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amitsaha / ls.rst
Last active July 26, 2025 18:47
How does `ls` work?

How does ls work?

I wanted to be really able to explain to a fair amount of detail how does the program :command:`ls` actually work right from the moment you type the command name and hit ENTER. What goes on in user space and and in kernel space? This is my attempt and what I have learned so far on Linux (Fedora 19, 3.x kernel).

How does the shell find the location of 'ls' ?