Question

I often use ls (in long format: ll) to list a single file, just to see the attributes. How do I list a single folder, without expanding the content.

Example

hpek@melda:~/temp/test$ ls
file.txt folder
hpek@melda:~/temp/test$ ls file.txt 
file.txt
hpek@melda:~/temp/test$ ls folder/
content.txt
hpek@melda:~/temp/test$ ls folder
content.txt
hpek@melda:~/temp/test$ 

Edit:

The answer is plainly written in man ls : use the -d option. But why is ls folder not working?

Answer 1

How do I list a single folder, without expanding the content.

Try passing the -d switch.

cnicutar@lemon:~$ ls -ld /etc
drwxr-xr-x 144 root root 12288 May  8 18:50 /etc