LS

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: March 2021
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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/: 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 '\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). 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.

LS