Question

61

How do I select a field/column from the output of `ls -l`?

rated 0 times [ 61] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 89309 / 3 Years ago, sat, may 8, 2021, 2:05:04

My goal is deceptively simple (at least to me). I wish to take the output of ls -l or ls -lh and select just one field.

I am looking for this to be as bulletproof as possible, by which I mean, assume that filenames can have a variable number of spaces, not everything in the field has the same length, etc.

Bonus points for having a script that will take the name of the the field (or even just a field number), and then return the contents of the field.

I want to turn

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into:

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2 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago terneive · Accepted Answer

Try ls -l | awk '{print $7}'.

awk selects columns so it's perfect for this task.