Sometimes, I need to check only the directories not files. Is there any option with the command ls? Or is there any utility for doing that?
EDIT: I'm using Mac OS X, and ls -d
gives me .
even though I have directories.
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Sign up to join this communityI know there is already a selected answer, but you can get the requested behavior with just ls
:
ls -ld -- */
(Note that the '--' marks the end of parameters, preventing folder names beginning with a hyphen from being interpreted as further command options.)
This will list all the non-hidden (unless you configure your shell's globs to expand them) directories in the current working directory where it is run (note that it also includes symbolic links to directories). To get all the subdirectories of some other folder, just try:
ls -ld /path/to/directory/*/
Note that the -l is optional.
/
on the end--but now that I see you answer it makes sense. After all, tab-completion always adds it.
find
is actually a good choice in that case.
Jan 31, 2017 at 20:59
find
also has the advantage when the number of directories exceeds the maximum argument length.
No, but a simple find
command will do it (here using the -{min,max}depth
GNU extensions, also found on most implementations theses days):
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d
Or the POSIX (standard) equivalent:
find . ! -name . -prune -type d
On FreeBSD and some of its derivatives (including macOS), you can also do:
find . -depth 1 -prune -type d
Those also include hidden directories (not the .
or ..
special directories) and don't sort the list of files. It also adds a ./
prefix to each file which with the GNU implementation of find
, you can remove by adding -printf '%P\n'
.
or grep
(assuming file names don't contain newline characters):
ls -p | grep /
(add the -A
option to ls
to include hidden ones).
You could then alias either one if necessary.
-maxdepth 1
. Also find
wanted me to flip the order: find . -maxdepth 1 -type d
Aug 28, 2015 at 14:33
ls -F | grep /
solution works wonders! It seems to be the only one I can get to work on my FreeBSD machine. I think using Fish means that anything with */
may not work?
find: warning: you have specified the -depth option after a non-option argument -type, but options are not positional (-depth affects tests specified before it as well as those specified after it). Please specify options before other arguments.
(If I use maxdepth
instead I still get the warning, but it's followed by the correct output.)
-depth 1
with GNU find
's -{min,max}depth
would be -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1
. FreeBSD's -depth 1
yields true for files at depth 1, but doesn't otherwise stop find from descending into subdirectories, so -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1
(which is now also supported by all BSDs including FreeBSD) is better, though you could also do find . -depth 1 -prune -type d
to get something equivalent.
Jan 10, 2022 at 16:20
I also needed to view hidden directories so have modified the suggestion above to fit my needs
ls -d -- */ .*/
(depending on the shell, that may also include .
and ..
)
ls -a
to include directory entries whose names begin with a dot (.), which avoids the annoyance of matching .
and ..
.
I like the tree utility to get an overview over the directory structure. It's available in MacPorts and all Linux distributions I've tried.
tree -d -L 2
That would show all directories, two levels deep.
With zsh
(as found by default on macOS, it even used to be /bin/sh
there, and it's the default login shell in newer versions), you'd use glob qualifiers to select files based on their type:
List non-hidden directories:
ls -ld -- *(/)
List all directories:
ls -ld -- *(D/)
(.
and ..
are always excluded, add them individually if you want them)
Also include symlinks to directories:
ls -ld -- *(D-/)
(-
makes so further qualifiers apply after symlink resolution).
Here, using -l
to get a long listing. For printing the list of matching files, you don't need ls
, you can replace ls -ld
with print -rC1
(print
r
aw on 1
C
olumn, print
being builtin). You may also want to add the N
glob qualifier so as to print nothing if there's no matching file instead of reporting an error:
print -rC1 -- *(ND/)
There is not just one option to list directories...
But you can use -d
(list directories themselves, not their contents) and */
to match directories themselves:
ls -d */
And try to use the dot, for hidden ones, ls -d .*/
.
Just for fun, try: ls -d
and ls */
. The differences will be clear!
Ref:
--
to protect against interpreting directory names starting with a dash as options.
zsh
solution just above, you see it is a shell thing about extended pattern matching. Where is that */
notation in bash defined?
-l
in the current directory.
Use ls command like this
❯ ls -1d plugins/*/
plugins/localizable/
plugins/redmine_agile/
plugins/redmine_gitlab_hook/
plugins/redmine_mermaid_macro/
plugins/redmine_open_links_in_new_window/
$ ls -p | grep /
The -p
flag will make ls
add a slash (`/') after each filename if that file is a directory.
I think ls has a bug on Mac OS X. A workaround is to use grep... ls -l / | grep "^d"
grep "^d"
hack
Sep 6, 2010 at 2:10
ls -l /home
and ls -dl /home
ls -l / | grep ^d
. If you are going to use quotes, since you don't need parameter expansion, make them single quotes. ls -l / | grep '^d'
. Yes, I'm a pedant. But really, do this. :)
ls -G
this will show your directories in blue
The easiest way is to type the following command. This works across most UNIX and Linux platforms and versions. You can skip the -F
if you want, but it is the argument that adds the / to the end of the directory name. The -C
argument captures only directory names - all of them in the current directory. If you want to see only directories and subdirectories in the current path, simply add the -R
argument (ls -CFR
).
# ls -CF
/dir1 /dir2 /dir3 /beaches /Work /Other
ls
implementations I know and in the POSIX specification of ls
, -C
is to output in columns, not to skip non-directory files. In your example, the /
are printed before the file names, which no ls
implementation would do. With -F
, /
is appended to the file name for directory files.
Jun 21, 2018 at 16:15
ls -d
gives only.
and why the*/
must be added to the end to make it work?ls
defaults to.
. And-d
means don't print the directory's contents, print the directory itself.ls -p
it shows the/
after the directory names. So*/
is just a pattern which is matched against the directory name and/
combo.