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 can be 'never', 'auto', or 'always' (the default); 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, 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

default to 1024-byte blocks for disk usage

-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 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, 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), 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

--time-style=STYLE

with -l, show times using style STYLE: full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, or +FORMAT; FORMAT is interpreted like in 'date'; if FORMAT is FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, then 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

-1

list one file per line

SELinux options:

--lcontext

Display security context. Enable -l. Lines will probably be too wide for most displays.

-Z, --context

Display security context so it fits on most displays. Displays only mode, user, group, security context and file name.

--scontext

Display only security context and file name.

--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.

AUTHOR¶

Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.

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.

SEE ALSO¶

The full documentation for ls is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and ls programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info coreutils 'ls invocation'

should give you access to the complete manual.