<h2>ls</h2>

The <code>ls</code><a href="#notes">*</a> command is informational, it doesn't do anything to
a checked-out project, but it tells you something about it.

A project consists of a "source tree" of "artifacts" (see [./concepts.wiki | Fossil concepts].)
From a practical standpoint this is a set of files and directories rooted
at a main project directory.  The files that are under source control aren't
particularly distinguishable from those that aren't.  The <code>ls</code> and
<code>extra</code> commands provide this information.

<code>fossil ls</code> produces a listing of the files which are under source
control <i>and</i> their status within the repository.  The output is a simple
list of STATUS/filepath pairs on separate lines.  The status of a file will
likely be one of ADDED, UNCHANGED, UPDATED, or DELETED. <a href="#notes">*</a>

It's important to realize that this is the status <i>relative to the repository</i>,
it's the status as <b>fossil</b> sees it and has nothing to do with
filesystem status.  If you're new to source-management/version-control
systems, you'll probably get bit by this concept-bug at least once.

To really see the difference, issue an <code>ls</code> before and after doing
a [./cmd_commit.wiki | <code>commit</code>].  Before, the status of files may be any of the three,
but after <code>commit</code>ting changes the status will be UNCHANGED "across
the board."

By way of example, here's what I see if I <code>fossil ls</code> in the
directory where I have checked out my testing repository:
<nowiki><pre>
    $ fossil ls
    ADDED     feegboing
    UNCHANGED fossil_docs.txt
    DELETED   nibcrod
</pre></nowiki>
But if I do a simple ls, what I get is
<nowiki><pre>
    $ ls
    feegboing  fossil_docs.txt  manifest.uuid  noodle.txt
    _FOSSIL_   manifest         nibcrod
</pre></nowiki>

The <code>ls</code> command is almost, but not quite entirely, the exact
opposite of the
[./cmd_extra.wiki | <code>extra</code> command].

<a name="notes">Notes:</a>
  *  If you come from the <b>Windows</b> world, it will help to know that 'ls' is the usual <b>unix</b> command for listing a directory.
  *  There are more states for a file to be in than those listed, including MISSING, EDITED, RENAMED and a couple of others.

See also: [./cmd_add.wiki | fossil add],
[./rm.wiki | fossil rm],
[./cmd_extra.wiki | fossil extra],
[./cmd_commit.wiki | fossil commit],
[./concepts.wiki | Fossil concepts],
[./reference.wiki | Reference]
