5. Directory listing

This chapter describes the ls command and its variants dir and vdir, which list information about files.

5.1 ls: List directory contents		List directory contents.
5.2 dir: Briefly list directory contents		Briefly ls.
5.3 vdir: Verbosely list directory contents		Verbosely ls.
5.4 dircolors: Color setup for ls		Color setup for ls, etc.

5.1 ls: List directory contents

The ls program lists information about files (of any type, including directories). Options and file arguments can be intermixed arbitrarily, as usual.

For non-option command-line arguments that are directories, by default ls lists the contents of directories, not recursively, and omitting files with names beginning with `.'. For other non-option arguments, by default ls lists just the file name. If no non-option arguments are specified, ls lists the contents of the current directory.

By default, the output is sorted alphabetically. If standard output is a terminal, the output is in columns (sorted vertically) and control characters are output as question marks; otherwise, the output is listed one per line and control characters are output as-is.

Because ls is such a fundamental program, it has accumulated many options over the years. They are described in the subsections below; within each section, options are listed alphabetically (ignoring case). The division of options into the subsections is not absolute, since some options affect more than one aspect of ls's operation.

The `-g' option is accepted but ignored, for compatibility with Unix. Also see 2. Common options.

5.1.1 Which files are listed
5.1.2 What information is listed
5.1.3 Sorting the output
5.1.4 More details about version sort
5.1.5 General output formatting
5.1.6 Formatting the file names

5.1.1 Which files are listed

These options determine which files ls lists information for. By default, any files and the contents of any directories on the command line are shown.

`-a'

`--all'

List all files in directories, including files that start with `.'.

`-A'

`--almost-all'

List all files in directories except for `.' and `..'.

`-B'

`--ignore-backups'

Do not list files that end with `~', unless they are given on the command line.

`-d'

`--directory'

List just the names of directories, as with other types of files, rather than listing their contents.

`-I PATTERN'

`--ignore=PATTERN'

Do not list files whose names match the shell pattern (not regular expression) pattern unless they are given on the command line. As in the shell, an initial `.' in a file name does not match a wildcard at the start of pattern. Sometimes it is useful to give this option several times. For example,

$ ls --ignore='.??*' --ignore='.[^.]' --ignore='#*'

The first option ignores names of length 3 or more that start with `.', the second ignores all two-character names that start with `.' except `..', and the third ignores names that start with `#'.

`-L'

`--dereference'

In a long listing, show file information (e.g., times and permissions) for the referents of symbolic links rather than for the symbolic links themselves.

`-R'

`--recursive'

List the contents of all directories recursively.

5.1.2 What information is listed

These options affect the information that ls displays. By default, only file names are shown.

`-D'

`--dired'

With the long listing (`-l') format, print an additional line after the main output:

//DIRED// beg1 end1 beg2 end2 ...

The begN and endN are unsigned integers that record the byte position of the beginning and end of each file name in the output. This makes it easy for Emacs to find the names, even when they contain unusual characters such as space or newline, without fancy searching.

If directories are being listed recursively (-R), output a similar line after each subdirectory:

//SUBDIRED// format beg1 end1 ...

Finally, output a line of the form:

//DIRED-OPTIONS// --quoting-style=word

where word is the quoting style (see section 5.1.6 Formatting the file names).

`-G'

`--no-group'

Inhibit display of group information in a long format directory listing. (This is the default in some non-GNU versions of ls, so we provide this option for compatibility.)

`-h'

`--human-readable'

Append a size letter such as `M' for megabytes to each size. Powers of 1024 are used, not 1000; `M' stands for 1,048,576 bytes. Use the `--si' option if you prefer powers of 1000.

`-H'

`--si'

Append a size letter such as `M' for megabytes to each size. (SI is the International System of Units, which defines these letters as prefixes.) Powers of 1000 are used, not 1024; `M' stands for 1,000,000 bytes. Use the `-h' or `--human-readable' option if you prefer powers of 1024.

Warning: the meaning of `-H' will change in the future to conform to POSIX. Use `--si' for the old meaning.

`-i'

`--inode'

Print the inode number (also called the file serial number and index number) of each file to the left of the file name. (This number uniquely identifies each file within a particular filesystem.)

`-l'

`--format=long'

`--format=verbose'

In addition to the name of each file, print the file type, permissions, number of hard links, owner name, group name, size in bytes, and timestamp (by default, the modification time). For files with a time more than six months old or in the future, the timestamp contains the year instead of the time of day. If the timestamp contains today's date with the year rather than a time of day, the file's time is in the future, which means you probably have clock skew problems which may break programs like make that rely on file times.

For each directory that is listed, preface the files with a line `total blocks', where blocks is the total disk allocation for all files in that directory. The block size currently defaults to 1024 bytes, but this can be overridden (see section 2.2 Block size). The blocks computed counts each hard link separately; this is arguably a deficiency.

The permissions listed are similar to symbolic mode specifications (see section 3.2 Symbolic Modes). But ls combines multiple bits into the third character of each set of permissions as follows:

`s'

If the setuid or setgid bit and the corresponding executable bit are both set.

`S'

If the setuid or setgid bit is set but the corresponding executable bit is not set.

`t'

If the sticky bit and the other-executable bit are both set.

`T'

If the sticky bit is set but the other-executable bit is not set.

`x'

If the executable bit is set and none of the above apply.

`-'

Otherwise.

Following the permission bits is a single character that specifies whether an alternate access method applies to the file. When that character is a space, there is no alternate access method. When it is a printing character (e.g., `+'), then there is such a method.

`-o'

Produce long format directory listings, but don't display group information. It is equivalent to using `--format=long' with `--no-group' . This option is provided for compatibility with other versions of ls.

`-s'

`--size'

Print the disk allocation of each file to the left of the file name. This is the amount of disk space used by the file, which is usually a bit more than the file's size, but it can be less if the file has holes.

Normally the disk allocation is printed in units of 1024 bytes, but this can be overridden (see section 2.2 Block size).

For files that are NFS-mounted from an HP-UX system to a BSD system, this option reports sizes that are half the correct values. On HP-UX systems, it reports sizes that are twice the correct values for files that are NFS-mounted from BSD systems. This is due to a flaw in HP-UX; it also affects the HP-UX ls program.

5.1.3 Sorting the output

These options change the order in which ls sorts the information it outputs. By default, sorting is done by character code (e.g., ASCII order).

`-c'

`--time=ctime'

`--time=status'

`--time=use'

If the long listing format (e.g., `-l', `-o') is being used, print the status change time (the `ctime' in the inode) instead of the modification time. When explicitly sorting by time (`--sort=time' or `-t') or when not using a long listing format, sort according to the status change time.

`-f'

Primarily, like `-U'---do not sort; list the files in whatever order they are stored in the directory. But also enable `-a' (list all files) and disable `-l', `--color', and `-s' (if they were specified before the `-f').

`-r'

`--reverse'

Reverse whatever the sorting method is--e.g., list files in reverse alphabetical order, youngest first, smallest first, or whatever.

`-S'

`--sort=size'

Sort by file size, largest first.

`-t'

`--sort=time'

Sort by modification time (the `mtime' in the inode), newest first.

`-u'

`--time=atime'

`--time=access'

If the long listing format (e.g., `--format=long') is being used, print the last access time (the `atime' in the inode). When explicitly sorting by time (`--sort=time' or `-t') or when not using a long listing format, sort according to the access time.

`-U'

`--sort=none'

Do not sort; list the files in whatever order they are stored in the directory. (Do not do any of the other unrelated things that `-f' does.) This is especially useful when listing very large directories, since not doing any sorting can be noticeably faster.

`-v'

`--sort=version'

Sort by version name and number, lowest first. It behaves like a default sort, except that each sequence of decimal digits is treated numerically as an index/version number. (See section 5.1.4 More details about version sort.)

`-X'

`--sort=extension'

Sort directory contents alphabetically by file extension (characters after the last `.'); files with no extension are sorted first.

5.1.4 More details about version sort

The version sort takes into account the fact that file names frequently include indices or version numbers. Standard sorting functions usually do not produce the ordering that people expect because comparisons are made on a character-by-character basis. The version sort addresses this problem, and is especially useful when browsing directories that contain many files with indices/version numbers in their names:

> ls -1 > ls -1v foo.zml-1.gz foo.zml-1.gz foo.zml-100.gz foo.zml-2.gz foo.zml-12.gz foo.zml-6.gz foo.zml-13.gz foo.zml-12.gz foo.zml-2.gz foo.zml-13.gz foo.zml-25.gz foo.zml-25.gz foo.zml-6.gz foo.zml-100.gz

Note also that numeric parts with leading zeroes are considered as fractional one:

> ls -1 > ls -1v abc-1.007.tgz abc-1.007.tgz abc-1.012b.tgz abc-1.01a.tgz abc-1.01a.tgz abc-1.012b.tgz

5.1.5 General output formatting

These options affect the appearance of the overall output.

`-1'

`--format=single-column'

List one file per line. This is the default for ls when standard output is not a terminal.

`-C'

`--format=vertical'

List files in columns, sorted vertically. This is the default for ls if standard output is a terminal. It is always the default for the dir and d programs. GNU ls uses variable width columns to display as many files as possible in the fewest lines.

`--color [=when]'

Specify whether to use color for distinguishing file types. when may be omitted, or one of:

• none - Do not use color at all. This is the default.
• auto - Only use color if standard output is a terminal.
• always - Always use color.

Specifying `--color' and no when is equivalent to `--color=always'. Piping a colorized listing through a pager like more or less usually produces unreadable results. However, using more -f does seem to work.

`-F'

`--classify'

`--indicator-style=classify'

Append a character to each file name indicating the file type. Also, for regular files that are executable, append `*'. The file type indicators are `/' for directories, `@' for symbolic links, `|' for FIFOs, `=' for sockets, and nothing for regular files.

`--full-time'

List times in full, rather than using the standard abbreviation heuristics. The format is currently similar to that of date, but this is planned to change in a future release, partly because modern file time stamps have more precision. It's not possible to change the format, but you can extract out the date string with cut and then pass the result to date -d. See section `date invocation' in Shell utilities.

This is most useful because the time output includes the seconds. (Unix filesystems store file timestamps only to the nearest second, so this option shows all the information there is.) For example, this can help when you have a Makefile that is not regenerating files properly.

`--indicator-style=word'

Append a character indicator with style word to entry names, as follows:

`none'

Do not append any character indicator; this is the default.

`file-type'

Append `/' for directories, `@' for symbolic links, `|' for FIFOs, `=' for sockets, and nothing for regular files. This is the same as the `-p' or `--file-type' option.

`classify'

Append `*' for executable regular files, otherwise behave as for `file-type'. This is the same as the `-F' or `--classify' option.

`-k'

`--kilobytes'

Print file sizes in 1024-byte blocks, overriding the default block size (see section 2.2 Block size).

`-m'

`--format=commas'

List files horizontally, with as many as will fit on each line, separated by `, ' (a comma and a space).

`-n'

`--numeric-uid-gid'

List the numeric UID and GID instead of the names.

`-p'

`--file-type'

`--indicator-style=file-type'

Append a character to each file name indicating the file type. This is like `-F', except that executables are not marked.

`-x format'

`--format=across'

`--format=horizontal'

List the files in columns, sorted horizontally.

`-T cols'

`--tabsize=cols'

Assume that each tabstop is cols columns wide. The default is 8. ls uses tabs where possible in the output, for efficiency. If cols is zero, do not use tabs at all.

`-w'

`--width=cols'

Assume the screen is cols columns wide. The default is taken from the terminal settings if possible; otherwise the environment variable COLUMNS is used if it is set; otherwise the default is 80.

5.1.6 Formatting the file names

These options change how file names themselves are printed.

`-b'

`--escape'

`--quoting-style=escape'

Quote nongraphic characters in file names using alphabetic and octal backslash sequences like those used in C.

`-N'

`--literal'

Do not quote file names.

`-q'

`--hide-control-chars'

Print question marks instead of nongraphic characters in file names. This is the default if the output is a terminal and the program is ls.

`-Q'

`--quote-name'

`--quoting-style=c'

Enclose file names in double quotes and quote nongraphic characters as in C.

`--quoting-style=word'

Use style word to quote output names. The word should be one of the following:

`literal'

Output names as-is.

`shell'

Quote names for the shell if they contain shell metacharacters or would cause ambiguous output.

`shell-always'

Quote names for the shell, even if they would normally not require quoting.

`c'

Quote names as for a C language string; this is the same as the `-Q' or `--quote-name' option.

`escape'

Quote as with `c' except omit the surrounding double-quote characters; this is the same as the `-b' or `--escape' option.

`clocale'

Quote as with `c' except use quotation marks appropriate for the locale.

`locale'

Like `clocale', but quote `like this' instead of "like this" in the default C locale. This looks nicer on many displays.

You can specify the default value of the `--quoting-style' option with the environment variable QUOTING_STYLE. If that environment variable is not set, the default value is `literal', but this default may change to `shell' in a future version of this package.

`--show-control-chars'

Print nongraphic characters as-is in file names. This is the default unless the output is a terminal and the program is ls.

5.2 dir: Briefly list directory contents

dir (also installed as d) is equivalent to ls -C -b; that is, by default files are listed in columns, sorted vertically, and special characters are represented by backslash escape sequences.

See section ls.

5.3 vdir: Verbosely list directory contents

vdir (also installed as v) is equivalent to ls -l -b; that is, by default files are listed in long format and special characters are represented by backslash escape sequences.

5.4 dircolors: Color setup for ls

dircolors outputs a sequence of shell commands to set up the terminal for color output from ls (and dir, etc.). Typical usage:

eval `dircolors [option]... [file]`

If file is specified, dircolors reads it to determine which colors to use for which file types and extensions. Otherwise, a precompiled database is used. For details on the format of these files, run `dircolors --print-database'.

The output is a shell command to set the LS_COLORS environment variable. You can specify the shell syntax to use on the command line, or dircolors will guess it from the value of the SHELL environment variable.

The program accepts the following options. Also see 2. Common options.

`-b'

`--sh'

`--bourne-shell'

Output Bourne shell commands. This is the default if the SHELL environment variable is set and does not end with `csh' or `tcsh'.

`-c'

`--csh'

`--c-shell'

Output C shell commands. This is the default if SHELL ends with csh or tcsh.

`-p'

`--print-database'

Print the (compiled-in) default color configuration database. This output is itself a valid configuration file, and is fairly descriptive of the possibilities.