ls(1) - man - phpman

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⚡ TLDR: ls (tldr-pages)
List directory contents.
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 long format (permissions, ownership, size, and modification date)
ls {{-la|-l --all}}
List files in long format with size displayed using human-readable units (KiB, MiB, GiB)
ls {{-lh|-l --human-readable}}
List files in long format, sorted by Size (descending) recursively
ls {{-lSR|-lS --recursive}}
List files in long format, sorted by time the file was modified and in reverse order (oldest first)
ls {{-ltr|-lt --reverse}}
Only list directories
ls {{-d|--directory}} */
LS(1)                                       User Commands                                      LS(1)



NAME
       ls - list directory contents

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

DESCRIPTION
       List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).  Sort entries alphabeti‐
       cally if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -a, --all
              do not ignore entries starting with .

       -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'; see SIZE for‐
              mat below

       -B, --ignore-backups
              do not list implied entries ending with ~

       -c     with  -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last modification of file status informa‐
              tion); with -l: show ctime and sort by name; otherwise: sort by ctime, newest first

       -C     list entries by columns

       --color[=WHEN]
              colorize the output; WHEN can be 'always' (default if omitted),  'auto',  or  'never';
              more info below

       -d, --directory
              list directories themselves, not their contents

       -D, --dired
              generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode

       -f     do not sort, enable -aU, disable -ls --color

       -F, --classify
              append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries

       --file-type
              likewise, except do not append '*'

       --format=WORD
              across  -x,  commas -m, horizontal -x, 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;

              can be augmented with a --sort option, but any use of --sort=none (-U) disables group‐
              ing

       -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 can be 'always' (default if omitted), 'auto', or 'never'

       --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 disk usage; used only with -s and per directory totals

       -l     use a long listing format

       -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  QUOTING_STYLE environment
              variable)

       -r, --reverse
              reverse order while sorting

       -R, --recursive
              list subdirectories recursively

       -s, --size
              print the allocated size of each file, in blocks

       -S     sort by file size, largest first

       --sort=WORD
              sort by WORD instead of name: none (-U), size (-S), time (-t), version (-v), extension
              (-X)

       --time=WORD
              change  the default of using modification times; access time (-u): atime, access, use;
              change time (-c): ctime, status; 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; list entries in directory order

       -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

       -1     list one file per line.  Avoid '\n' with -q or -b

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit  (example:  10K  is  10*1024).   Units  are
       K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000).  Binary prefixes can be used,
       too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.

       The TIME_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, or +FORMAT.  FORMAT is inter‐
       preted  like  in  date(1).   If  FORMAT  is  FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, then FORMAT1 applies to
       non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files.  TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect
       only  outside  the  POSIX  locale.  Also the TIME_STYLE environment variable sets the default
       style to use.

       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 command to set
       it.

   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).

AUTHOR
       Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
       GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright  ©  2020 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.

SEE ALSO
       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) ls invocation'



GNU coreutils 8.32                          January 2026                                       LS(1)