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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 sta- tus 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 (over- rides QUOTING_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; modi- fied time (default): mtime, modification; birth time: birth, cre- ation; 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<newline>FOR- MAT2, then FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files. TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect only outside the POSIX lo- cale. 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 standard 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: bug-coreutils@gnu.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/> COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 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. SEE ALSO dircolors(1) Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) ls invocation' GNU coreutils 9.9 November 2025 LS(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | AUTHOR | REPORTING BUGS | COPYRIGHT | SEE ALSO
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