Commands using ls (517)

  • Returns the N most recently modified files from anywhere 'below' (and including) the current working directory, in order, with details.

    Returns a list, with attributes (think `ls -l`), in reverse chronological order. N is a single numeric parameter. Robust against unfriendly filenames and directory structures. Show Sample Output


    0
    nmf() { find . -type f -printf '%T@ ' -print0 -printf '\n' | sort -rn | head -"$1" | cut -f2- -d" " | tr -d "\0" | tr "\n" "\0" | xargs -0 ls -Ulh; }
    incidentnormal · 2016-03-04 14:53:14 12
  • display colored list items in less pager

    I've shortened it to: lsc PATH | l ... by adding ... alias lsc="ls --color" ... and ... alias l="less -R" ... to my ~/.bashrc file


    0
    ls --color PATH | less -R
    kevjonesin · 2016-03-07 13:46:02 13
  • Convert json files to tsv text blob

    Grabs the first JSON file in the directory, reads its keys, prints TSV, then prints all the json files' values as TSV. Nested objects appear as json. Unhappy times if your json has literal tabs in it. Show Sample Output


    0
    jq -r 'keys | join("\t")' $(ls -f *.json | head -1) && jq -Sr 'to_entries | [ .[] | .value | tostring ] | join("\t")' *.json
    drjeats · 2016-04-08 23:30:30 12
  • Nicer ls, directories first and colorized (MacOS)

    It will print a compact ls -la list with the directories at the beginning. --almost-all - do not list implied . and .. --group-directories-first - group directories before files --color - colorize the output --no-group - in a long listing, don't print group names --human-readable - print human readable sizes (e.g., 1K 234M 2G) --classify - append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries If you want to see the owner: ls -l --almost-all --group-directories-first --color --no-group --human-readable --classify Show Sample Output


    0
    ls -g --almost-all --group-directories-first --color --no-group --human-readable --classify
    icatalina · 2016-04-15 17:12:35 13
  • List latest 5 modified files recursively

    This command will find any named file types in / between two dates then will list all the metadata of those files in long format and human readable form. Adding a 't' flag to the ls command sorts the files by modified time. After all that the head -5 lists the first 5 which can be changed.


    0
    ls -laht `find / -name "*.*" -type f -newermt "2016-04-05" ! -newermt "2016-04-10"`|head -5
    ubercoo · 2016-04-19 14:26:23 10
  • Display "ls -l" output with color in less


    0
    ls -l --color | less -R
    Sparkette · 2016-05-07 17:19:56 11
  • Display a random man page


    0
    man $(ls /bin | shuf -n1)
    jubnzv · 2016-06-28 18:34:46 12
  • Let your computer read ls for you instead of reading it on your own

    Pipes the output of ls to espeak Also works nice with fortune fortune | espeak


    0
    ls | espeak
    BigZ · 2016-08-02 17:54:39 13
  • See how many times you've typed 'ls' by itself

    I seem to do this compulsively every time I change directories, sometimes even when I don't, even if I know exactly what I need to do. (Don't worry, the sample output is just an exaggeration. :) Show Sample Output


    0
    grep -cx ls ~/.bash_history
    Sparkette · 2016-09-14 17:06:59 17
  • List just the executable files (or directories) in current directory

    ls -l outputs long listing of files to awk, which sorts the output to include all lines that have the executable bit set (-x.), but excludes (!) the lines that have the directory bit set (drw), then prints the results to the screen. Show Sample Output


    0
    ls -l|awk ''/-x./' && !'/drw/' {print}'
    PCnetMD · 2016-09-21 14:42:10 15
  • Sum file sizes of found files


    0
    find . -mtime +30 -exec ls -all "{}" \; | awk '{COUNTER+=$5} END {SIZE=COUNTER/1024/1024; print "size sum of found files is: " SIZE "MB"}'
    breign · 2016-10-28 08:05:57 16
  • Resume incomplete youtube-dl video files

    Resume incomplete youtube-dl video files. Assuming mp4 format here.


    0
    ls *.part | sed 's/^.*-\(.\{11,11\}\)\.mp4\.part$/\1/g' - | youtube-dl -i -f mp4 -a -
    agp · 2017-02-28 23:31:55 21
  • Get the total length of all video / audio in the current dir (and below) in H:m:s

    All the other example fail when running in a folder containing too many files due to * being saturated. This command does not use *, allowing me to run it in one folder containing over 300000 audio files. As to running on so many files, I used GNU parallel in order to spawn as many processes as cores, tremendously fasting up the process. Show Sample Output


    0
    ls|grep ".wav"|parallel -j$(nproc) soxi -D {}|awk '{SUM += $1} END { printf "%d:%d:%d\n",SUM/3600,SUM%3600/60,SUM%60}'
    jupiter126 · 2017-05-02 21:37:24 20
  • Keep the last 10 moodle backups


    0
    ls -t /mcdata/archive/learn/backup-moodle2-course-* | tail -n +11 | xargs -I {} rm {}
    tlezotte · 2017-05-04 13:50:02 17
  • File count into directories

    Show file count into directories. Usefull when you try to find hugh directories that elevate system CPU (vmstat -> sy) Show Sample Output


    0
    find / -type d | while read i; do ls $i | wc -l | tr -d \\n; echo " -> $i"; done | sort -n
    Zort · 2017-05-12 00:02:43 19
  • Find Duplicate Files (based on size, name, and md5sum)

    It works extremely fast, because it calculates md5sum only on the files that have the same size and name. But there is nothing for free - it won't find duplicates with the different names. Show Sample Output


    0
    find -type f -printf '%20s\t%100f\t%p\n' | sort -n | uniq -Dw121 | awk -F'\t' '{print $3}' | xargs -d '\n' md5sum | uniq -Dw32 | cut -b 35- | xargs -d '\n' ls -lU
    ant7 · 2017-05-21 02:26:16 16
  • Find latest modified log


    0
    find . -name '*.log' | xargs ls -hlt > /tmp/logs.txt && vi /tmp/logs.txt
    zluyuer · 2017-07-07 05:13:51 20
  • When you realise your AMI doesn't come with NTP


    0
    AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="sa-east-1" jungle ec2 ls | grep midas | sort | cut -f4 | xargs -I {} ssh ubuntu@{} sudo apt-get install ntp -y
    xymor · 2017-11-22 19:20:08 19
  • Memorable recursive directory listing

    To HUNT for all the important stuffs. TRUST EL TRAPPER Works every time!


    0
    ls -ltrapR
    K33st · 2018-03-19 18:15:51 26
  • Determines latest pdf file downloaded by firefox in ~/Downloads directory


    0
    ls -tr ~/Downloads/*.pdf|tail -1
    masroor · 2018-05-14 14:01:55 163
  • Export all Stremio movie names

    I couldn't find movie library on any of the SQLlite Stremio databases, but on ~/.config/stremio/backgrounds2 the background image filenames corresponds to IMDB URL. So I foreach files and wget HTML title of each movie and save it to a file. This will retrieve all movie names, not just the Library.


    0
    time for movie in $(ls -1 $HOME/.config/stremio/backgrounds2 | sort -u);do echo "https://www.imdb.com/title/$movie/" | wget -qO- -O- -i- --header="Accept-Language: en" | hxclean | hxselect -s '\n' -c 'title' 2>/dev/null | tee -a ~/movie-list.txt ; done
    pabloab · 2018-08-16 06:11:41 320
  • watches every second, a directory listing as it changes

    On Linux, use watch -n 1 ls path/to/dir H/t: https://stackoverflow.com/a/9574123/805405 Show Sample Output


    0
    while :; do clear; ls path/to/dir | wc -l; sleep 1; done
    minademian · 2018-12-13 17:48:24 231
  • find all files that have 20 or more MB on every filesystem, change the size and filesystem to your liking

    find all files that have 20 or more MB on every filesystem, change the size and filesystem to your liking


    0
    find / -type f -size +20000k -exec ls -lh {} \; 2> /dev/null | awk '{ print $NF ": " $5 }' | sort -nrk 2,2
    Marius · 2019-07-08 21:04:09 37
  • Check out hijacked files in clearcase


    -1
    cleartool co -nc `cleartool ls -recurse | grep "hijacked" | sed s/\@\@.*// | xargs`
    ultrahax · 2009-02-06 00:03:51 51
  • Store mp3 playlist on variable and play with mpg123

    On my music directory, I create variable that contains all mp3s files, then I play them with mpg123. -C options enable terminal control key, s for stop, p for pause, f for forward to next song.


    -1
    PLAYLIST=$(ls -1) ; mpg123 -C $PLAYLIST
    servermanaged · 2009-03-19 17:20:28 12
  • ‹ First  < 13 14 15 16 17 >  Last ›

What's this?

commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.

Share Your Commands

Check These Out

Find all files of a type and copy them elsewhere while keeping intact their full directory structure using find and cpio
.flac is the filetype. /Volumes/Music/FLAC is the destination.

Use Linux coding style in C program
put "-linux" option into $HOME/.indent.pro to make it default

Shortcut to find files with ease.
It looks for files that contains the given word as parameter. * case insensitive * matches files containing the given word.

AWK command to extract log files between dates

Edit a PDF's metadata using exiftool
Edit the pdf file foo.pdf's metadata. -overwrite_original overwrites the original file (w/o it exiftool creates a new file)

Single words from Amazon Kindle 3 notes
You can use any dictionary you want, in any language. This command will output all single-word annotations that you have underlined in your Kindle device (provided the file) given a list of language-specific words. If you want to learn vocabulary, this command is ideal.

generate a telephone keypad
Draw a telephone keyboard, using just a shell built-in command.

show framebuffer console modes to use in grub vga option
look at /boot/grub/menu.lst for somethig like: ## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the ## alternatives ## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5 ## defoptions=vga=795 # defoptions=vga=873 ## altoption boot targets option ## multiple altoptions lines are allowed ## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options ## altoptions=(recovery) single # altoptions=(verbose mode) vga=775 debug # altoptions=(console mode) vga=ask # altoptions=(graphic mode) quiet splash # altoptions=(recovery mode) single vga=(decimal value) is framebuffer mode

Create a file server, listening in port 7000
At client side: tar c myfile | nc localhost 7000 ##Send file myfile to server tar c mydir | nc localhost 7000 ## Send directory mydir to server

Delicious search with human readable output
You can install filterous with $ sudo apt-get install libxslt1-dev; sudo easy_install -U filterous

Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for: