LS
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: September 2019
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NAME
ls - list directory contents
SYNOPSIS
ls
[,OPTION/]... [,FILE/]...
DESCRIPTION
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
- -a, --all
-
do not ignore entries starting with .
- -A, --almost-all
-
do not list implied . and ..
- --author
-
with -l, print the author of each file
- -b, --escape
-
print C-style escapes for nongraphic characters
- --block-size=,SIZE/
-
with -l, scale sizes by SIZE when printing them;
e.g., '--block-size=M'; see SIZE format below
- -B, --ignore-backups
-
do not list implied entries ending with ~
- -c
-
with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last
modification of file status information);
with -l: show ctime and sort by name;
otherwise: sort by ctime, newest first
- -C
-
list entries by columns
- --color[=,WHEN/]
-
colorize the output; WHEN can be 'always' (default
if omitted), 'auto', or 'never'; more info below
- -d, --directory
-
list directories themselves, not their contents
- -D, --dired
-
generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
- -f
-
do not sort, enable -aU, disable -ls --color
- -F, --classify
-
append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries
- --file-type
-
likewise, except do not append '*'
- --format=,WORD/
-
across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l,
single-column -1, verbose -l, vertical -C
- --full-time
-
like -l --time-style=,full-iso/
- -g
-
like -l, but do not list owner
- --group-directories-first
-
group directories before files;
-
can be augmented with a --sort option, but any
use of --sort=,none/ (-U) disables grouping
- -G, --no-group
-
in a long listing, don't print group names
- -h, --human-readable
-
with -l and -s, print sizes like 1K 234M 2G etc.
- --si
-
likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
- -H, --dereference-command-line
-
follow symbolic links listed on the command line
- --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir
-
follow each command line symbolic link
-
that points to a directory
- --hide=,PATTERN/
-
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
(overridden by -a or -A)
- --hyperlink[=,WHEN/]
-
hyperlink file names; WHEN can be 'always'
(default if omitted), 'auto', or 'never'
- --indicator-style=,WORD/
-
append indicator with style WORD to entry names:
none (default), slash (-p),
file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)
- -i, --inode
-
print the index number of each file
- -I, --ignore=,PATTERN/
-
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
- -k, --kibibytes
-
default to 1024-byte blocks for disk usage;
used only with -s and per directory totals
- -l
-
use a long listing format
- -L, --dereference
-
when showing file information for a symbolic
link, show information for the file the link
references rather than for the link itself
- -m
-
fill width with a comma separated list of entries
- -n, --numeric-uid-gid
-
like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs
- -N, --literal
-
print entry names without quoting
- -o
-
like -l, but do not list group information
- -p, --indicator-style=,slash/
-
append / indicator to directories
- -q, --hide-control-chars
-
print ? instead of nongraphic characters
- --show-control-chars
-
show nongraphic characters as-is (the default,
unless program is 'ls' and output is a terminal)
- -Q, --quote-name
-
enclose entry names in double quotes
- --quoting-style=,WORD/
-
use quoting style WORD for entry names:
literal, locale, shell, shell-always,
shell-escape, shell-escape-always, c, escape
(overrides QUOTING_STYLE environment variable)
- -r, --reverse
-
reverse order while sorting
- -R, --recursive
-
list subdirectories recursively
- -s, --size
-
print the allocated size of each file, in blocks
- -S
-
sort by file size, largest first
- --sort=,WORD/
-
sort by WORD instead of name: none (-U), size (-S),
time (-t), version (-v), extension (-X)
- --time=,WORD/
-
with -l, show time as WORD instead of default
modification time: atime or access or use (-u);
ctime or status (-c); also use specified time
as sort key if --sort=,time/ (newest first)
- --time-style=,TIME_STYLE/
-
time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below
- -t
-
sort by modification time, newest first
- -T, --tabsize=,COLS/
-
assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
- -u
-
with -lt: sort by, and show, access time;
with -l: show access time and sort by name;
otherwise: sort by access time, newest first
- -U
-
do not sort; list entries in directory order
- -v
-
natural sort of (version) numbers within text
- -w, --width=,COLS/
-
set output width to COLS. 0 means no limit
- -x
-
list entries by lines instead of by columns
- -X
-
sort alphabetically by entry extension
- -Z, --context
-
print any security context of each file
- -1
-
list one file per line. Avoid '\n' with -q or -b
- --help
-
display this help and exit
- --version
-
output version information and exit
The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024).
Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000).
The TIME_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, or +FORMAT.
FORMAT is interpreted like in date(1). If FORMAT is FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2,
then FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files.
TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect only outside the POSIX locale.
Also the TIME_STYLE environment variable sets the default style to use.
Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and
with --color=,never/. With --color=,auto/, ls emits color codes only when
standard output is connected to a terminal. The LS_COLORS environment
variable can change the settings. Use the dircolors command to set it.
Exit status:
- 0
-
if OK,
- 1
-
if minor problems (e.g., cannot access subdirectory),
- 2
-
if serious trouble (e.g., cannot access command-line argument).
AUTHOR
Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report ls translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
Full documentation at: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) ls invocation'
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- Exit status:
-
- AUTHOR
-
- REPORTING BUGS
-
- COPYRIGHT
-
- SEE ALSO
-
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Time: 08:55:13 GMT, December 16, 2021