ls(1)ls(1)Namels - list and generate statistics for files
Syntaxls [ options ] name ...
Description
For each directory argument, lists the contents of the directory. For
each file argument, repeats the file name and gives any other informa‐
tion you request with the options available. By default, the list is
sorted alphabetically. When no argument is given, the current direc‐
tory is listed. When several arguments are given, files are listed
first, followed by directories and the files within each directory.
Options are listed below.
Options-1 Displays one entry per line. This is the default when output is
not to a terminal.
-a Displays all entries including those beginning with a period (.).
-C Forces multicolumn output for pipe or filter. This is the default
when the output is to a terminal.
-c Uses time of last file status change (ctime), reflecting file cre‐
ation, mode, etc., for sorting (with the -t option) or printing
(with the -l option) rather than the time of file modification or
access. See also the -t and -u options.
-d Displays names of directories only, not contents. Use this option
with -l to get the status of a directory.
-F Marks directories with trailing slash (/), sockets with a trailing
equal sign (=), symbolic links with a trailing at sign (@), and
executable files with a trailing asterisk (*).
-f Displays names in the order they exist in directory. For further
information, see Entries beginning with a period (.) are also
listed. This option overrides the -l, -t, -s, and -r options.
-g Displays assigned group ID (used with -l only). Default is
assigned owner ID.
-i Displays the i-number for each file in the first column of the
report.
-L Lists the information, if the file is a symbolic link, for the
file or directory the link references rather than that for the
link itself.
-l Lists the mode, number of links, owner, size in bytes, and time of
last modification (mtime) for each file. If the file is a special
file, the size field contains the major and minor device numbers
instead of the size. If the file is a symbolic link, the pathname
of the linked-to file is printed, preceded by ``->''.
The mode field consists of 11 characters. The first character
indicates the type of entry:
d if the entry is a directory
b if the entry is a block-type special file
c if the entry is a character-type special file
l if the entry is a symbolic link
s if the entry is a socket
- if the entry is a plain file
The next 9 characters are interpreted as three sets of three char‐
acters each. The first set of three characters refers to file-
access permissions for the user; the next set, for the user-group;
and the last set, for all others. The permissions are indicated
as follows:
r if the file is readable
w if the file is writable
x if the file is executable
- if the indicated permission is not granted.
The group-execute permission character is given as s if the file
has the set-group-id bit set; likewise, the user-execute permis‐
sion character is given as s if the file has the set-user-id bit
set.
The last character of the mode (normally `x' or `-') is t if the
1000 bit of the mode is on. See for the meaning of this mode.
The indications of set-ID and the 01000 bit of the mode are capi‐
talized (S and T, respectively) if the corresponding execute per‐
mission is not set.
-q Forces the printing of nongraphic characters in file names as the
question mark character (?). This is the default when output is
to a terminal.
-R Recursively lists all subdirectories.
-r Sorts entries in reverse alphabetic or time order.
-s Displays the size in kilobytes of each file. This is the first
item listed in each entry.
-t Sorts by time modified (most recently modified first) instead of
by name. See also the -c and -u options.
-u Uses the time of last access (atime) instead of last modification
for sorting (with the -t option) or printing (with the -l option).
Restrictions
The output device is assumed to be 80 columns wide.
New line and tab are considered printing characters in file names.
The option setting based on whether the output is a teletype is unde‐
sirable as "ls -s" is much different than "ls -s |lpr". On the other
hand, not doing this setting would make old shell scripts which used ls
almost certain to fail.
Files
Used to obtain user id's for ls-l
Used to obtain group id's for ls-g
See Alsostat(2)ls(1)
