ls(1) ls(1)
NAME ls, l, ll, lsf, lsr, lsx - list contents of directories
SYNOPSIS ls [-abcdefgilmnopqrstuxACFLR1] [names]
l [ls_options] [names] ll [ls_options] [names] lsf [ls_options] [names] lsr [ls_options] [names] lsx [ls_options] [names]
DESCRIPTION For each directory argument, the ls command lists the contents of the directory. For each file argument, ls repeats its name and any other information requested. The output is sorted in ascending collation order by default (see Environment Variables below). When no argument is given, the current directory is listed. When several arguments are given, the arguments are first sorted appropriately, but file arguments appear before directories and their contents.
If you are a user with appropriate privileges, all files except . and .. are listed by default.
There are three major listing formats. The format chosen depends on whether the output is going to a login device (determined by whether output device file is a tty device), and can also be controlled by option flags. The default format for a login device is to list the contents of directories in multicolumn format, with entries sorted vertically by column. (When individual file names (as opposed to directory names) appear in the argument list, those file names are always sorted across the page rather than down the page in columns because individual file names can be arbitrarily long.) If the standard output is not a login device, the default format is to list one entry per line. The -C and -x options enable multicolumn formats, and the -m option enables stream output format in which files are listed across the page, separated by commas. In order to determine output formats for the -C, -x, and -m options, ls uses an environment variable, COLUMNS, to determine the number of character positions available on each output line. If this variable is not set, the terminfo database is used to determine the number of columns, based on the environment variable TERM. If this information cannot be obtained, 80 columns is assumed.
Options ls recognizes the following options:
-a List all entries; usually entries whose names begin with a period (.) are not listed.
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-b Force printing of nongraphic characters to be in the octal \ddd notation.
-c Use time of last modification of the inode (file created, mode changed, etc.) for sorting (-t) or printing (-l (ell)).
-d If an argument is a directory, list only its name (not its contents); often used with -l (ell) to get the status of a directory.
-e Print the extent attributes of the file. If any of the files has a extent attribute, this option prints the extent size, space reserved and allocation flags. This option must be used with the -l (ell) option.
-f Force each argument to be interpreted as a directory and list the name found in each slot. This option disables -l (ell), -t, -s, and -r, and enables -a; the order is the order in which entries appear in the directory.
-g Same as -l, (ell) except that only the group is printed (owner is omitted). If both -l (ell) and -g are specified, the owner is not printed.
-i For each file, print the inode number in the first column of the report. When used in multicolumn output, the number precedes the file name in each column.
-l (ell) List in long format, giving mode, number of links, owner, group, size in bytes, and time of last modification for each file (see further DESCRIPTION and Access Control Lists below). If the time of last modification is greater than six months ago, or any time in the future, the year is substituted for the hour and minute of the modification time. If the file is a special file, the size field contains the major and minor device numbers rather than a size.
-m Stream output format.
-n The same as -l, (ell) except that the owner's UID and group's GID numbers are printed, rather than the associated character strings.
-o The same as -l, (ell) except that only the owner is printed (group is omitted). (If both -l (ell) and -o are specified, the group is not printed).
-p Put a slash (/) after each file name if that file is a directory.
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-q Force printing of nongraphic characters in file names as the character (?).
-r Reverse the order of sort to get reverse (descending) collation or oldest first, as appropriate.
-s Give size in blocks, including indirect blocks, for each entry. The first entry printed is the total number of blocks in the directory. When used in multicolumn output, the number of blocks precedes the file name in each column.
-t Sort by time modified (latest first) before sorting alphabetically.
-u Use time of last access instead of last modification for sorting (-t option) or printing (-l (ell) option).
-x Multicolumn output with entries sorted across rather than down the page.
-A The same as -a, except that the current directory "." and parent directory ".." are not listed. For a user with appropriate privileges, this flag defaults to ON, and is turned off by -A.
-C Multicolumn output with entries sorted down the columns.
-F Put a slash (/) after each file name if that file is a directory or a symbolic link to a directory; put an asterisk (*) after each file name if that file is executable; put an at sign (@) after each file name if that file is a symbolic link to a file; put a vertical bar (|) after each file name if that file is a FIFO.
-L If the argument is a symbolic link, list the file or directory to which the link refers rather than the link itself.
-R Recursively list subdirectories encountered.
-1 (one) The file names will be listed in single column format regardless of the output device. This forces single column format to the user's terminal.
Specifying more than one of the options in the following mutually exclusive pairs is not considered an error: -C and -l (ell), -m and -l (ell), -x and -l (ell), -C and -1 (one), -c and -u.
ls is normally known by several shorthand-version names for the various formats:
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l equivalent to ls -m. ll equivalent to ls -l (ell). lsf equivalent to ls -F. lsr equivalent to ls -R. lsx equivalent to ls -x.
The shorthand notations are implemented as links to ls. Option arguments to the shorthand versions behave exactly as if the long form above had been used with the additional arguments.
Mode Bits Interpretation (-l option) The mode printed in listings produced by the -l (ell) option consists of 10 characters. The first character indicates the entry type:
d Directory b Block special file c Character special file l Symbolic link p Fifo (also called a "named pipe") special file n Network special file s socket - Ordinary file.
The next 9 characters are interpreted as three sets of three bits each which identify access permissions for owner, group, and others as follows:
+------------------ 0400 read by owner (r or -) | +---------------- 0200 write by owner (w or -) | | +-------------- 0100 execute (search directory) by owner | | | (x, s, S, or -) | | | +------------ 0040 read by group (r or -) | | | | +---------- 0020 write by group (w or -) | | | | | +-------- 0010 execute/search by group | | | | | | (x, s, S, or -) | | | | | | +------ 0004 read by others (r or -) | | | | | | | +---- 0002 write by others (w or -) | | | | | | | | +-- 0001 execute/search by others | | | | | | | | | (x, t, T, or -) | | | | | | | | | r w x r w x r w x
Mode letters are interpreted as follows:
- Permission not granted in corresponding position.
r Read permission granted to corresponding user class.
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w Write permission granted to corresponding user class.
x Execute (or search in directory) permission granted to corresponding user class.
s Execute (search) permission granted to corresponding user class. In addition, SUID (Set User ID) permission granted for owner, or SGID (Set Group ID) permission granted for group, as indicated by position.
S Same as s except that execute (search) permission is denied to corresponding user class.
t (last position only) Execute (search) permission granted to others and "sticky bit" is set (see chmod(2) S_ISVTX description).
T Same as t except execute (search directory) permission denied to others.
When an option is specified that results in a listing of directory and/or file sizes in bytes or blocks (such as the -s or -l (ell) option), a total count of blocks, including indirect blocks, is also printed at the beginning of the listing.
Access Control Lists (ACLs) If a file has optional ACL entries, the -l (ell) option displays a plus sign (+) after the file's permissions. The permissions shown are a summary representation of the file's access control list, as returned by stat() in the st_mode field (see stat(2)). To list the contents of an access control list, use the lsacl command (see lsacl(1) and acl(5)).
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES Environment Variables If the COLUMNS variable is set, ls uses the width provided in determining positioning of columnar output.
LANG determines the locale to use for the locale categories when both LC_ALL and the corresponding environment variable (beginning with LC_) do not specify a locale. If LANG is not set or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used.
LC_COLLATE determines the order in which the output is sorted.
LC_CTYPE determines which characters are classified as nongraphic for the -b and -q options, and the interpretation of single- and/or multibyte characters within file names.
LC_TIME determines the date and time strings output by the -g, -l (ell), -n, and -o options.
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LC_MESSAGES determines the language in which messages (other than the date and time strings) are displayed.
If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, ls behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C" (see environ(5)).
International Code Set Support Single- and multibyte character code sets are supported.
RETURN VALUE ls exits with one of the following values:
0 All input files were listed successfully.
>0 ls was aborted because errors occurred when accessing files. The following conditions cause an error:
+ Specified file not found.
+ User has no permission to read the directory.
+ Process could not get enough memory.
+ Invalid option specified.
EXAMPLES Print a long listing of all the files in the current working directory (including the file sizes). List the most recently modified (youngest) file first, followed by the next older file, and so forth, to the oldest. Files whose names begin with a . are also printed.
ls -alst
WARNINGS Setting options based on whether the output is a login (tty) device is undesirable because ls -s is very different from ls -s | lp. On the other hand, not using this setting makes old shell scripts that used ls almost inevitably fail.
Unprintable characters in file names may confuse the columnar output options.
DEPENDENCIES NFS The -l (ell) option does not display a plus sign (+) after the access permission bits of networked files to represent existence of optional access control list entries.
AUTHOR ls was developed by AT&T, the University of California, Berkeley and HP.
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FILES /etc/passwd to get user IDs for ls -l (ell) and ls -o. /etc/group to get group IDs for ls -l (ell) and ls -g. /usr/share/lib/terminfo/?/* to get terminal information.
SEE ALSO chmod(1), find(1), lsacl(1), stat(2), acl(5).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE ls: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2
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