Red Hat NETSCAPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6.0 - CUSTOMIZATION User Manual download pdf (Page 239)

16.3 Looking Around With ls 227

Quite a difference. When you added the -a option, you were specifying that you wanted to list all

the ﬁles in the directory (see Figure 16.6).

In fact, there are a multitude of options available with the ls command.

Tip: If you want to see all the options of the ls command, you can read the man page

by typing man ls at a shell prompt. If you want to print the man page, type man ls |

col -b | lpr at the prompt.

Why so many options? Because they can help you sort information according to your needs. For

example, you can specify how ﬁles are displayed, see their permissions and much more.

Figure 16.6: The ls command with the -a option

When you typed ls -a, you probably noticed the ﬁles that begin with dots. These are called hidden

ﬁles or, appropriately enough, dot ﬁles.

Hidden ﬁles are mostly conﬁguration ﬁles which set preferences in programs, window managers,

shells and more. The reason they’re “hidden” is to help prevent any accidental tampering by the

user.

Whenever a ﬁlename starts with a dot (.), it’s a hidden ﬁle, and ls won’t list it.

Viewing all the ﬁles can give you plenty of detail, but there’s more you can uncover, simply by adding

more than one option.

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Red Hat NETSCAPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6.0 - CUSTOMIZATION User Manual Page 239