DIR(1)

📦
version 0.12.0 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

okay bestie pull up a chair because we're about to talk about dir, and honestly? it's giving "ls's chill twin" 💖 this page lives in the General Commands Manual, so let's goooo.

🌸 NAME 🌸

dir — list directory contents. By default it ignores files and directories that start with a . (yes, the sneaky hidden ones — we'll get to them).

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

List directory contents. Ignore files and directories starting with a . by default.

That's literally the whole vibe: it shows you what's in a directory, and it lowkey pretends your dotfiles don't exist until you ask.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

so many options. iconic honestly. here we go:

  • --help — prints help information, i.e. the "bestie explain" button.
  • --format — sets 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 <COLS> — 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[=<WHEN>] — hyperlink file names WHEN. Default: never.

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 <field> — show time in <field>: 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 using a long listing format, sort according to the access time.
  • --hide <PATTERN> — do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden by -a or -A).
  • -I, --ignore <PATTERN> — do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN.
  • -B, --ignore-backups — ignore entries which end with ~.
  • --sort <field> — sort by <field>: 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 especially useful when listing very large directories, since not doing any sorting can be noticeably faster. 🔥
  • -L, --dereference — when showing file information for a symbolic link, show information for the file the link references 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 arguments.
  • -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 explicitly 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 <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 <COLS> — 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[=<when>] — 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 --classify=always. This will not follow symbolic links listed on the command line unless the --dereference-command-line (-H), --dereference (-L), or --dereference-command-line-symlink-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_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.

🎀 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) 0.12.0

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

View documentation for the original command:

tldr ls

The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project <https://tldr.sh> under the CC BY 4.0 License. Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail. 💀 (manifesting they don't tho.)

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this one's DIR(1) from the General Commands Manual, running version v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0, dated 2026-09-25. go forth and list some directories, you absolute main character 👑💖

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