For each operand that names a
file
of a type other than directory,
ls
displays its name as well as any requested,
associated information.
For each named 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 options are as follows:
-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 superuser.
-a
Include directory entries whose names begin with a
dot
(‘\&.’).
-C
Force multi-column output; this is the default when output is to a terminal.
-c
Use time file's status was last changed instead of last modification
time for sorting
(-t)
or printing
.Pf ( Fl g , l ,
or
-n).
-d
Directories are listed as plain files (not searched recursively) and
symbolic links in the argument list are not indirected through.
-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,
an equal sign
(‘=’)
after each socket,
and a vertical bar
(‘\&|’)
after each that is a FIFO.
-f
Output is not sorted.
-g
The same as
-l,
except that the owner is not printed.
-h
When used with a long format
option, use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte,
Petabyte, and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to four or fewer
using powers of 2 for sizes (K=1024, M=1048576, etc.).
-i
For each file, print its inode number.
-k
Modifies the
-s
option, causing the sizes to be reported in kilobytes.
Overrides any value specified by the
BLOCKSIZE
environment variable.
-L
If argument is a symbolic link, evaluate the file information and file type
to be those of the file referenced by the link, and not the link itself;
however,
ls
writes the name of the link itself and not the file referenced by the link.
-l
(The lowercase letter
“ell.”)
List in long format (see below).
A total sum of all file
sizes is output on a line before the long listing.
Output is one entry per line.
-m
Stream output format; list files across the page, separated by commas.
-n
List in long format as in
-l,
but retain user and group IDs in a numeric format.
-o
Include the file flags in a long format
.Pf ( Fl g , l ,
or
-n)
output.
-p
Display a slash
(‘/’)
immediately after each pathname that is a directory.
-q
Force printing of non-graphic characters in file names as
the character
‘\&?’;
this is the default when output is to a terminal.
-R
Recursively list subdirectories encountered.
-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,
where partial units are rounded up to the next integer value.
Blocks are 512 bytes unless overridden by the
-k
flag or
BLOCKSIZE
environment variable.
-T
Display complete time information for the file, including
month, day, hour, minute, second, and year.
This option has no effect unless one of the long format
.Pf ( Fl g , l ,
or
-n)
options is also specified.
-t
Sort by time modified (most recently modified
first) before sorting the operands in lexicographical
order.
-u
Use file's last access time
instead of last modification time
for sorting
(-t)
or printing
.Pf ( Fl g , l ,
or
-n).
-x
Multi-column output sorted across the page rather than down the page.
The
-1,
-C,
-g,
-l,
and
-n
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.
The
-c
and
-u
options override each other; the last one specified determines
the file time used.
The
-f
option overrides any occurrence of either.
By default,
ls
lists one entry per line to standard
output; the exceptions are to terminals or when the
-C,
-m,
or
-x
options are specified.
File information is displayed with one or more
‹blank ›
separating the information associated with the
-i,
-s,
-l,
and
-n
options.
The Long Format
If the
-g,
-l,
or
-n
options are given, the following information
is displayed for each file:
mode,
number of links,
owner,
group (though not for
-g),
size in bytes,
time of last modification
(“mmm dd HH:MM”),
and the pathname.
In addition, for each directory whose contents are displayed, the first
line displayed is the total number of blocks used by the files in the
directory.
Blocks are 512 bytes unless overridden by the
-k
option or
BLOCKSIZE
environment variable.
If the owner or group name is not a known user or group name, respectively,
or the
-n
option is given, the numeric ID is 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
-T
option is given, the time of last modification is displayed using the
format
“mmm dd HH:MM:SS CCYY”.
If the file is a symbolic link, the pathname of the
linked-to file is preceded by
“\-\*(Gt”.
The file mode printed under the
-g,
-l,
or
-n
options consists of the entry type, owner permissions, group permissions,
and other permissions.
The entry type character describes the type of file, as follows:
\-
regular file
b
block special file
c
character special file
d
directory
l
symbolic link
p
FIFO
s
socket link
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, nor sticky (see below).
These next two apply only to the third character in the last group
(other permissions):
T
The sticky bit is set
(mode
1000),
but neither executable nor searchable (see
chmod(1)
or
sticky(8/)).
t
The sticky bit is set (mode
1000),
and is searchable or executable
(see
chmod(1)
or
sticky(8/)).
In addition, if the
-o
option is specified, the file flags (see
chflags(1))
are displayed as comma-separated strings in front of the file size,
abbreviated as follows:
\&-
no flags
uappnd
user append-only
uchg
user immutable
nodump
do not dump
opaque
opaque file
sappnd
system append-only
arch
archived
schg
system immutable
The
ls
utility exits 0 on success or \*(Gt0 if an error occurred.
ENVIRONMENT
BLOCKSIZE
If the environment variable
BLOCKSIZE
is set, and the
-k
option is not specified, the block counts
(see
-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 time zone to use when displaying dates.
See
environ(7)
for more information.
EXAMPLES
List the contents of the current working directory in long format:
$ ls -l
In addition to listing the contents of the current working directory in
long format, show inode numbers, file flags (see
chflags(1/)),
and suffix each filename with a symbol representing its file type:
$ ls -lioF
List the files in
/var/log,
sorting the output such that the mostly recently modified entries are
printed first:
$ ls -lt /var/log
The
ls
utility is compliant with the
specification.
The flags
[-AhkRST]
are extensions to that specification.
Historically, the
-g
flag was used to specify that the group field be included in long listings.
The group field is now automatically included in the long listing for
files and the meaning of the
-g
flag has been changed in order to be compatible with the
specification.
Behaviour for the
-o
flag differs between this implementation and