ls(1)

🌸 ls(1) — the list-your-stuff manual 💅

okay bestie, this is section 1 of the General Commands Manual, and it's the one you're gonna use like a hundred times a day, no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

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

(yeah. it hides your dotfiles. that's not a bug, that's the whole personality. 🫶)

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ls [--help] [--format] [-C ] [-l|--long] [-x ] [-T|--tabsize] [-m ]
[--zero] [-D|--dired] [--hyperlink] [-1 ] [-o ] [-g ]
[-n|--numeric-uid-gid] [--quoting-style] [-N|--literal] [-b|--escape]
[-Q|--quote-name] [-q|--hide-control-chars] [--show-control-chars]
[--time] [-c ] [-u ] [--hide] [-I|--ignore] [-B|--ignore-backups]
[--sort] [-S ] [-t ] [-v ] [-X ] [-U ] [-L|--dereference]
[--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir]
[-H|--dereference-command-line] [-G|--no-group] [--author] [-a|--all]
[-A|--almost-all] [-f ] [-d|--directory] [-h|--human-readable]
[-k|--kibibytes] [--si] [--block-size] [-i|--inode] [-r|--reverse]
[-R|--recursive] [-w|--width] [-s|--size] [--color] [--indicator-style]
[-F|--classify] [--file-type] [-p ] [--time-style] [--full-time]
[-Z|--context] [--group-directories-first] [-V|--version] [paths]

look at that. it's giving ✨options✨. it's a lot. don't panic, we're going through every single one. 🎀

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

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

that's it. that's the job. it lists your stuff, and by default it's lowkey ghosting everything that starts with a . (iykyk, those are your hidden files).

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --help — Print help information.
• --format — Set the display format.
• -C — Display the files in columns.
• -l, --long — Display detailed information. the main character of flags honestly 👑
• -x — List entries in rows instead of in columns.
• -T, --tabsize <COLS> — Assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8. May also be specified with the TABSIZE environment variable.
• -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). the flag that saves your eyeballs fr fr 😭
• -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. May also be specified with the TIME_STYLE environment variable.
• --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
• [paths] — the stuff you want listed 🦋

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✨ 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.

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✨ VERSION ✨

v(uutils coreutils) 0.7.0

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lowkey reminder bestie: this whole page is from ls (uutils coreutils) 0.7.0, which is the source and version of this manual. slay. 💖

okay that's the whole thing, go forth and ls responsibly, you ate that 🎀✨💅