think sudo is necessary to allow ls to read the metadata of certain files. "| gzip" compresses the result, from 177 MB to 16 MB in my case. "> all_files_list.txt.gz" saves the result to a file in the current directory called all_files_list.txt.gz. This name can be changed, of course. Show Sample Output

sudo ls -RFal / | gzip > all_files_list.txt.gz

roryokane · 2009-12-14 21:40:56 3

List folders containing only PNGs
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

find . -name '*png' -printf '%h\0' | xargs -0 ls -l --hide=*.png | grep -ZB1 ' 0$'

unixmonkey7586 · 2009-12-23 18:50:35 4
prints line numbers

the sed way to print line numbers Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
1. bin
2. boot
3. cdrom
4. dev
5. etc
```
2

ls | sed "/^/=" | sed "N;s/\n/. /"

glaudiston · 2010-01-06 16:00:39 3
show where symlinks are pointing

displays the output of ls -l without the rest of the crud. pretty simple but useful.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

lsli() { ls -l --color "$@" | awk '{ for(i=9;i<NF;i++){ printf("%s ",$i) } printf("%s\n",$NF) }'; }

quigybo · 2010-02-23 15:05:28 6
Insert a line for each n lines

specially usefull for sql scripts with insert / update statements, to add a commit command after n statements executed. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
X11R6
bin
doc
i686-pc-cygwin
i686-pc-mingw32
-- COMMIT --
include
lib
local
man
sbin
-- COMMIT --
share
src
ssl
tmp
```
2

ls -l | sed "$(while (( ++i < 5 )); do echo "N;"; done) a -- COMMIT --"

glaudiston · 2010-03-17 20:12:05 4
Insert a line for each n lines
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls -l | awk '{if (NR % 5 == 0) print "-- COMMIT --"; print}'

gilran · 2010-03-18 12:30:18 7
Show Directories in the PATH Which does NOT Exist
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls -d $(echo ${PATH//:/ }) > /dev/null

ger · 2010-03-25 17:38:57 3
pop-up messages on a remote computer

Run this command when you are physically at the computer you wish to send pop-up messages to. Then when you ssh in to it, you can do this: echo "guess who?" > commander guess who? will then pop up on the screen for a few moments, then disappear. You will need to create the commander file first. I mess with my wife all the time with this. i.e. echo "You have given the computer a virus. Computer will be rendered useless in 10 seconds." > commander lol
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

while : ; do if [ ! $(ls -l commander | cut -d ' ' -f5) -eq 0 ]; then notify-send "$(less commander)"; > commander; fi; done

evil · 2010-06-13 18:45:02 13
Batch edition of all OpenOffice.org Writer files in the current directory (body text)

This function does a batch edition of all OOO3 Writer files in current directory. It uses sed to search a FOO pattern into body text of each file, then replace it to foo pattern (only the first match) . I did it because I've some hundreds of OOO3 Writer files where I did need to edit one word in each ones and open up each file in OOO3 gui wasn't an option. Usage: bsro3 FOO foo
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

bsro3 () { P=`pwd`; S=$1; R=$2; ls *.odt > /dev/null 2>&1; if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then exit 1; fi; for i in *.odt; do mkdir ${P}/T; cd ${P}/T; unzip -qq "$P"/"$i"; sed -i "s/$S/$R/" ${P}/T/content.xml; zip -qq -r "$P"/"$i" *; cd ${P}; rm -rf ${P}/T; done; }

danpos · 2010-06-30 04:43:54 7
Tells you where a command is in your $PATH, but also wether it's a link and to what.

You may also use the $(which foo) variant instead of backticks. I personnaly have an alias ll='ls -l'. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
# ls -l `which gimp`
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Jul  2 10:33 /usr/bin/gimp -> gimp-2.6
```
2

ls -l `which foo`

adeverteuil · 2010-07-09 01:34:02 3
List files with full path

This version is a bit more portable although it isn't extended as easily with '-type f' etc. On AIX the find command doesn't have -maxdepth or equivalent.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls | sed s#^#$(pwd)/#

randy909 · 2010-08-04 20:47:44 6
How to backup hard disk timely?

'data' is the directory to backup, 'backup' is directory to store snapshots. Backup files on a regular basis using hard links. Very efficient, quick. Backup data is directly available. Same as explained here : http://blog.interlinked.org/tutorials/rsync_time_machine.html in one line. Using du to check the size of your backups, the first backup counts for all the space, and other backups only files that have changed. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
/backup# du -hs .
1.5G	.
/backup# du -hs *
1.4G	201008042142
15M	201008042150
24M	201008050022
/backup# du -hs 201008042142; du -hs 201008050022
1.4G	201008042142
1.4G	201008050022
```
2

rsync -av --link-dest=$(ls -1d /backup/*/ | tail -1) /data/ /backup/$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)/

dooblem · 2010-08-05 19:36:24 6
Make a playlistfile for mpg321 or other CLI player

A short variant if you have only one directory whit only audio files in it.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls -w 1 > list.m3u

Tungmar · 2010-08-27 07:03:17 3
concatenate compressed and uncompressed logs

with zcat force option it's even simpler.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

zcat -f $(ls -tr access.log*)

dooblem · 2010-10-30 22:54:54 3
Selecting a random file/folder of a folder

random file from files in directory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls -1 | shuf -n 1

quincymd · 2011-03-13 22:14:57 5
cd into the latest directory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

alias cd1='cd $( ls -lt | grep ^d | head -1 | cut -b 51- )'

soulonfire · 2011-06-22 11:45:15 12
List only directories, one per line
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls -1d */

Avenger · 2011-08-07 05:10:12 4

Sorted, recursive long file listing

Tells you everything you could ever want to know about all files and subdirectories. Great for package creators. Totally secure too. On my Slackware box, this gets set upon login: LS_OPTIONS='-F -b -T 0 --color=auto' and alias ls='/bin/ls $LS_OPTIONS' which works great. Show Sample Output

This is sample output - yours may be different.

=[9 h3xx@necronomicon ~ ]= $ lsr ~/.cron
drwx------ 10 h3xx users  304 Aug 13 01:45 /home/h3xx/.cron/
drwx------  2 h3xx users  264 Aug 14 03:09 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01d/
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  466 Jun 10 13:10 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01d/clean-chrome-tmp.sh*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users 4973 Aug 13 22:59 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01d/clean-maildirs.sh*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  117 Aug  9 18:32 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01d/clean-thumbscache.sh*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users   50 Aug 10  2010 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01d/linuxcounter.sh*
-rw-r--r--  1 h3xx users 1264 Oct 12  2007 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01d/mkbackups.sh
-rw-------  1 h3xx users  375 Oct  7  2005 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01d/rcsync.sh
drwx------  2 h3xx users  224 Aug 13 09:14 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01h/
-rw-r--r--  1 h3xx users  937 Dec 31  2010 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01h/.bash-history.sh-notworking
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  433 Aug 13 09:14 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01h/getmail-3.sh*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users 4427 Jul  6  2010 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01h/randsig.pl*
-rw-r--r--  1 h3xx users 1358 Aug 17  2010 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01h/stupid-curl
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  172 Aug 13 00:09 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01h/waffles-log.sh*
drwxr-xr-x  2 h3xx users   80 Dec 31  2010 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01m/
-rw-------  1 h3xx users  218 Mar 27  2006 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.01m/vidcap.sh
drwx--x--x  2 h3xx users   48 Mar 21  2008 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.05m/
drwx------  2 h3xx users  160 Aug  2 03:31 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.07d/
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  140 Apr 20  2009 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.07d/clean-vim-views.sh*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  165 Apr 17  2008 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.07d/insert_bash_history.sh*
-rwx--x--x  1 h3xx users   92 Sep 28  2010 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.07d/logrotate.sh*
drwxr-xr-x  2 h3xx users   80 Aug 14 03:09 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.15m/
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  433 Aug 13 09:14 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.15m/getmail-1.sh*
drwxr-xr-x  2 h3xx users   96 Aug 14 03:09 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.30d/
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  752 Aug 13 23:50 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.30d/bogofilter-db-maintenance.sh*
drwx------  2 h3xx users  144 Aug 13 09:14 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.30m/
-rwxr-xr-x  1 h3xx users  367 Jan 23  2010 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.30m/dyndns-update*
-rw-r--r--  1 h3xx users  433 Aug 13 09:14 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.30m/getmail-2.sh
lrwxrwxrwx  1 h3xx users   26 Aug 18  2008 /home/h3xx/.cron/cron.30m/process-spam.sh -> ../../libs/process-spam.sh
-rwx--x--x  1 h3xx users 4125 Aug 13 01:41 /home/h3xx/.cron/install-crontab*
-rwx--x--x  1 h3xx users 4122 Aug 13 01:34 /home/h3xx/.cron/install-crontab~*
=[9 h3xx@necronomicon ~ ]= $

lsr() { find "${@:-.}" -print0 |sort -z |xargs -0 ls $LS_OPTIONS -dla; }

h3xx · 2011-08-15 03:10:58 3

Get the dir listing of an executable without knowing its location

Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov  7 09:04 /usr/lib64/ccache/gcc -> ../../bin/ccache
```
2

ls -l `which gcc`

bhinesley · 2011-11-14 01:28:34 3
Use default value if unassigned

Will use variable value (for variable $my_dir, in this case), an assign a default value if there is none. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
ls /my/chosen/directory
||
ls /home
```
2

ls ${my_dir:=/home}

robinsonaarond · 2011-11-30 15:06:51 3
Show last changed files in a directory

This will quickly display files last changed in a directory, with the newest on top. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ ls -t | head
distroversions.txt
craigslist.txt
sql-bench
Bonnie.4539
dental.txt
vulnkb_v2.xml
error.log
asdf.txt
```
2

ls -t | head

scottlinux · 2012-01-17 16:28:32 4
Shuffle mp3 files in current folder and play them.

* grep -i leaves only mp3 files (case insentitive) * sort -R randomizes list (may use GNU 'shuf' instead). * the sed command will add double quotes around each filename (needed if odd characters are present)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls | grep -i mp3 | sort -R | sed -e 's/.*/"&"/' | xargs mpg123

retrodanny · 2012-03-10 20:51:36 5
Count number of files in a directory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

ls|wc -l

ibi0tux · 2012-10-08 07:16:58 4
Show sections of a man page.

Uses the formatting of a man page to show an outline of its headers and sub-headers. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
LS(1)
NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
   Exit status:
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO
GNU coreutils 7.4 
```
2

man ls | egrep "^([A-Z]| [A-Z])"

bartonski · 2013-01-09 17:12:03 5
‹ First < 3 4 5 6 7 > Last ›

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Play radio stream with mplayer

Above command will play Virgin Radio Dubai

Easy file sharing from the command line using transfer.sh

Requires: curl xsel access to the internet(http://transfer.sh) This is an alias utilizing the transfer.sh service to make sharing files easier from the command line. I have modified the alias provided by transfer.sh to use xsel to copy the resulting URL to the clipboard. The full modified alias is as follows since commandlinefu only allows 255 characters: transfer() { if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then echo "No arguments specified. Usage:\necho transfer /tmp/test.md\ncat /tmp/test.md | transfer test.md"; return 1; fi if tty -s; then basefile=$(basename "$1" | sed -e 's/[^a-zA-Z0-9._-]/-/g'); curl --progress-bar --upload-file "$1" "https://transfer.sh/$basefile" |xsel --clipboard; else curl --progress-bar --upload-file "-" "https://transfer.sh/$1" |xsel --clipboard ; fi; xsel --clipboard; }

Simple Comment an entire file

With this simple sed command we can easily comment and entire file.

Create a mirror of a local folder, on a remote server

Create a exact mirror of the local folder "/root/files", on remote server 'remote_server' using SSH command (listening on port 22) (all files & folders on destination server/folder will be deleted)

Just convert your all books DJVU format to PDF, with one line

Find usb device in realtime

Using this command you can track a moment when usb device was attached.

Sets shell timeout

Useful in root's .profile - will auto-logout after TMOUT seconds of inactivity. Close after `seconds` inactive. export TMOUT=seconds (unefunge)

Find the package that installed a command

Show max lengths of all fields in a pipe delimited file with header row

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Commands using ls (517)

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