Manual: ls
LS(1) General Commands Manual LS(1)
NAME
ls - List directory contents. Ignore files and directories starting with a '.' by default
SYNOPSIS
ls [--help] [--format] [-C ] [-l|--long] [-x ] [-T|--tabsize] [-m ] [--zero] [-D|--dired] [--hyper‐
link] [-1 ] [-o ] [-g ] [-n|--numeric-uid-gid] [--quoting-style] [-N|--literal] [-b|--escape]
[-Q|--quote-name] [-q|--hide-control-chars] [--show-control-chars] [--time] [-c ] [-u ] [--hide]
[-I|--ignore] [-B|--ignore-backups] [--sort] [-S ] [-t ] [-v ] [-X ] [-U ] [-L|--dereference]
[--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir] [-H|--dereference-command-line] [-G|--no-group] [--au‐
thor] [-a|--all] [-A|--almost-all] [-f ] [-d|--directory] [-h|--human-readable] [-k|--kibibytes]
[--si] [--block-size] [-i|--inode] [-r|--reverse] [-R|--recursive] [-w|--width] [-s|--size] [--color]
[--indicator-style] [-F|--classify] [--file-type] [-p ] [--time-style] [--full-time] [-Z|--context]
[--group-directories-first] [-V|--version] [paths]
DESCRIPTION
List directory contents. Ignore files and directories starting with a '.' by default
OPTIONS
--help Print help information.
--format
Set the display format.
-C Display the files in columns.
-l, --long
Display detailed information.
-x List entries in rows instead of in columns.
-T, --tabsize
Assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
-m List entries separated by commas.
--zero List entries separated by ASCII NUL characters.
-D, --dired
generate output designed for Emacs' dired (Directory Editor) mode
--hyperlink[=] [default: never]
hyperlink file names WHEN
Possible values:
• always
• auto
• never
-1 List one file per line.
-o Long format without group information. Identical to --format=long with --no-group.
-g Long format without owner information.
-n, --numeric-uid-gid
-l with numeric UIDs and GIDs.
--quoting-style
Set quoting style.
Possible values:
• literal
• locale
• shell
• shell-escape
• shell-always
• shell-escape-always
• clocale
• c
• escape
-N, --literal
Use literal quoting style. Equivalent to `--quoting-style=literal`
-b, --escape
Use escape quoting style. Equivalent to `--quoting-style=escape`
-Q, --quote-name
Use C quoting style. Equivalent to `--quoting-style=c`
-q, --hide-control-chars
Replace control characters with '?' if they are not escaped.
--show-control-chars
Show control characters 'as is' if they are not escaped.
--time=
Show time in ``: access time (-u): atime, access, use; change time (-t): ctime, status.
modification time: mtime, modification. birth time: birth, creation;
-c 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.
-u If the long listing format (e.g., -l, -o) is being used, print the status access time instead
of the modification time. When explicitly sorting by time (--sort=time or -t) or when not us‐
ing a long listing format, sort according to the access time.
--hide
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden by -a or -A)
-I, --ignore
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
-B, --ignore-backups
Ignore entries which end with ~.
--sort=
Sort by ``: name, none (-U), time (-t), size (-S), extension (-X) or width
Possible values:
• name
• none
• time
• size
• version
• extension
• width
-S Sort by file size, largest first.
-t Sort by modification time (the 'mtime' in the inode), newest first.
-v Natural sort of (version) numbers in the filenames.
-X Sort alphabetically by entry extension.
-U Do not sort; list the files in whatever order they are stored in the directory. This is espe‐
cially useful when listing very large directories, since not doing any sorting can be notice‐
ably faster.
-L, --dereference
When showing file information for a symbolic link, show information for the file the link ref‐
erences rather than the link itself.
--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir
Do not follow symlinks except when they link to directories and are given as command line ar‐
guments.
-H, --dereference-command-line
Do not follow symlinks except when given as command line arguments.
-G, --no-group
Do not show group in long format.
--author
Show author in long format. On the supported platforms, the author always matches the file
owner.
-a, --all
Do not ignore hidden files (files with names that start with '.').
-A, --almost-all
In a directory, do not ignore all file names that start with '.', only ignore '.' and '..'.
-f List all files in directory order, unsorted. Equivalent to -aU. Disables --color unless ex‐
plicitly specified.
-d, --directory
Only list the names of directories, rather than listing directory contents. This will not
follow symbolic links unless one of `--dereference-command-line (-H)`, `--dereference (-L)`,
or `--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir` is specified.
-h, --human-readable
Print human readable file sizes (e.g. 1K 234M 56G).
-k, --kibibytes
default to 1024-byte blocks for file system usage; used only with -s and per directory totals
--si Print human readable file sizes using powers of 1000 instead of 1024.
--block-size=
scale sizes by BLOCK_SIZE when printing them
-i, --inode
print the index number of each file
-r, --reverse
Reverse whatever the sorting method is e.g., list files in reverse alphabetical order,
youngest first, smallest first, or whatever.
-R, --recursive
List the contents of all directories recursively.
-w, --width
Assume that the terminal is COLS columns wide.
-s, --size
print the allocated size of each file, in blocks
--color
Color output based on file type.
Possible values:
• always
• auto
• never
--indicator-style
Append indicator with style WORD to entry names: none (default), slash (-p), file-type
(--file-type), classify (-F)
Possible values:
• none
• slash
• file-type
• classify
-F, --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, '>' for doors, and nothing for regular files. when may
be omitted, or one of:
none - Do not classify. This is the default.
auto - Only classify if standard output is a terminal.
always - Always classify. Specifying --classify and no when is equivalent to --clas‐
sify=always. This will not follow symbolic links listed on the command line unless the
--dereference-command-line (-H), --dereference (-L), or --dereference-command-line-sym‐
link-to-dir options are specified.
Possible values:
• always
• auto
• never
--file-type
Same as --classify, but do not append '*'
-p Append / indicator to directories.
--time-style
time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below
--full-time
like -l --time-style=full-iso
-Z, --context
print any security context of each file
--group-directories-first
group directories before files; can be augmented with a --sort option, but any use of
--sort=none (-U) disables grouping
-V, --version
Print version
[paths]
EXTRA
The TIME_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale or +FORMAT. FORMAT is interpreted like
in date. Also the TIME_STYLE environment variable sets the default style to use.
VERSION
v(uutils coreutils) 0.8.0
2026-04-16 LS(1)