What is the difference between ls and l?

Question

I accidentally typed l instead of ls today and found that the command still printed a list of the files in my current directory. Trying l --help brings up the help file for ls suggesting that l is just an alias of ls.

Howver, each file was suffixed by a *. Why is this and what does it mean?

In case it makes a difference, this is when running the latest stable version of Ubuntu.

I came here after seeing the tweet, Unix commands turned into companies , https://twitter.com/valaafshar/status/540694808382431232 and 'l' doesn't work on my mac! lol — AnneTheAgile, Jan 10 '15 at 23:55
@don_crissti the other one is broader, since it names about one more alias, and asks about more. — muru, Feb 17 '16 at 18:14
@muru The other answer does not explain what the `*` in front of each file is. — , Feb 17 '16 at 18:46
@BinaryZebra Considering the accepted answer here doesn't explain it either, I'm inclined to think it's a minor point. :shrug: — muru, Feb 17 '16 at 18:48
Use `type l` to find what is `l` (if anything), the try `alias l` to see what is the alias of `l`. — , Feb 17 '16 at 18:49
`l` was created so that you get (almost) the same output as `ls` when you are typing so fast and miss the last `s` :P — Vthechamp, Jan 07 '21 at 14:08

score 110 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 02 '16 at 17:48

110

SHORT ANSWER: understand what exactly this alias does, you can check out the ~/.bashrc file and search for the term "alias l=". It is nothing but ls -CF

LONG ANSWER A good way to inspect what a command is:

type l

If it's a program or a script, it will give you its location, if it is an alias, it will tell you what it's aliased to, if it's a function, it will print the funciton; otherwise, it will tell you if it is a built-in or a keyword.

Examples:

$ type l
l is aliased to `ls -CF'
$ type find
find is /usr/bin/find
$ type connecthome
connecthome is hashed (/usr/local/bin/connecthome)
$ type grep
grep is aliased to `grep --color=auto --binary-files=without-match --devices=skip'
$ type hello_se
hello_se is a function
hello_se () 
{ 
  echo 'Hello, Stack Exchangers!'
}
$ type type
type is a shell builtin
$ type for
for is a shell keyword
$ type nosuchthing
-bash: type: nosuchthing: not found

edited Oct 02 '16 at 17:48

Community

1

answered Nov 26 '10 at 02:21

Shawn J. Goff

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Now *that's* a cool trick. I'll have to remember that one. – Jonathan M Davis Nov 26 '10 at 06:15
4

This command (A bash builtin) is very useful. I'm amazed that I've never seen it mentioned everywhere. – Stefan Lasiewski Nov 28 '10 at 04:37
Excellent examples, I think you covered it thoroughly. Since I've seen people use `type` to check if a command is installed, I'll just mention here that it's possible for the hashed commands to be out of date, in which case `type ` will return success for some time after `` has actually been deleted. – Wildcard Jan 06 '16 at 05:40

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 26 '10 at 02:11

9

$ l --help
l: command not found

Looks like you have an alias set up in your environment. Perhaps you have inherited a .profile, .bashrc or similar containing something like alias l='ls -F'.

-F, --classify
              append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries

Try which l and alias to track down its definition.

answered Nov 26 '10 at 02:11

johnsyweb

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specifically the `*` after a file name means that the file is executable – phunehehe Nov 26 '10 at 02:27

Rohan Monga · Answer 3 · 2010-11-29T05:31:56.717

4

FIXED: l is an alias for ls -CF ( I am not really sure ) in the default .bashrc in ubuntu

You can just type alias to check out all the aliases. It would be mentioned there.

edited Nov 29 '10 at 05:31

answered Nov 26 '10 at 09:41

Rohan Monga

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`ls -d` that seems like the most useless alias ever. all that prints is `.` – xenoterracide Nov 28 '10 at 00:48
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-1: in Ubuntu 10.10 it's disabled (commented) by default, and it aliases to `ls -CF`. – badp Nov 28 '10 at 15:10
but it was there in previous versions. and yes, it was ls -CF, i just didn't have access to an older ubuntu machine to test it out. – Rohan Monga Nov 29 '10 at 05:31

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 27 '10 at 10:00

2

By default, it is an alias for ls -CF in ubuntu.

answered Nov 27 '10 at 10:00

oadams

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 03:51

I redefined all my ls shortcuts in my .zshrc.

This is the relevant section:

# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
    if [ -n ~/.dir_colors ]; then
        eval "`dircolors -b ~/.dir_colors`"
    else
        eval "`dircolors -b /etc/DIR_COLORS`"
    fi
    alias ls='ls --color=auto'
    #alias dir='ls --color=auto --format=vertical'
    #alias vdir='ls --color=auto --format=long'
fi

# some more ls aliases
alias l='ls -CF'
alias ll='ls -ClhF'
alias la='ls -CaF'
alias lla='ls -CalhF'
alias l.='ls -CAF --ignore=\*'
alias ll.='ls -CAlhF --ignore=\*'
alias t='tree -C'

Note that ls is redefined itself:

% type ls
ls is an alias for ls --color=auto

You may like exa https://the.exa.website/ alias l='exa --long' — johndpope, Aug 30 '18 at 15:51

What is the difference between ls and l?

5 Answers5