man ls - ls(1) - list directory contents - manpage.io

ls(1) - list directory contents #

GNU coreutils 8.32, February 2022

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
  change the default of using modification times; access time (-u): atime, access, use; change time (-c): ctime, status; birth time: birth, creation;
• with -l, WORD determines which time to show; with –sort=time, sort by WORD (newest first)
• –time-style=TIME_STYLE
  time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below
• -t
  sort by time, newest first; see –time
• -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 ‘\en’ 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). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.

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 any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

Copyright #

Copyright © 2020 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 <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls>
or available locally via: info ‘(coreutils) ls invocation’