What means ls -d?

Question

When I use the -d, I only have the . that is displayed on the standard output. However, I also have other files in the current directory.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 20 '19 at 21:11

The -d option says:

-d, --directory
       list directories themselves, not their contents

This is showing you . because that is your current directory. This could be used in combination with -l if you simply wanted to see the permissions/ownership of the directory, among other things.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 20 '19 at 21:13

The -d switch lists the directory itself and not the contents. In your case, that means the current directory. If you run ls -ld, it will show the permissions, ownership, last changed time, etc of the current directory.

If you run ls -d another_directory then it will show the same for whatever directory you specify.

What means ls -d?

2 Answers2