Description List directory contents. Syntax ls [OPTION]... [FILE]... Practical uses ls -a: Do not ignore entries starting with dots (. and ..). ls -l: Use a long listing format. ls -h: With -l and/or -s, print human readable sizes (for example, 1K 234M 2G). ls -R: List subdirectories recursively. ls -S: Sort by file size, largest first. ls -t: Sort by modification time, newest first. ls -ltu: Sort by, and show, access time. ls -Z: Print any security context of each file.