ls (1)

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Exit status:

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: scale sizes by SIZE before printing them. E.g., '--block-size=M' prints sizes in units of 1,048,576 bytes. 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 defaults to 'always' or can be 'never' or 'auto'. More info below
-d, --directory: list directory entries instead of contents, and do not dereference symbolic links
-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.
: augment 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, print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
--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)
--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: use 1024-byte blocks
-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 raw entry names (don't treat e.g. control characters specially)
-o: like -l, but do not list group information
-p, --indicator-style=slash: append / indicator to directories
-q, --hide-control-chars: print ? instead of non graphic characters
--show-control-chars: show non graphic characters as-is (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, c, escape
-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
--sort=WORD: sort by WORD instead of name: none -U, extension -X, size -S, time -t, version -v
--time=WORD: with -l, show time as WORD instead of modification time: atime -u, access -u, use -u, ctime -c, or status -c; use specified time as sort key if --sort=time
--time-style=STYLE: with -l, show times using style STYLE: full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, +FORMAT. FORMAT is interpreted like 'date'; if FORMAT is FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files; if STYLE is prefixed with 'posix-', STYLE takes effect only outside the POSIX locale
-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
-U: do not sort; list entries in directory order
-v: natural sort of (version) numbers within text
-w, --width=COLS: assume screen width instead of current value
-x: list entries by lines instead of by columns
-X: sort alphabetically by entry extension
-Z, --context: print any SELinux security context of each file
-1: list one file per line
--help: display this help and exit
--version: output version information and exit

SIZE is an integer and optional unit (example: 10M is 10*1024*1024). Units are K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y (powers of 1024) or KB, MB, ... (powers of 1000).

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

Report ls bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report ls translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://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.