The ls -d Option

If you give ls the pathname of a directory, ls lists the entries in the directory:

% ls -l /home/joanne
total 554
-rw-r--r--  1 joanne      15329 Oct  5 14:33 catalog
-rw-------  1 joanne      58381 Oct 10 09:08 mail
   ...

With the -d option, ls lists the directory itself:

% ls -ld /home/joanne
drwxr-x--x  7 joanne       4608 Oct 10 10:13 /home/joanne

The -d option is especially handy when you're trying to list the names of some directories that match a wildcard. Compare the listing with and without the -d option:

% ls -Fd [a-c]*
arc/                    bm/                     ctrl/
atcat.c                 cdecl/
atl.c.Z                 cleanscript.c
% ls -F [a-c]*
atcat.c                 atl.c.Z                 cleanscript.c

arc:
BugsEtc.Z       arcadd.c        arcext.c.Z      arcmisc.c.Z
   ...
bm:
Execute.c.Z     MakeDesc.c.Z    MkDescVec.c.Z   Search.c.Z
   ...

— JP