August 18, 2023

Exclude files and directories when listing with ls

To exlude files from the output of ls run:

$ ls | grep -v pattern

The option -v tells grep to exclude the matches (i.e. to show non-matching lines). pattern is the expression you want to exclude. For example:

$ ls | grep -v '^20*'

excludes all contents (e.g. files and directories) which names start with the digits 20.

$ ls | grep -v '^202[0-2].*'

excludes all contents which names start with the digits 2020, 2021 or 2022.

grep is copyleft-licensed and is maintained by Jim Meyering¹. It was first released in 1973.