Listing and paths

The commands that show you what a directory contains and that inspect, resolve, and manipulate path names — ls, stat, pwd, readlink, realpath, and the rest.

List the contents of a directory. Covers the default listing, the Peios long format and its security-descriptor columns, and every option for choosing, sorting, and formatting what is shown.

Two commands that list directory contents with a fixed output style — dir always lists in columns, vdir always lists in long format.

Display the detailed status of a file or a file system — type, size, timestamps, and raw inode metadata — with an optional custom output format.

Print the absolute path of the directory you are currently working in.

Print the target of a symbolic link, or canonicalise a path by resolving every link in it.

Resolve a path to its canonical, absolute form — every symbolic link followed and every . and .. component removed.

Strip the directory part off a path, leaving just the final name — and optionally remove a trailing suffix.

Strip the final component off a path, leaving the directory part.

Check whether path names are valid and usable before you try to create the files they name.

Produce the shell commands that set LS_COLORS — the variable that controls how ls colours its output.