LS(1)

📦
version 0.12.0 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🌸 LS(1) — the manual page for ls, bestie 🌸

okay so real talk: this is the General Commands Manual page for LS(1), and it's literally just about listing what's in your directories. sit down, grab a boba, we're doing this. 🧋💅

🦋 NAME 🦋

ls — list directory contents. by default it's gonna ignore files and directories that start with a . (yes, the sneaky hidden ones, we'll get to them).

💜 SYNOPSIS 💜

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

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

List directory contents. and again, for the people in the back: it ignores files and directories starting with a . by default. no cap. ✨

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

so many options, and honestly? iconic. every single one, coming right up:

  • --help — prints help information. your lil emergency button. 🆘
  • --format — sets the display format.
  • -C — display the files in columns.
  • -l, --long — display detailed information. the full lore drop.
  • -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

periodt. 💅

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

list files one per line:

ls -1

list all files, including hidden files:

ls [-a|--all]

list files with a trailing symbol to indicate file type (directory /, symbolic_link @, executable *, ...):

ls [-F|--classify]

list all files in [l]ong format (permissions, ownership, size, and modification date):

ls [-la|-l --all]

list files in [l]ong format with size displayed using human-readable units (KiB, MiB, GiB):

ls [-lh|-l --human-readable]

list files in [l]ong format, sorted by [S]ize (descending) recursively:

ls [-lSR|-lS --recursive]

list files in [l]ong format, sorted by [t]ime the file was modified and in reverse order (oldest first):

ls [-ltr|-lt --reverse]

only list directories:

ls [-d|--directory] */

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. 😭 (we're rooting for them tho 🫶)

ok that's the whole page!! every flag, every value, every default, all accounted for — nothing skipped, bestie, you're so welcome 💖

and yes, this absolute banger of a page is dated 2026-09-25 and it's page LS(1) from the General Commands Manual, version v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0. go forth and list responsibly. mwah. 💋🌈✨

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