1LS(1) User Commands LS(1)
2
6 ls - list directory contents
7
9 ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
10
12 List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
13 Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is speci‐
14 fied.
15 Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options
17 too.
18 -a, --all
20 do not ignore entries starting with .
21 -A, --almost-all
23 do not list implied . and ..
24 --author
26 with -l, print the author of each file
27 -b, --escape
29 print C-style escapes for nongraphic characters
30 --block-size=SIZE
32 scale sizes by SIZE before printing them; e.g., '--block-size=M'
33 prints sizes in units of 1,048,576 bytes; see SIZE format below
34 -B, --ignore-backups
36 do not list implied entries ending with ~
37 -c with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last modification of
39 file status information); with -l: show ctime and sort by name;
40 otherwise: sort by ctime, newest first
41 -C list entries by columns
43 --color[=WHEN]
45 colorize the output; WHEN can be 'never', 'auto', or 'always'
46 (the default); more info below
47 -d, --directory
49 list directories themselves, not their contents
50 -D, --dired
52 generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
53 -f do not sort, enable -aU, disable -ls --color
55 -F, --classify
57 append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries
58 --file-type
60 likewise, except do not append '*'
61 --format=WORD
63 across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l, single-column -1,
64 verbose -l, vertical -C
65 --full-time
67 like -l --time-style=full-iso
68 -g like -l, but do not list owner
70 --group-directories-first
72 group directories before files;
73 can be augmented with a --sort option, but any use of
75 --sort=none (-U) disables grouping
76 -G, --no-group
78 in a long listing, don't print group names
79 -h, --human-readable
81 with -l, print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
82 --si likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
84 -H, --dereference-command-line
86 follow symbolic links listed on the command line
87 --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir
89 follow each command line symbolic link
90 that points to a directory
92 --hide=PATTERN
94 do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden
95 by -a or -A)
96 --indicator-style=WORD
98 append indicator with style WORD to entry names: none (default),
99 slash (-p), file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)
100 -i, --inode
102 print the index number of each file
103 -I, --ignore=PATTERN
105 do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
106 -k, --kibibytes
108 default to 1024-byte blocks for disk usage
109 -l use a long listing format
111 -L, --dereference
113 when showing file information for a symbolic link, show informa‐
114 tion for the file the link references rather than for the link
115 itself
116 -m fill width with a comma separated list of entries
118 -n, --numeric-uid-gid
120 like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs
121 -N, --literal
123 print raw entry names (don't treat e.g. control characters spe‐
124 cially)
125 -o like -l, but do not list group information
127 -p, --indicator-style=slash
129 append / indicator to directories
130 -q, --hide-control-chars
132 print ? instead of nongraphic characters
133 --show-control-chars
135 show nongraphic characters as-is (the default, unless program is
136 'ls' and output is a terminal)
137 -Q, --quote-name
139 enclose entry names in double quotes
140 --quoting-style=WORD
142 use quoting style WORD for entry names: literal, locale, shell,
143 shell-always, c, escape
144 -r, --reverse
146 reverse order while sorting
147 -R, --recursive
149 list subdirectories recursively
150 -s, --size
152 print the allocated size of each file, in blocks
153 -S sort by file size
155 --sort=WORD
157 sort by WORD instead of name: none (-U), size (-S), time (-t),
158 version (-v), extension (-X)
159 --time=WORD
161 with -l, show time as WORD instead of default modification time:
162 atime or access or use (-u) ctime or status (-c); also use spec‐
163 ified time as sort key if --sort=time
164 --time-style=STYLE
166 with -l, show times using style STYLE: full-iso, long-iso, iso,
167 locale, or +FORMAT; FORMAT is interpreted like in 'date'; if
168 FORMAT is FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, then FORMAT1 applies to
169 non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files; if STYLE is pre‐
170 fixed with 'posix-', STYLE takes effect only outside the POSIX
171 locale
172 -t sort by modification time, newest first
174 -T, --tabsize=COLS
176 assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
177 -u with -lt: sort by, and show, access time; with -l: show access
179 time and sort by name; otherwise: sort by access time
180 -U do not sort; list entries in directory order
182 -v natural sort of (version) numbers within text
184 -w, --width=COLS
186 assume screen width instead of current value
187 -x list entries by lines instead of by columns
189 -X sort alphabetically by entry extension
191 -1 list one file per line
193 SELinux options:
195 --lcontext
197 Display security context. Enable -l. Lines will probably be
198 too wide for most displays.
199 -Z, --context
201 Display security context so it fits on most displays. Displays
202 only mode, user, group, security context and file name.
203 --scontext
205 Display only security context and file name.
206 --help display this help and exit
208 --version
210 output version information and exit
211 SIZE is an integer and optional unit (example: 10M is 10*1024*1024).
213 Units are K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y (powers of 1024) or KB, MB, ... (pow‐
214 ers of 1000).
215 Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and
217 with --color=never. With --color=auto, ls emits color codes only when
218 standard output is connected to a terminal. The LS_COLORS environment
219 variable can change the settings. Use the dircolors command to set it.
220 Exit status:
222 0 if OK,
223 1 if minor problems (e.g., cannot access subdirectory),
225 2 if serious trouble (e.g., cannot access command-line argument).
227 GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
229 Report ls translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>
230
232 Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.
233
235 Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
236 GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
237 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
238 There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
239
241 The full documentation for ls is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If
242 the info and ls programs are properly installed at your site, the com‐
243 mand
244 info coreutils 'ls invocation'
246 should give you access to the complete manual.
248GNU coreutils 8.22 October 2018 LS(1)