DIR(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 23 versions
, in arch rolling

DIR(1) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the User Commands manual, section 1, and today we're talking about dir 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

dir — list directory contents 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dir [OPTION]... [FILE]...

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So basically, dir lists info about the *FILE*s you give it — and if you give it nothing, it just does the current directory, no biggie. 📂

And check this: it sorts entries alphabetically unless you specify one of -cftuvSUX or --sort. That's the default vibe. ✨

real talk: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. that's not me being extra, that's just how it is, bestie. 😭

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -a, --all — do not ignore entries starting with . — yes, the hidden ones, we see them, we love them 💜
  • -A, --almost-all — do not list implied . and .. (almost all, but not that almost, iykyk)
  • --author — with -l, print the author of each file 🖋️
  • -b, --escape — print C-style escapes for nongraphic characters
  • --block-size=SIZE — with -l, scale sizes by SIZE when printing them; e.g., '--block-size=M'; see SIZE format below 📏
  • -B, --ignore-backups — do not list implied entries ending with ~ (bye backup files, not today 🙈)
  • -c — with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last change of file status information); with -l: show ctime and sort by name; otherwise: sort by ctime, newest first ⏰
  • -C — list entries by columns
  • --color[=WHEN] — color the output WHEN; more info below 🌈
  • -d, --directory — list directories themselves, not their contents (the folder is the moment, not what's inside 🫶)
  • -D, --dired — generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
  • -f — same as -a -U
  • -F, --classify[=WHEN] — append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries WHEN
  • --file-type — like -F, except do not append *
  • --format=WORD — across, horizontal (-x), commas (-m), long (-l), single-column (-1), verbose (-l), vertical (-C)
  • --full-time — like -l --time-style=full-iso
  • -g — like -l, but do not list owner
  • --group-directories-first — group directories before files 📁✨
  • -G, --no-group — in a long listing, don't print group names
  • -h, --human-readable — with -l and -s, print sizes like 1K 234M 2G etc. 🧠
  • --si — likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
  • -H, --dereference-command-line — follow symbolic links listed on the command line
  • --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir — follow each command line symbolic link that points to a directory
  • --hide=PATTERN — do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden by -a or -A)
  • --hyperlink[=WHEN] — hyperlink file names WHEN 🔗
  • --indicator-style=WORD — append indicator with style WORD to entry names: none (default), slash (-p), file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)
  • -i, --inode — print the index number of each file
  • -I, --ignore=PATTERN — do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
  • -k, --kibibytes — default to 1024-byte blocks for file system usage; used only with -s and per directory totals
  • -l — use a long listing format (the classic, the icon, the main character 👑)
  • -L, --dereference — when showing file information for a symbolic link, show information for the file the link references rather than for the link itself
  • -m — fill width with a comma separated list of entries
  • -n, --numeric-uid-gid — like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs 🔢
  • -N, --literal — print entry names without quoting
  • -o — like -l, but do not list group information
  • -p, --indicator-style=slash — append / indicator to directories
  • -q, --hide-control-chars — print ? instead of nongraphic characters
  • --show-control-chars — show nongraphic characters as-is; the default, unless program is 'ls' and output is a terminal
  • -Q, --quote-name — enclose entry names in double quotes
  • --quoting-style=WORD — use quoting style WORD for entry names: literal, locale, shell, shell-always, shell-escape, shell-escape-always, c, escape (overrides QUOTING_STYLE environment variable)
  • -r, --reverse — reverse order while sorting 🔄
  • -R, --recursive — list subdirectories recursively (down the rabbit hole we go 🐇)
  • -s, --size — print the allocated size of each file, in blocks
  • -S — sort by file size, largest first
  • --sort=WORD — change default 'name' sort to WORD: none (-U), size (-S), time (-t), version (-v), extension (-X), name, width
  • --time=WORD — select which timestamp used to display or sort; access time (-u): atime, access, use; metadata change time (-c): ctime, status; modified time (default): mtime, modification; birth time: birth, creation; with -l, WORD determines which time to show; with --sort=time, sort by WORD (newest first)
  • --time-style=TIME_STYLE — time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below
  • -t — sort by time, newest first; see --time
  • -T, --tabsize=COLS — assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
  • -u — with -lt: sort by, and show, access time; with -l: show access time and sort by name; otherwise: sort by access time, newest first
  • -U — do not sort directory entries (chaos mode, respect 🤪)
  • -v — natural sort of (version) numbers within text
  • -w, --width=COLS — set output width to COLS. 0 means no limit
  • -x — list entries by lines instead of by columns
  • -X — sort alphabetically by entry extension
  • -Z, --context — print any security context of each file 🔐
  • --zero — end each output line with NUL, not newline
  • -1 — list one file per line
  • --help — display this help and exit
  • --version — output version information and exit

🧚 THE SIZE ARGUMENT (yes it gets its own moment) 🧚

The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024). Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y,R,Q (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on. ✨

🎀 THE TIME_STYLE ARGUMENT 🎀

The TIME_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, or +FORMAT. FORMAT is interpreted like in date(1). If FORMAT is FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, then FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files. TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect only outside the POSIX locale. Also the TIME_STYLE environment variable sets the default style to use. 🕰️

🌈 THE WHEN ARGUMENT 🌈

The WHEN argument defaults to 'always' and can also be 'auto' or 'never'.

💜 COLOR, BESTIE 💜

Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and with --color=never. With --color=auto, ls emits color codes only when standard output is connected to a terminal. The LS_COLORS environment variable can change the settings. Use the dircolors(1) command to set it. 🎨

🚦 Exit status: 🚦

  • 0 — if OK ✅
  • 1 — if minor problems (e.g., cannot access subdirectory) 😬
  • 2 — if serious trouble (e.g., cannot access command-line argument) 💀

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie. legends, honestly 🫶

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 😭 (fr fr, no warranty)

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/dir> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) dir invocation'

GNU coreutils 9.12 · September 2026 · that's the whole page bestie, go list some directories, slay 💅✨🦋🎀💖

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