ls(1) ls(1)
NAME [Toc] [Back]
ls, lc, l, ll, lsf, lsr, lsx - list contents of directories
SYNOPSIS [Toc] [Back]
ls [-abcdefgilmnopqrstuxACFLR1] [names]
lc [-abcdefgilmnopqrstuxACFLR1] [names]
l [ls_options] [names]
ll [ls_options] [names]
lsf [ls_options] [names]
lsr [ls_options] [names]
lsx [ls_options] [names]
DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back]
For each directory argument, the ls command lists the contents of the
directory. For each file argument, ls repeats its name and any other
information requested. The output is sorted in ascending collation
order by default (see Environment Variables below). When no argument
is given, the current directory is listed. When several arguments are
given, the arguments are first sorted appropriately, but file
arguments appear before directories and their contents.
If you are a user with appropriate privileges, all files except . and
.. are listed by default.
There are three major listing formats. The format chosen depends on
whether the output is going to a login device (determined by whether
output device file is a tty device), and can also be controlled by
option flags. The default format for a login device is to list the
contents of directories in multicolumn format, with entries sorted
vertically by column. (When individual file names (as opposed to
directory names) appear in the argument list, those file names are
always sorted across the page rather than down the page in columns
because individual file names can be arbitrarily long.) If the
standard output is not a login device, the default format is to list
one entry per line. The -C and -x options enable multicolumn formats,
and the -m option enables stream output format in which files are
listed across the page, separated by commas. In order to determine
output formats for the -C, -x, and -m options, ls uses an environment
variable, COLUMNS, to determine the number of character positions
available on each output line. If this variable is not set, the
terminfo database is used to determine the number of columns, based on
the environment variable TERM. If this information cannot be
obtained, 80 columns is assumed.
The command lc functions the same as ls except that the lc default
output is columnar, even if output is redirected.
Options [Toc] [Back]
ls recognizes the following options:
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-a List all entries; usually entries whose names begin with a
period (.) are not listed.
-b List nonprinting characters in the octal \ddd notation.
-c Use time of last modification of the inode (file created,
mode changed, etc.) for sorting (-t) or printing (-l (ell)).
-d If an argument is a directory, list only its name (not its
contents); often used with -l (ell) to get the status of a
directory.
-e List the extent attributes of the file. If any of the files
has a extent attribute, this option lists the extent size,
space reserved and allocation flags. This option must be
used with the -l (ell) option.
-f Interpret each argument as a directory and list the name
found in each slot. This option disables -l (ell), -r, -s,
and -t, and enables -a; the order is the order in which
entries appear in the directory.
-g Same as -l (ell), except that only the group is printed
(owner is omitted). If both -l (ell) and -g are specified,
the owner is not printed.
-i For each file, list the inode number in the first column of
the report. When used in multicolumn output, the number
precedes the file name in each column.
-l (ell) List in long format, giving mode, number of links,
owner, group, size in bytes, and time of last modification
for each file (see further DESCRIPTION and Access Control
Lists below). If the time of last modification is greater
than six months ago, or any time in the future, the year is
substituted for the hour and minute of the modification
time. If the file is a special file, the size field
contains the major and minor device numbers rather than a
size. If the file is a symbolic link, the filename is
printed, followed by -> and the pathname of the referenced
file.
-m Stream output format.
-n The same as -l, (ell) except that the owner's UID and
group's GID numbers are printed, rather than the associated
character strings.
-o The same as -l, (ell) except that only the owner is printed
(group is omitted). (If both -l (ell) and -o are specified,
the group is not printed).
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-p Put a slash (/) after each file name if that file is a
directory.
-q List nonprinting characters in file names as the character
(?).
-r Reverse the order of sort to get reverse (descending)
collation or oldest first, as appropriate.
-s List size in blocks, including indirect blocks, for each
entry. The first entry listed is the total number of blocks
in the directory. When used in multicolumn output, the
number of blocks precedes the file name in each column. The
number of indirect blocks in a file is filesystem dependent.
-t Sort by time modified (latest first) before sorting
alphabetically.
-u Use time of last access instead of last modification for
sorting (-t option) or printing (-l (ell) option).
-x List multicolumn output with entries sorted across rather
than down the page.
-A The same as -a, except that the current directory . and
parent directory .. are not listed. For a user with
appropriate privileges, this flag defaults to on, and is
turned off by -A.
-C List multicolumn output with entries sorted down the
columns.
-F After each file name, put one of:
+ A slash (/) if the file is a directory or a symbolic link
to a directory.
+ An asterisk (*) if the file is executable;
+ An at-sign (@) if the file is a symbolic link to a file;
+ A vertical bar (|) if the file is a fifo.
-L Evaluate the file information and file type for all symbolic
links (whether named on the command line or encountered in a
file hierarchy) to be those of the file referenced by the
link, and not the link itself. However, ls shall write the
name of the link itself and not the file referenced by the
link. When -L is used with -l, write the contents of
symbolic links in the long format.
-R Recursively list subdirectories encountered.
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-1 (one) List the file names in single column format regardless
of the output device. This forces single column format to
the user's terminal.
Specifying more than one of the options in the following mutually
exclusive pairs is not considered an error: -C and -l (ell), -m and -l
(ell), -x and -l (ell), -C and -1 (one), and -c and -u.
ls is known by several shorthand-version names for the various
formats:
l is equivalent to ls -m
ll is equivalent to ls -l (ell)
lsf is equivalent to ls -F
lsr is equivalent to ls -R
lsx is equivalent to ls -x
The shorthand notations are implemented as links to ls. Option
arguments to the shorthand versions behave exactly as if the long form
above had been used with the additional arguments.
Mode Bits Interpretation (-l option) [Toc] [Back]
The mode printed in listings produced by the -l (ell) option consists
of 10 characters, for example, -rwxr-xr-x.
The first character indicates the entry type:
b Block special file
c Character special file
d Directory
l Symbolic link
n Network special file
p Fifo (also called a "named pipe") special file
s Socket
- Ordinary file
The next 9 characters are interpreted as three sets of three
characters each which identify access and execution permissions for
the owner, group, and others categories, as described in chmod(1).
The - indicates the permission is not granted. The various
permissions can be put together in any combination, except that the x,
s, S, t, and T characters are mutually exclusive, as implied below.
-r-------- Read by owner
--w------- Write by owner
---x------ Execute (or search directory) by owner; do not set
user ID on execution
---s------ Execute/search by owner; set user ID on execution
---S------ No execute/search by owner; set user ID on
execution
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----r----- Read by group
-----w---- Write by group
------x--- Execute/search by group; do not set group ID on
execution
------s--- Execute/search by group; set group ID on execution
------S--- No execute/search by group; set group ID on
execution
-------r-- Read by others
--------w- Write by others
---------x Execute/search by others; do not set sticky bit on
execution
---------t Execute/search by others; set sticky bit on
execution
---------T No execute/search by others; set sticky bit on
execution
The mode characters are interpreted as follows:
- Deny all permissions in the corresponding position.
r Grant read permission to the corresponding user class.
w Grant write permission to the corresponding user class.
x Grant execute (or search in directory) permission to the
corresponding user class.
s Grant execute (search) permission to the corresponding user
class. Execute the file as if by the owner (set user ID,
SUID) or group (set group ID, SGID), as indicated by
position.
S Deny execute (search) permission to the corresponding user
class. Execute the file as if by the owner (set user ID,
SUID) or group (set group ID, SGID), as indicated by
position.
t Grant execute (search) permission to others. The "sticky"
(save text image) bit is set (see the description of S_ISVTX
in chmod(2)).
T Deny execute (search directory) permission to others. The
"sticky" (save text image) bit is set.
When an option is specified that results in a listing of directory
and/or file sizes in bytes or blocks (such as the -s or -l (ell)
option), a total count of blocks, including indirect blocks, is also
printed at the beginning of the listing.
Access Control Lists (ACLs) [Toc] [Back]
If a file has optional ACL entries, the -l (ell) option displays a
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plus sign (+) after the file's permissions. The permissions shown are
a summary representation of the file's access control list, as
returned by stat() in the st_mode field (see stat(2)). To list the
contents of an access control list, use the lsacl command (see
lsacl(1) and acl(5)) for HFS file systems, or the getacl command (see
getacl(1) and aclv(5)) for JFS file systems.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES [Toc] [Back]
Environment Variables
If the COLUMNS variable is set, ls uses the width provided in
determining positioning of columnar output.
LANG determines the locale to use for the locale categories when both
LC_ALL and the corresponding environment variable (beginning with LC_)
do not specify a locale. If LANG is not set or is null, it defaults
to C (see lang(5)).
LC_COLLATE determines the order in which the output is sorted.
LC_CTYPE determines which characters are classified as nonprinting for
the -b and -q options, and the interpretation of single- and/or
multibyte characters within file names.
LC_TIME determines the date and time strings output by the -g, -l
(ell), -n, and -o options.
LC_MESSAGES determines the language in which messages (other than the
date and time strings) are displayed.
If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, they
all default to C (see environ(5)).
International Code Set Support [Toc] [Back]
Single- and multibyte character code sets are supported.
RETURN VALUE [Toc] [Back]
ls exits with one of the following values:
0 All input files were listed successfully.
>0 ls was aborted because errors occurred when accessing files.
The following conditions cause an error:
+ Specified file not found.
+ User has no permission to read the directory.
+ Process could not get enough memory.
+ Invalid option specified.
EXAMPLES [Toc] [Back]
Print a long listing of all the files in the current working directory
(including the file sizes). List the most recently modified
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(youngest) file first, followed by the next older file, and so forth,
to the oldest. Files whose names begin with a . are also printed.
ls -alst
WARNINGS [Toc] [Back]
Setting options based on whether the output is a login (tty) device is
undesirable because ls -s is very different from ls -s | lp. On the
other hand, not using this setting makes old shell scripts that used
ls almost inevitably fail.
Nonprinting characters in file names (without the -b or -q option) may
cause columnar output to be misaligned.
DEPENDENCIES [Toc] [Back]
NFS
The -l (ell) option does not display a plus sign (+) after the access
permission bits of networked files to represent existence of optional
access control list entries.
AUTHOR [Toc] [Back]
ls was developed by AT&T, the University of California, Berkeley and
HP.
FILES [Toc] [Back]
/etc/group For group IDs for -l (ell) and -g.
/etc/passwd For user IDs for -l (ell) and -o.
/usr/share/lib/terminfo/?/* For terminal information.
SEE ALSO [Toc] [Back]
chmod(1), find(1), getacl(1), lsacl(1), stat(2), acl(5), aclv(5).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE [Toc] [Back]
ls: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2
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