Listing files and directories
ls (list)
When you first login, your current working directory is your homedirectory. Your home directory has the same name as your user-name, for example, ee91ab, and it is where your personal files and subdirectories are saved.
To find out what is in your home directory, type ls which is short for list
The ls command lists the contents of your current working directory.
There may be no files visible in your home directory,in which case, the UNIX prompt will be returned. Alternatively, there may already be some files inserted by the System Administrator when youraccount was created. ls does not, in fact, cause all the files inyour home directory to be listed, but only those ones whose name does not begin with a dot (.) Files beginning with a dot (.) are known as hidden file and usually contain important program configuration information.
To list all files in your home directory including those whose names begin with a dot, type:
ls -a
ls is an example of a command which can take options: -a is an example of an option. The options change the behaviour of the command. There are online manual pages that tell you which options a particular command can take, and how each option modifies the behaviour of the command. (See later in this tutorial)
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