LS(1)

📦 version 0.12.0, in arch rolling

💅 LS(1) — like, the listing era 💅

okay bestie so this is a page from the General Commands Manual and we're talking about ls, the absolute icon of "what's in this folder" ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

ls — lists directory contents. And by default it's a little shy: it ignores files and directories starting with a . 🙈

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Lists directory contents. Again for the people in the back: it ignores files and directories starting with a . by default. That's the whole vibe, no cap 💅

✨ OPTIONS ✨

okay this is the long part, hydrate first 🍓

  • --help — prints help information. your little "what do" button 🫶
  • --format — sets the display format.
  • -C — shows the files in columns. classic, iconic, columns-coded 🌈
  • -l, --long — shows the detailed info. the receipt version of a directory 😌
  • -x — lists entries in rows instead of in columns. same info, rotated vibe 🌀
  • -T, --tabsize <COLS> — assumes tab stops at every COLS instead of 8.
  • -m — lists entries separated by commas. cute little list energy 🎀
  • --zero — lists entries separated by ASCII NUL characters. for the machine besties 💀
  • -D, --dired — generates output designed for Emacs' dired (Directory Editor) mode. yes it's giving editor loyalty 🧚
  • --hyperlink[=<WHEN>] — hyperlink file names WHEN. default: never. possible values, slay:
    • always
    • auto
    • never
  • -1 — lists one file per line. minimalist queen 👑
  • -o — long format without group information. literally identical to --format=long with --no-group.
  • -g — long format without owner information.
  • -n, --numeric-uid-gid — -l but with numeric UIDs and GIDs. numbers only, no names 🧮
  • --quoting-style — sets the quoting style. possible values, prepare yourself:
    • literal
    • locale
    • shell
    • shell-escape
    • shell-always
    • shell-escape-always
    • clocale
    • c
    • escape
  • -N, --literal — uses literal quoting style. equivalent to --quoting-style=literal.
  • -b, --escape — uses escape quoting style. equivalent to --quoting-style=escape.
  • -Q, --quote-name — uses C quoting style. equivalent to --quoting-style=c.
  • -q, --hide-control-chars — replaces control characters with '?' if they are not escaped.
  • --show-control-chars — shows control characters 'as is' if they are not escaped.
  • --time <field> — shows time in <field>: access time (-u): atime, access, use; change time (-t): ctime, status; modification time: mtime, modification; birth time: birth, creation. pick your fighter ⏰
  • -c — if the long listing format (e.g., -l, -o) is being used, prints 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, sorts according to the status change time. she contains multitudes 🦋
  • -u — if the long listing format (e.g., -l, -o) is being used, prints 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, sorts according to the access time. same energy, different timestamp ⭐
  • --hide <PATTERN> — do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (this gets overridden by -a or -A). 🙈
  • -I, --ignore <PATTERN> — do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN.
  • -B, --ignore-backups — ignores entries which end with ~. bye backup files 👋
  • --sort <field> — sorts by <field>: name, none (-U), time (-t), size (-S), extension (-X) or width. possible values:
    • name
    • none
    • time
    • size
    • version
    • extension
    • width
  • -S — sorts by file size, largest first. big chonk energy 🔥
  • -t — sorts by modification time (the 'mtime' in the inode), newest first.
  • -v — natural sort of (version) numbers in the filenames. so file2 comes before file10, as it should 💅
  • -X — sorts alphabetically by entry extension.
  • -U — does not sort; lists 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. chaos mode but make it efficient ⚡
  • -L, --dereference — when showing file information for a symbolic link, shows information for the file the link references rather than the link itself. following the link into the void 🌀
  • --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir — do not follow symlinks except when they link to directories and are given as command line arguments. extremely specific, we respect it 🎀
  • -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 — shows author in long format. on the supported platforms, the author always matches the file owner. they're the same person bestie 😭
  • -a, --all — do not ignore hidden files (files with names that start with .). the dotfiles are FREE 🌸
  • -A, --almost-all — in a directory, do not ignore all file names that start with ., only ignore . and ... like -a but with boundaries 💅
  • -f — lists all files in directory order, unsorted. equivalent to -aU. disables --color unless explicitly specified. ⚠️ careful, that's a side effect
  • -d, --directory — only lists 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 — prints human readable file sizes (e.g. 1K 234M 56G). for brains that don't do raw bytes 🧠✨
  • -k, --kibibytes — defaults to 1024-byte blocks for file system usage; used only with -s and per directory totals.
  • --si — prints human readable file sizes using powers of 1000 instead of 1024. metric bestie 🧚
  • --block-size <BLOCK_SIZE> — scales sizes by BLOCK_SIZE when printing them.
  • -i, --inode — prints the index number of each file. inode reveal 👀
  • -r, --reverse — reverses whatever the sorting method is, e.g., lists files in reverse alphabetical order, youngest first, smallest first, or whatever. mirror mode 🪞
  • -R, --recursive — lists the contents of all directories recursively. going deeper 🌀
  • -w, --width <COLS> — assumes that the terminal is COLS columns wide.
  • -s, --size — prints the allocated size of each file, in blocks.
  • --color — color output based on file type. possible values:
    • always
    • auto
    • never
  • --indicator-style — appends an 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>] — appends a character to each file name indicating the file type. also, for regular files that are executable, appends '*'. 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. ⚠️ noted, bestie

possible values:

  • always
  • auto
  • never
  • --file-type — same as --classify, but does not append '*'.
  • -p — appends / indicator to directories. lil slash for the folders 💅
  • --time-style <TIME_STYLE> — time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below.
  • --full-time — like -l --time-style=full-iso. the whole timestamp, nothing withheld ⏰
  • -Z, --context — prints any security context of each file. security girlie 🔒
  • --group-directories-first — groups directories before files; can be augmented with a --sort option, but any use of --sort=none (-U) disables grouping. ⚠️ pick a lane
  • -V, --version — prints 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. env var icon behavior, honestly 🫶

👑 VERSION 👑

this whole page is serving v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0 realness — dated 2026-09-17, and it was in the General Commands Manual section all along 💖

that's the page bestie, go list some directories, and remember: dotfiles stay hidden unless you say -a ✨🎀💅

📦 where this page comes from