2. EL 6 ELS
  3. coreutils
  4. ls(1)

Scroll to navigation

LS(1) User Commands LS(1)

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.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

do not ignore entries starting with .
do not list implied . and ..
with -l, print the author of each file
print octal escapes for nongraphic characters
use SIZE-byte blocks. See SIZE format below
do not list implied entries ending with ~
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
list entries by columns
colorize the output. WHEN defaults to `always' or can be `never' or `auto'. More info below
list directory entries instead of contents, and do not dereference symbolic links
generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
do not sort, enable -aU, disable -ls --color
append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries
likewise, except do not append `*'
across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l, single-column -1, verbose -l, vertical -C
like -l --time-style=full-iso
like -l, but do not list owner
group directories before files.
augment with a --sort option, but any use of --sort=none (-U) disables grouping
in a long listing, don't print group names
with -l, print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
follow symbolic links listed on the command line
follow each command line symbolic link that points to a directory
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden by -a or -A)
append indicator with style WORD to entry names: none (default), slash (-p), file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)
print the index number of each file
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
like --block-size=1K
use a long listing format
when showing file information for a symbolic link, show information for the file the link references rather than for the link itself
fill width with a comma separated list of entries
like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs
print raw entry names (don't treat e.g. control characters specially)
like -l, but do not list group information
append / indicator to directories
print ? instead of non graphic characters
show non graphic characters as-is (default unless program is `ls' and output is a terminal)
enclose entry names in double quotes
use quoting style WORD for entry names: literal, locale, shell, shell-always, c, escape
reverse order while sorting
list subdirectories recursively
print the allocated size of each file, in blocks
sort by file size
sort by WORD instead of name: none -U, extension -X, size -S, time -t, version -v
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
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
sort by modification time
assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
with -lt: sort by, and show, access time with -l: show access time and sort by name otherwise: sort by access time
do not sort; list entries in directory order
natural sort of (version) numbers within text
assume screen width instead of current value
list entries by lines instead of by columns
sort alphabetically by entry extension
-1
list one file per line

SELinux options:

Display security context. Enable -l. Lines will probably be too wide for most displays.
Display security context so it fits on most displays. Displays only mode, user, group, security context and file name.
Display only security context and file name.
display this help and exit
output version information and exit

SIZE may be (or may be an integer optionally followed by) one of following: KB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, and so on for G, T, P, E, Z, Y.

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 © 2010 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.

June 2018 GNU coreutils 8.4