ls: how do I list directories sorted by timestamps of the files it contains

Question

How do I list directories by their access time in the sense that some new files/directories are created (say, directories containing the most recently created files).

Answer 1

There are a couple of options that you can combine.

The -c switch sorts by time modified [1]:

-c with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last modification of file status information) with -l: show ctime and sort by name otherwise:
sort by ctime

The -u and -t switches can also be used:

-t sort by modification time
-u with -lt: sort by, and show, access time with -l: show access time and sort by name otherwise: sort by access time

You could put it all together like so [2]:

ls -ltcr         # sort by and show change time, most recent last
ls -ltur         # sort by and show access time, most recent last
ls -ltr          # sort by date, most recent last

[1] http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?ls

[2] -r reverses the order