How to tell "ls" not to enter subdirectories

Virchanza · 10-15-2009, 08:35 AM

Under Microsoft Windows, if I want to see all of the txt files in a folder, I just do:

dir *.txt

However, under Linux, if I do:

ls *.txt

Then it searches in subdirectories as well and I don't want it to do that.

Anybody know the solution?

amani · 10-15-2009, 09:04 AM

Your shell has been modified with alias

Change it

#man ls

catkin · 10-15-2009, 10:44 AM

As amani suggested that is very strange behaviour unless you have directories named <something>.txt.

You can check for aliases (ls is often aliased) using the alias command or you can ensure you do not use an alias by using /bin/ls or \ls. The first fully specifies which ls executable to use and the second says "ignore any aliases".

The option to tell ls to list any directories in the list of names you give it (as opposed to the contents of such directories) is -d. Thus ls -d *.txt may do what you want.

Virchanza · 10-15-2009, 12:23 PM

I ran "alias" and it gave me:

Code:

alias ls='ls --color=auto --human-readable'

Anyway I think I worded my question wrong. The problem I had was that instead of just showing me directory names, it would print the entire contents of the directories.

Your solution of using "-d" works fine, thanks!

catkin · 10-15-2009, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virchanza

Your solution of using "-d" works fine, thanks!

Glad you found out how to do what you wanted

Please mark the thread SOLVED via "Thread Tools"->"Mark this thread as solved".

That alias you showed is pretty innocuous