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Python Using Databases in Python Our Diary App Doing Data Entry

Can someone explain 'ls' to me?

At 3:08 in the video a 'ls' is called in the console. 'diary.db diary.py students.db students.py' is returned. Can someone explain why this was called (what does this command check for) and the significance of what was returned? Also where does this command originate from?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points

The ls command shows the names of the files in the directory.

It's a built-in command in the operating system interactive shell.

If you are familiar with DOS or Windows CMD, it's similar to: dir/w.