How to List Files and Directories in Linux (ls)

ls lists the contents of a directory.

Key points

• ls -l shows a detailed "long" listing with permissions, owner, size, and modification date
• ls -a includes hidden files (those starting with a dot), which are omitted by default
• ls -lh combines the long format with human-readable file sizes (KB/MB/GB instead of raw bytes)

Example

ls -lah