What is the option in ls command to display the hidden files or directories?

Home / How To / Using ls Command to Show Hidden Files in Linux Terminal

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

Ubuntu LS Command
Show Hidden Files in Ubuntu Terminal
Using ls Command to Show Hidden Files in Ubuntu Terminal
What is the option in ls command to display the hidden files or directories in UNIX?
What is the option in is command to display the hidden files or directories?
What ls option will display hidden files?
Which is command option will display hidden files in Linux?

How to show hidden files in Linux command line. Know which command will list the hidden files in Linux Ubuntu? Use Ubuntu ls command to show hidden files in Linux command line.

Ubuntu LS Command

The ls command can be used to show hidden files in Ubuntu using terminal (command line). Ls command has many options which can be used to get info about files. Ls command options “-a” and “-l” can be used with Ubuntu ls command to show hidden files in Ubuntu using terminal command line.

The ‘ls’ program lists information about files (of any type, including directories). Options and file arguments can be intermixed arbitrarily, as usual. For non-option command-line arguments that are directories, by default ‘ls’ lists the contents of directories, not recursively, and omitting files with names beginning with ‘.’. For other non-option arguments, by default ‘ls’ lists just the file name. If no non-option argument is specified, ‘ls’ operates on the current directory, acting as if it had been invoked with a single argument of ‘.’.

By default, the output is sorted alphabetically, according to the locale settings in effect.(1) If standard output is a terminal, the output is in columns (sorted vertically) and control characters are output as question marks; otherwise, the output is listed one per line and control characters are output as-is.

Because ‘ls’ is such a fundamental program, it has accumulated many options over the years. They are described in the subsections below; within each section, options are listed alphabetically (ignoring case). The division of options into the subsections is not absolute, since some options affect more than one aspect of ‘ls’’s operation.

Show Hidden Files in Ubuntu Terminal

The “ls” command option “-a” will show all files and folders, including hidden ones. It shows the list in “long format” which includes the permissions, owner, group, size, last-modified date, number of hard links and the filename described.

The following command options can be used:

‘-a’ or ‘–all’: In directories, do not ignore file names that start with ‘.’.
‘-A’ or ‘–almost-all’: In directories, do not ignore all file names that start with ‘.’; ignore only ‘.’ and ‘..’. The ‘–all’ (‘-a’) option overrides this option.
‘-l’ or ‘–format=long’ or ‘–format=verbose’: In addition to the name of each file, print the file type, file mode bits, number of hard links, owner name, group name, size, and timestamp (note Formatting file timestamps::), normally the modification time. Print question marks for information that cannot be determined. For each directory that is listed, preface the files with a line ‘total BLOCKS’, where BLOCKS is the total disk allocation for all files in that directory. The block size currently defaults to 1024 bytes, but this can be overridden (note Block size::). The BLOCKS computed counts each hard link separately; this is arguably a deficiency.

Using ls Command to Show Hidden Files in Ubuntu Terminal

You can use the following ls command options to list hidden files (see screenshots):

Note that there is a difference between -a and -A option. The -a option displays hidden files and directories with current directory (.) and parent directory (..) where -A ls command options doesn’t show it.

Linux and other Unix-based operating systems consider files and folders with names beginning with a . (dot) as hidden. Unless specified or configured, file managers like Nautilus and Dolphin, or command-line tools such as ls will not show files and folders with names beginning with a ..

You can use ls at the terminal to show hidden files and folders. It is done by using the built-in option to ignore entries starting with a ..

Launch terminal.
Go to the folder that contains the hidden files or folders.
```
$ cd temp/
```
List normal files and folders in the directory using ls command.
```
$ ls
file  folder
```

List all files and folders in the directory using ls command, including hidden files and folders.

$ ls -a
.  ..  file  folder  .hidden-file  .hidden-folder

ls option:

-a, --all
       do not ignore entries starting with .

Show more info on the files using the ls command.

$ ls -la
total 16
drwxrwxr-x 4 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:26 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user    0 Oct 31 09:27 file
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:26 folder
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user    0 Oct 31 09:27 .hidden-file
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:26 .hidden-folder

. and .. are special folders which refers to current and one-up folder respectively

List files and folders using absolute path.

$ ls -la /home/user/temp/
total 16
drwxrwxr-x 4 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:26 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user    0 Oct 31 09:27 file
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:26 folder
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user    0 Oct 31 09:27 .hidden-file
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 Oct 31 09:26 .hidden-folder

Discuss the article:

Comment anonymously. Login not required.

What is the option in ls command to display the hidden files or directories in UNIX?

To display hidden files or directories, we include the a flag in our ls command. The a flag instructs the ls command to include all files — and not ignore files starting with a dot. Using this command, we can now see both the hidden and visible files in the current directory.

What is the option in is command to display the hidden files or directories?

The ls command lists the contents of the current directory. The –a switch lists all files – including hidden files.

What ls option will display hidden files?

ls -a will list all files including hidden files (files with names beginning with a dot).

Which is command option will display hidden files in Linux?

How to View Hidden Files and Directories in Linux. To view hidden files, run the ls command with the -a flag which enables viewing of all files in a directory or -al flag for a long listing of files. From a GUI file manager, go to View and check the option Show Hidden Files to view hidden files or directories.