UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

dear users and experts,

i am stuck withis command and i am unable to understand what is it doing??

Code:

ls -d *

Have your tried the command?:

Code:

man ls

What is the command ls -d *doing that has you confused?

i mean i actually need the difference between ls -d * and ls -d and ls *

and when i use ls -d only then i get .(dot) as my response what does that mean??

Is this a homework assignment?

What did the ls man page say happens if no file operands are given when you invoke the ls utility?

What did the ls man page say the -d option to ls does?

In addition to looking at the output from the commands:

Code:

ld -d *
ls -d
    and
ls *

maybe you should also look at the output from the commands:

Code:

ls
ls "$HOME"
    and
ls -d "$HOME"

(The last two commands above assume that you are using a shell that understand basic Bourne shell syntax. If you're using a C-shell (csh) derivative, you'll need different examples. What shell are you using?)

Thanks for the guidance...by the way its not any assignment i was trying to learn red hat !!!!

means 'list the given directories but not their contents'.
More sense makes

Code:

ls -ld

actually when u run
1) ls -d
it shows '.' because it shows the present dir pointer...
2) ls -d *
it tries to "ls -d" all the contents of the current dir... so it will eventually show the same content as "ls" itself....

for any query try to "ls -d" any FILE... it will show the file.. or for DIRECTORY... it will show the directory