⏾ Concept Map

ls ⚬ˢʰ｜Definition｜1st｜20260523112618-00-⌔

ls - Wikipedia

ls

📊 ➺ 🖼️ ➺

ls is a shell command for listing files – including special files such as directories. Originally developed for Unix and later codified by POSIX and Single UNIX Specification, it is supported in many operating systems today, including Unix-like variants, Windows (via PowerShell and UnxUtils),1 EFI,2 and MSX-DOS (via MSX-DOS2 Tools).3

The numerical computing environments MATLAB and GNU Octave include an ls command with similar functionality.45

An ls command appeared in the first version of AT&T UNIX. The name inherited from Multics and is short for “list”.678 ls is part of the X/Open Portability Guide since issue 2 of 1987. It was inherited into the first version of POSIX.1 and the Single Unix Specification.9

In MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows, the equivalent command is dir. Apple DOS for the Apple II uses CATALOG.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ᯤ)

Footnotes

  1. “Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities”. unxutils.sourceforge.net. Archived from the original on 2006-02-09. Retrieved 2025-08-09. ↩

  2. “EFI Shells and Scripting”. Intel. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-25. ↩

  3. “MSX-DOS2 Tools User’s Manual - MSX-DOS2 TOOLS ユーザーズマニュアル”. April 1, 1993 – via Internet Archive. ↩

  4. “List folder contents - MATLAB ls”. Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2019-04-06. ↩

  5. “Function Reference: Ls”. Octave Forge. Archived from the original on 2019-04-06. Retrieved 2019-04-06. ↩

  6. “Multics manual page for ls or list command”. 14 February 1985. ↩

  7. Fischer, Eric. “A Brief History of the ‘ls’ command”. The Linux Documentation Project. Archived from the original on 2023-01-02. Retrieved 2022-12-09. ↩

  8. “Multics programmer’s manual - Commands and active functions” (PDF). p. 397. ↩

  9. ls – Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group ↩