NAME
ls
—
list directory contents
SYNOPSIS
ls |
[-1AaBbCcdFfghikLlMmnOoPpqRrSsTtuWwXx ]
[file ...] |
DESCRIPTION
For each file operand that names a file of a type other than directory,ls
displays its name as well as any
requested, associated information. For each file operand
that names a file of type directory, ls
displays the
names of files contained within that directory, as well as any requested,
associated information.
If no operands are given, the contents of the current directory are displayed. If more than one operand is given, non-directory operands are displayed first; directory and non-directory operands are sorted separately and in lexicographical order.
The following options are available:
-1
- (The numeric digit “one”). Force output to be one entry per line. This is the default when output is not to a terminal.
-A
- List all entries except for ‘
.
’ and ‘..
’. Always set for the super-user. -a
- Include directory entries whose names begin with a dot (‘.’).
-B
- Force printing of non-graphic characters in file names as \xxx, where xxx is the numeric value of the character in octal.
-b
- As
-B
, but use C escape codes whenever possible. -C
- Force multi-column output; this is the default when output is to a terminal.
-c
- Use time when file status was last changed, instead of time of last
modification of the file for printing (
-l
) or sorting (-t
). Overrides-u
. -d
- Directories are listed as plain files (not searched recursively) and
symbolic links in the argument list are not followed. Turns off
-R
if also given. -F
- Display a slash (‘/’) immediately after each pathname that is a directory, an asterisk (‘*’) after each that is executable, an at sign (‘@’) after each symbolic link, a percent sign (‘%’) after each whiteout, an equal sign (‘=’) after each socket, and a vertical bar (‘|’) after each that is a FIFO.
-f
- Output is not sorted. This option implies
-a
. -g
- The same as
-l
, except that the owner is not printed. -h
- Modifies the
-l
and-s
options, causing the sizes to be reported in bytes displayed in a human readable format. Overrides-k
and-M
. -i
- For each file, print the file's file serial number (inode number).
-k
- Modifies the
-s
option, causing the sizes to be reported in kilobytes. Overrides-h
. -L
- For each file, if it's a link, evaluate file information and file type of
the referenced file and not the link itself; however still print the link
name, unless used with
-l
, for example. -l
- (The lowercase letter “ell”). List in long format. (See below.)
-M
- Modifies the
-l
and-s
options, causing the sizes or block counts reported to be separated with commas (or a locale appropriate separator) resulting in a more readable output. Overrides-h
; does not override-k
. -m
- Stream output format; list files across the page, separated by commas.
-n
- The same as
-l
, except that the owner and group IDs are displayed numerically rather than converting to a owner or group name. -O
- Output only leaf files (not directories), eliding other
ls
output. -o
- Include the file flags in a long (
-l
) output. If no file flags are set, “-” is displayed. (See chflags(1) for a list of possible flags and their meanings.) -P
- Print the full pathname for each file.
-p
- Display a slash (‘/’) immediately after each pathname that is a directory.
-q
- Force printing of non-printable characters in file names as the character ‘?’; this is the default when output is to a terminal.
-R
- Recursively list subdirectories encountered. See also
-d
. -r
- Reverse the order of the sort to get reverse lexicographical order or the smallest or oldest entries first.
-S
- Sort by size, largest file first.
-s
- Display the number of file system blocks actually used by each file, in
units of 512 bytes or
BLOCKSIZE
(see ENVIRONMENT) where partial units are rounded up to the next integer value. If the output is to a terminal, a total sum for all the file sizes is output on a line before the listing. -T
- When used with the
-l
(the lowercase letter “ell”) option, display complete time information for the file, including month, day, hour, minute, second, and year. -t
- Sort by time modified (most recently modified first) before sorting the operands by lexicographical order.
-u
- Use time of last access, instead of last modification of the file for
printing (
-l
) or sorting (-t
). Overrides-c
. -W
- Display whiteouts when scanning directories.
-w
- Force raw printing of non-printable characters. This is the default when output is not to a terminal.
-x
- Multi-column output sorted across the page rather than down the page.
-X
- Don't cross mount points when recursing.
The -B
, -b
,
-q
, and -w
options all
override each other; the last one specified determines the format used for
non-printable characters.
The -1
, -C
,
-g
, -l
,
-m
, and -x
options all
override each other; the last one specified determines the format used with
the exception that if both -l
and
-g
are specified, -l
will
always override -g
, even if
-g
was specified last.
By default, ls
lists one entry per line to
standard output; the exceptions are to terminals or when the
-C
or -m
options are
specified.
File information is displayed with one or more
⟨blank⟩ characters separating the information associated with
the -i
, -l
, and
-s
options.
The Long Format
If the -l
option is given, the following
information is displayed for each file:
- file mode
- number of links
- owner name
- group name
- file flags (if
-o
given) - number of bytes in the file
- abbreviated month file was last modified
- day-of-month file was last modified
- hour and minute file was last modified
- pathname
In addition, for each directory whose contents are displayed, the
total number of file system blocks in units of 512 bytes or
BLOCKSIZE
(see
ENVIRONMENT) used by the files in the
directory is displayed on a line by itself immediately before the
information for the files in the directory.
If the owner or group names are not a known owner or group name,
or the -n
option is given, the numeric ID's are
displayed.
If the file is a character special or block special file, the major and minor device numbers for the file are displayed in the size field. If the file is a symbolic link the pathname of the linked-to file is preceded by “->”.
The file mode printed under the -l
option
consists of the entry type, owner permissions, group permissions, and other
permissions. The entry type character describes the type of file, as
follows:
The next three fields are three characters each: owner permissions, group permissions, and other permissions. Each field has three character positions:
- If r, the file is readable; if -, it is not readable.
- If w, the file is writable; if -, it is not writable.
- The first of the following that applies:
- S
- If in the owner permissions, the file is not executable and set-user-ID mode is set. If in the group permissions, the file is not executable and set-group-ID mode is set.
- s
- If in the owner permissions, the file is executable and set-user-ID mode is set. If in the group permissions, the file is executable and setgroup-ID mode is set.
- x
- The file is executable or the directory is searchable.
- -
- The file is neither readable, writable, executable, nor set-user-ID nor set-group-ID mode, nor sticky. (See below.)
These next two apply only to the third character in the last group (other permissions).
The number of bytes displayed for a directory is a function of the number of dirent(3) structures in the directory, not all of which may be allocated to any existing file.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables affect the execution of
ls
:
BLOCKSIZE
- If the environment variable
BLOCKSIZE
is set, and the-k
option is not specified, the block counts (see-l
and-s
) will be displayed in units of that size block. COLUMNS
- If this variable contains a string representing a decimal integer, it is
used as the column position width for displaying multiple-text-column
output. The
ls
utility calculates how many pathname text columns to display based on the width provided. (See-C
.) TZ
- The timezone to use when displaying dates. See environ(7) for more information.
EXIT STATUS
The ls
utility exits 0 on success,
and >0 if an error occurs.
COMPATIBILITY
The group field is now automatically included in the long listing for files in order to be compatible with the IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) specification.
SEE ALSO
chflags(1), chmod(1), stat(2), dirent(3), getbsize(3), sticky(7), symlink(7)
STANDARDS
The ls
utility is expected to be a
superset of the IEEE Std 1003.2
(“POSIX.2”) specification.
HISTORY
An ls
utility appeared in
Version 1 AT&T UNIX.