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 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 change 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]

color the output WHEN; more info below

-d, --directory

list directories themselves, not their contents

-D, --dired

generate output designed for Emacs’ dired mode

-f same as -a -U

-F, --classify[=WHEN]

append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries WHEN

--file-type

likewise, except do not append ’*’

--format=WORD

across,horizontal (-x), commas (-m), 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

-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

--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 file system 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 QUOT‐

ING_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

change default ’name’ sort to WORD: none (-U), size (-S), time (-t), version (-v), extension (-X), name, width

--time=WORD

select which timestamp used to display or sort; access time (-u): atime, access, use; metadata change time (-c): ctime, status; modified

time (default): mtime, modification; 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 directory entries

-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

--zero end each output line with NUL, not newline

-1 list one file per line

--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,R,Q (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<new‐

line>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.

The WHEN argument defaults to ’always’ and can also be ’auto’ or ’never’.

Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and with --color=never. With --color=auto, ls emits color codes only when stan‐

dard output is connected to a terminal. The LS_COLORS environment variable can change the settings. Use the dircolors(1) 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 bugs to: [email protected]

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/

GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>

General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

SEE ALSO

dircolors(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls>

or available locally via: info '(coreutils) ls invocation'

Packaged by Gentoo (9.9-r1 (p0))

Copyright © 2025 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.

GNU coreutils 9.9 November 2025 LS(1)