In case you're wondering why output from 'ls -d */' gives you two trailing slashes, like:
[prompt]$ ls -d */
app// cgi-bin// lib// pub//
it's probably because somewhere your shell or session configuration files alias the ls command to a version of ls that includes the -F flag. That flag appends a character to each output name (that's not a plain file) indicating the kind of thing it is. So one slash is from matching the pattern '*/', and the other slash is the appended type indicator.
To get rid of this issue, you could of course define a different alias for ls. However, to temporarily not invoke the alias, you can prepend the command with backslash:
\ls -d */
A plain list of the current directory, it'd be:
ls -1d */
If you want it sorted and clean:
ls -1d */ | cut -c 1- | rev | cut -c 2- | rev | sort
Remember: capitalized characters have different behavior in the sort
For listing only directories:
ls -l | grep ^d
For listing only files:
ls -l | grep -v ^d
Or also you can do as:
ls -ld */
One-liner to list directories only from "here".
With file count.
for i in `ls -d */`; do g=`find ./$i -type f -print| wc -l`; echo "Directory $i contains $g files."; done
*/ is a filename matching pattern that matches directories in the current directory.
To list directories only, I like this function:
# Long list only directories
llod () {
ls -l --color=always "$@" | grep --color=never '^d'
}
Put it in your .bashrc file.
Usage examples:
llod # Long listing of all directories in current directory
llod -tr # Same but in chronological order oldest first
llod -d a* # Limit to directories beginning with letter 'a'
llod -d .* # Limit to hidden directories
Note: it will break if you use the -i option. Here is a fix for that:
# Long list only directories
llod () {
ls -l --color=always "$@" | egrep --color=never '^d|^[[:digit:]]+ d'
}
An unquoted asterisk * will be interpreted as a pattern (glob) by the shell. The shell will use it in pathname expansion. It will then generate a list of filenames that match the pattern.
A simple asterisk will match all filenames in the PWD (present working directory). A more complex pattern as */ will match all filenames that end in /. Thus, all directories. That is why the command:
echo */
echo ./*/ ### Avoid misinterpreting filenames like "-e dir"
will be expanded (by the shell) to echo all directories in the PWD.
To test this: Create a directory (mkdir) named like test-dir, and cd into it:
mkdir test-dir; cd test-dir
Create some directories:
mkdir {cs,files,masters,draft,static} # Safe directories.
mkdir {*,-,--,-v\ var,-h,-n,dir\ with\ spaces} # Some a bit less secure.
touch -- 'file with spaces' '-a' '-l' 'filename' # And some files:
The command echo ./*/ will remain reliable even with odd named files:
./--/ ./-/ ./*/ ./cs/ ./dir with spaces/ ./draft/ ./files/ ./-h/
./masters/ ./-n/ ./static/ ./-v var/
But the spaces in filenames make reading a bit confusing.
If instead of echo, we use ls. The shell is still what is expanding the list of filenames. The shell is the reason to get a list of directories in the PWD. The -d option to ls makes it list the present directory entry instead of the contents of each directory (as presented by default).
ls -d */
However, this command is (somewhat) less reliable. It will fail with the odd named files listed above. It will choke with several names. You need to erase one by one till you find the ones with problems.
The GNU ls will accept the "end of options" (--) key.
ls -d ./*/ ### More reliable BSD ls
ls -d -- */ ### More reliable GNU ls
To list each directory in its own line (in one column, similar to ls -1), use:
$ printf "%s\n" */ ### Correct even with "-", spaces or newlines.
And, even better, we could remove the trailing /:
$ set -- */; printf "%s\n" "${@%/}" ### Correct with spaces and newlines.
An attempt like
$ for i in $(ls -d */); do echo ${i%%/}; done
will fail on:
ls -d */) as already shown above.IFS.IFS).Finally, using the argument list inside a function will not affect the arguments list of the present running shell. Simply
$ listdirs(){ set -- */; printf "%s\n" "${@%/}"; }
$ listdirs
presents this list:
--
-
*
cs
dir with spaces
draft
files
-h
masters
-n
static
-v var
These options are safe with several types of odd filenames.
I use:
ls -d */ | cut -f1 -d'/'
This creates a single column without a trailing slash - useful in scripts.
To show folder lists without /:
ls -d */|sed 's|[/]||g'
FYI, if you want to print all the files in multi-line, you can do a ls -1 which will print each file in a separate line.
file1
file2
file3
Adding on to make it full circle, to retrieve the path of every folder, use a combination of Albert's answer as well as Gordans. That should be pretty useful.
for i in $(ls -d /pathto/parent/folder/*/); do echo ${i%%/}; done
Output:
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder1/
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder2/
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder3/
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder4/
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder5/
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder6/
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder7/
/pathto/parent/folder/childfolder8/
Here is what I use for listing only directory names:
ls -1d /some/folder/*/ | awk -F "/" "{print \$(NF-1)}"
echoExample: echo */, echo */*/
Here is what I got:
cs/ draft/ files/ hacks/ masters/ static/
cs/code/ files/images/ static/images/ static/stylesheets/
ls onlyExample: ls -d */
Here is exactly what I got:
cs/ files/ masters/
draft/ hacks/ static/
Or as list (with detail info): ls -dl */
ls and grepExample: ls -l | grep "^d"
Here is what I got:
drwxr-xr-x 24 h staff 816 Jun 8 10:55 cs
drwxr-xr-x 6 h staff 204 Jun 8 10:55 draft
drwxr-xr-x 9 h staff 306 Jun 8 10:55 files
drwxr-xr-x 2 h staff 68 Jun 9 13:19 hacks
drwxr-xr-x 6 h staff 204 Jun 8 10:55 masters
drwxr-xr-x 4 h staff 136 Jun 8 10:55 static
Example: for i in $(ls -d */); do echo ${i%%/}; done
Here is what I got:
cs
draft
files
hacks
masters
static
If you like to have '/' as ending character, the command will be: for i in $(ls -d */); do echo ${i}; done
cs/
draft/
files/
hacks/
masters/
static/
I partially solved it with:
cd "/path/to/pricipal/folder"
for i in $(ls -d .*/); do sudo ln -s "$PWD"/${i%%/} /home/inukaze/${i%%/}; done
ln: «/home/inukaze/./.»: can't overwrite a directory
ln: «/home/inukaze/../..»: can't overwrite a directory
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.config»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.disruptive»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/innovations»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/sarl»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.e_old»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.gnome2_private»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.gvfs»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.kde»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.local»: too much symbolics links levels
ln: accesing to «/home/inukaze/.xVideoServiceThief»: too much symbolics links levels
Well, this reduce to me, the major part :)
Try this one. It works for all Linux distribution.
ls -ltr | grep drw
I just add this to my .bashrc file (you could also just type it on the command line if you only need/want it for one session):
alias lsd='ls -ld */'
Then lsd will produce the desired result.
file * | grep directory
Output (on my machine) --
[root@rhel6 ~]# file * | grep directory
mongo-example-master: directory
nostarch: directory
scriptzz: directory
splunk: directory
testdir: directory
The above output can be refined more by using cut:
file * | grep directory | cut -d':' -f1
mongo-example-master
nostarch
scriptzz
splunk
testdir
* could be replaced with any path that's permitted
file - determine file type
grep - searches for string named directory
-d - to specify a field delimiter
-f1 - denotes field 1
Here is a variation using tree which outputs directory names only on separate lines, yes it's ugly, but hey, it works.
tree -d | grep -E '^[+|+]' | cut -d ' ' -f2
or with awk
tree -d | grep -E '^[+|+]' | awk '{print $2}'
This is probably better however and will retain the / after directory name.
ls -l | grep "^d" | awk '{print $9}'
Test whether the item is a directory with test -d:
for i in $(ls); do test -d $i && echo $i ; done
For all folders without subfolders:
find /home/alice/Documents -maxdepth 1 -type d
For all folders with subfolders:
find /home/alice/Documents -type d
If a hidden directory is not needed to be listed, I offer:
ls -l | grep "^d" | awk -F" " '{print $9}'
And if hidden directories are needed to be listed, use:
ls -Al | grep "^d" | awk -F" " '{print $9}'
Or
find -maxdepth 1 -type d | awk -F"./" '{print $2}'
Using Perl:
ls | perl -nle 'print if -d;'
Here is what I am using
ls -d1 /Directory/Path/*;
To answer the original question, */ has nothing to do with ls per se; it is done by the shell/Bash, in a process known as globbing.
This is why echo */ and ls -d */ output the same elements. (The -d flag makes ls output the directory names and not contents of the directories.)
The tree command is also pretty useful here. By default it will show all files and directories to a complete depth, with some ASCII characters showing the directory tree.
$ tree
.
+-- config.dat
+-- data
¦ +-- data1.bin
¦ +-- data2.inf
¦ +-- sql
| ¦ +-- data3.sql
+-- images
¦ +-- background.jpg
¦ +-- icon.gif
¦ +-- logo.jpg
+-- program.exe
+-- readme.txt
But if we wanted to get just the directories, without the ASCII tree, and with the full path from the current directory, you could do:
$ tree -dfi
.
./data
./data/sql
./images
The arguments being:
-d List directories only.
-f Prints the full path prefix for each file.
-i Makes tree not print the indentation lines, useful when used in conjunction with the -f option.
And if you then want the absolute path, you could start by specifying the full path to the current directory:
$ tree -dfi "$(pwd)"
/home/alice/Documents
/home/alice/Documents/data
/home/alice/Documents/data/sql
/home/alice/Documents/images
And to limit the number of subdirectories, you can set the max level of subdirectories with -L level, e.g.:
$ tree -dfi -L 1 "$(pwd)"
/home/alice/Documents
/home/alice/Documents/data
/home/alice/Documents/images
More arguments can be seen with man tree.
ls solution, including symlinks to directoriesMany answers here don't actually use ls (or only use it in the trivial sense of ls -d, while using wildcards for the actual subdirectory matching. A true ls solution is useful, since it allows the use of ls options for sorting order, etc.
One solution using ls has been given, but it does something different from the other solutions in that it excludes symlinks to directories:
ls -l | grep '^d'
(possibly piping through sed or awk to isolate the file names)
In the (probably more common) case that symlinks to directories should be included, we can use the -p option of ls, which makes it append a slash character to names of directories (including symlinked ones):
ls -1p | grep '/$'
or, getting rid of the trailing slashes:
ls -1p | grep '/$' | sed 's/\/$//'
We can add options to ls as needed (if a long listing is used, the -1 is no longer required).
Note: if we want trailing slashes, but don't want them highlighted by grep, we can hackishly remove the highlighting by making the actual matched portion of the line empty:
ls -1p | grep -P '(?=/$)'
Source: Stackoverflow.com