LS(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, listen — ls is literally THE command that lists directory contents. that's it. that's the whole job. but she does it iconically. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...

like. you give her some options, you give her some files, she tells you what's in there. simple as. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

she lists info about the *FILE*s (and if you don't hand her any files, she just does the current directory, no big deal). and if you haven't specified any of -cftuvSUX or --sort, she sorts entries alphabetically, because she's polite like that. 👑

also real talk, mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. ik, it's giving rules, but that's the deal.

okay so here is every single flag, and I mean every one, no skips, no shortcuts, we're doing this 💅:

  • -a, --all — do not ignore entries starting with . (yes, including the shy hidden ones 🫣)
  • -A, --almost-all — do not list implied . and ..
  • --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'; peek at the SIZE format below
  • -B, --ignore-backups — do not list implied entries ending with ~
  • -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
  • -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 main character format, ngl)
  • -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 the QUOTING_STYLE environment variable)
  • -r, --reverse — reverse order while sorting
  • -R, --recursive — list subdirectories recursively (she goes deep 🌊)
  • -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
  • -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 ✨

so the SIZE argument is an integer plus an 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). and binary prefixes can be used too, bestie: 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. a 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, and the whole vibe 💅

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. so pretty, so powerful.

🚦 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).
bestie if you get a 2 something is genuinely wrong, go check your paths 😭

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie. legends, fr fr.

📢 REPORTING BUGS 📢

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>

General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

dircolors(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls>

or available locally via: info '(coreutils) ls invocation'

Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2)

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.

and that's the whole page, bestie — this is GNU coreutils 9.10, dated August 2026, LS(1), and she ate, no crumbs. go list some directories, you've got this 💖✨🎀🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from