ls -- list file and directory names and attributes

ls list file and directory names and attributes	Command

SYNOPSIS

ls [-AabCcdFfgikLlmnopqRrstux1] [-X attr] [pathname...]

ls lists files and directories. If the pathname is a file, ls displays information on the file according to the requested options. If the pathname is a directory, ls displays information on the files and subdirectories therein. You may obtain information on a directory itself using the -d option.

If you do not specify any options, ls displays only the file name(s). When ls sends output to a pipe or a file, it writes one name per line; when it sends output to the terminal, it uses the -C (multi-column) format.

Options

-A

lists all entries including those starting with periods (.), but excluding any . or .. entries.

-a

lists all entries including those starting with a period (.).

-b

displays non-printable characters as octal bytes with the form \ooo.

-C

puts output into columns, sorted vertically; this is the default output format to the terminal.

-c

uses the creation time of the file for sorting (-t) or displaying (-l).

-d

does not display the contents of named directories, but show information on the directories themselves.

-F

puts a / after each directory name, a * after every executable file, a | after every FIFO file, a @ after every symbolic link and a = after every socket.

-f

enables the -a option and disables the -C, -g, -l, -n, -o, -r, -s, and -t options. For each argument that is a directory, all directory entries are listed in the same order they are retrieved from the system (POSIX-compliant and UNIX systems only).

-g

displays only the group ID numbers (POSIX-compliant and UNIX systems).

-i

displays inode numbers along with file names (only on systems that support inode numbers, such as POSIX-compliant and UNIX systems).

-k

displays size in kilobytes instead of blocks when specified with the -s option. If the -s option is not specified, this option has no effect.

-L

follows symbolic links (only on systems that support symbolic links) (POSIX-compliant and UNIX systems only).

-l

displays permissions, links, owner, group, size, time, name; see Long Output Format.

-m

displays names in single line, with commas separating names.

-n

displays user ID and group IDs as numbers instead of names.

-o

displays only the user ID of owner (POSIX-compliant and UNIX systems only).

-p

puts / after directory names.

-q

displays non-printable characters as ?.

-R

lists subdirectories recursively.

-r

sorts in reverse of usual order; you can combine this with other options that sort the list.

-s

displays size in blocks (after the inode number, but before other information). If the -k option is also specified, the size is displayed in kilobytes instead.

-t

sorts entries by time. By default, this option sorts the output by the modification times of files. You can change this with the -c and -u options.

-u

uses the last access time for sorting (-t) or displaying (-l).

-x

puts output into columns sorted across the rows.

-1

forces single column output.

Note:: When you specify options that are mutually exclusive (for example, -c and -u), the option that appears last on the command line is used.

Long Output Format

The output from ls -l summarizes all the most important information about the file on one line. If the specified pathname is a directory, ls displays information on every file in that directory (one file per line). It precedes this list with a status line that indicates the total number of file system blocks (512 byte units) occupied by the files in that directory. Here is a sample of the output along with an explanation.

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root   dir 104 Dec 25 19:32 file

The first character identifies the file type:

-    Regular file
b    Block special file
c    Character special file
d    Directory
l    Symbolic link
n    Network file
p    FIFO
s    Socket

The next nine characters are in three groups of three; they describe the permissions on the file. The first group of three describes owner permissions; the second describes group permissions; the third describes other (or world) permissions. Characters that may appear are:

r    Permission to read file
w    Permission to write to file
x    Permission to execute file
a    Archive bit is on (file has not been backed up)
c    Compressed file
s    System file
h    Hidden file
t    Temporary file

You can change some permissions with the chmod command.

After the permissions comes the number of links to the file.

Next comes the name of the owner of the file or directory. If the file has a SID associated with it, but the name of the SID cannot be determined, then the value of the SID is displayed. (This can happen when the current user is not in the domain that was used when the file was created.)

Then comes the name of the group that owns the file or directory.

Following this is the size of the file, expressed in bytes.

After this comes a date and time. For a file, this is the time that the file was last changed; for a directory, it is the time that the directory was created. The -c and -u options can change which time value is used. If the date is more than six months old or if the date is in the future, the year is shown instead of the time.

The last item on the line is the name of the file or directory.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

COLUMNS: contains the terminal width in columns. ls uses this value to determine the number of output columns to write using the -C option.
TZ: contains the time zone to be used when displaying date and time strings.

DIAGNOSTICS

Possible exit status values are:

0

Successful completion.

1

Failure due to any of the following:

— out of memory

— inability to find a file's information

— too many directories

— file/directory not found

2

Failure due to an invalid command line option.

File or directory "name" is not found: The requested file or directory does not exist.
Cannot allocate memory for sorting: To sort its output, ls needs to allocate memory; this message says that there was not enough memory for the sorting operation.
Too many directory entries in "dir": This message only appears when ls runs out of dynamically allocated memory.

PORTABILITY

POSIX.2. x/OPEN Portability Guide 4.0.

The -A, -b, -f, -g, -L, -m, -n, -o, -p, -s, and -x options are extensions to the POSIX and XPG.4 standard.

ls

Command