ls - Lists and generates statistics for files
ls [-aAbcCdDfFgilLmnopqrRstux1] [file... | directory...]
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to
industry standards as follows:
ls: XCU5.0
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information
about industry standards and associated tags.
Lists all entries in the directory, including the entries
that begin with a (dot). Entries that begin with a are not
displayed unless you refer to them specifically, or you
specify the -a option. [Tru64 UNIX] Lists all entries,
except (dot) and (dot-dot). If you issue the ls command as
the superuser, it behaves as if you specified this option.
[Tru64 UNIX] Displays nonprintable characters in octal
notation. Uses the time of last inode modification (file
created, mode changed, and so on) for sorting when used
with the -t option. Displays the time of last inode modification
(instead of the time at which the file's contents
were last modified) when used with the -l option. This
option has effect only when used with either -t or -l or
both. Sorts output vertically in a multicolumn format.
This is the default when output is to a terminal. Displays
only the information for the directory that is
named, rather than for its contents. This is useful with
the -l option to get the status of a directory. If the
file is a special file, and the machine is cluster aware,
the size field contains the major and minor device numbers
assigned on the local machine. Lists the name in each
slot for each named directory. This option turns off -l,
-t, -s, and -r, and turns on -a; this option uses the
order in which entries appear in the directory. Puts a /
(slash) after each file name if the file is a directory,
an * (asterisk) after each file name if the file can be
executed, an = (equal sign) after each file name if the
file is a socket, an @ (at sign) for a symbolic link, and
a | (vertical bar) for a FIFO. Displays the same information
as -l, except for the owner. Displays the file
serial number in the first column of the report for each
file. Displays the mode, number of links, owner, group,
size (in bytes), and time of last modification for each
file, and pathname.
[Tru64 UNIX] If the file is a symbolic link, the
pathname of the linked-to file is also preceded by
->. The attributes of the symbolic link are displayed.
The -n option overrides the -l option.
[Tru64 UNIX] If CMD_ENV=svr4, the ls command
reports an l in the group execution field when
mandatory locking is enabled. [Tru64 UNIX] Lists
the file or directory link references rather than
the link itself, if the argument is a symbolic
link. Uses stream output format (a comma-separated
series). Displays the same information as -l,
except that it displays the user and the group IDs
instead of the user names and group names. Displays
the same information as with -l, except for
the group. The -n option overrides the -o option.
Puts a slash after each file name if that file is a
directory. Displays nonprintable characters in
file names as a ? (question mark) character, if
output is to a terminal (default). Reverses the
order of the sort, giving reverse collation or the
oldest first, as appropriate. Lists all subdirectories
recursively. Gives space used in n
1024-byte units (including indirect blocks) for
each entry.
[Tru64 UNIX] When run on an AdvFS clone file set,
the ls -s command displays the space used by the
files in the original file set at the time the
clone file set was created. The file sizes are displayed
in 1024-byte units. Sorts by time of last
modification (latest first) instead of by name.
Uses the time of the last access instead of time of
the last modification for sorting (when used with
-t) or for displaying (when used with -l). This
option has no effect when not used with either -t
or -l or both. Sorts output horizontally in a multicolumn
format. Forces one entry per line output
format; this is the default when output is not
directed to a terminal.
When you specify the following mutually exclusive options,
the last option on the command line takes effect: [Tru64
UNIX] -C and -l (ell) [Tru64 UNIX] -C and -1 (one)
[Tru64 UNIX] -m and -l (ell) [Tru64 UNIX] -x and -l
(ell) [Tru64 UNIX] -c and -u
The path name of a file or directory about which information
is to be output. If this operand is omitted, the
current directory is used.
The ls command writes to standard output the contents of
each specified directory or the name of each specified
file, along with any other information you ask for with
options. If you do not specify a file or a directory, ls
displays the contents of the current directory.
By default, ls displays all information in collated order
by file name. The collating sequence is determined by the
LC_COLLATE environment variable.
[Tru64 UNIX] There are three main ways to format the output:
[Tru64 UNIX] List entries in multiple columns by
specifying either the -C or -x options. When output is to
a terminal, -C is the default format. List one entry per
line. List entries in a comma-separated series by specifying
the -m option.
[Tru64 UNIX] The ls command uses ioctl() to determine the
number of byte positions in the output line. If ls cannot
get this information, it uses a default value of 80.
Columns may not be smaller than 20 bytes or larger than
400 bytes.
Modes [Toc] [Back]
The mode displayed with the -l option is interpreted by
the first character, as follows: Block special file Character
special file Directory [Tru64 UNIX] Symbolic link
First-In-First-Out (FIFO) special file [Tru64 UNIX] Local
socket Ordinary file
Permissions [Toc] [Back]
The next nine characters are divided into three sets of
three characters each. The first three characters show
the owner's permission. The next set of three characters
show the permission of the other users in the group. The
last set of three characters show the permission of everyone
else. The three characters in each set show read,
write and execute permission of the file. Execute permission
of a directory lets you search a directory for a
specified file.
Permissions are indicated as follows: read write execute
or search (directories) no access
The group-execute permission character is s if the file
has set-group-ID mode. The user-execute permission character
is s if the file has set-user-ID mode. The last character
of the mode (normally x or -) is t if the 01000
(octal) bit of the mode is set; see the chmod command for
the meaning of this mode. The indications of set-ID and
the 01000 bit of the mode are capitalized (S and T,
respectively) if the corresponding execute permission is
not set.
When there is an access control list (ACL) on the listed
directory or file the group permissions displayed by the
ls command are the maximum permissions allowed for the
owning group and for any user or group identified in a
qualified "user" or "group" ACL entry. A given user or
member of a group can have more restrictive permissions.
Use the getacl command to see the ACL for a given file or
directory.
When the sizes of the files in a directory are listed, the
ls command displays a total count in 1024-byte units,
including indirect blocks.
The LC_TIME environment variable controls the format of
the date and time.
System V Compatibility [Toc] [Back]
[Tru64 UNIX] The root of the directory tree that contains
the commands modified for SVID 2 compliance is specified
in the file /etc/svid2_path. You can use /etc/svid2_profile
as the basis for, or to include in, your
/etc/svid2_profile reads /etc/svid2_path and sets the
first entries in the PATH environment variable so that the
modified SVID 2 commands are found first.
[Tru64 UNIX] The SVID 2 compliant version of the ls command
produces multicolumn output only if the -C option is
specified. In addition, the -s option of the SVID 2 compliant
command causes file sizes to be reported in
512-byte units rather than in 1024-byte units.
The following exit values are returned: Successful completion.
An error occurred.
[Tru64 UNIX] Sparse files, such as quota files, may not
be using as much on-disk storage as the ls -l command
reports. Use the ls -s command to obtain an accurate
report of the on-disk storage used by a sparse file.
The following example lists the quota.user file, a sparse
file, two different ways. The example shows that although
the last byte in the file is at logical offset 2097151,
the file uses only 24 blocks of on-disk storage: # ls -l
quota.user -rw-r----- 1 root operator 2097152 Apr 29
14:54 quota.user # ls -s quota.user 24 quota.user To list
all files in the current directory, enter: ls -a
This lists all files, including . (dot), .. (dotdot),
and other files with names beginning with a
dot. To display detailed information, enter: ls -l
chap1 .profile
This displays a long listing with detailed information
about the files chap1 and To display detailed
information about a directory, enter: ls -d -l .
manual manual/chap1
This displays a long listing for the directories
and manual, and for the file manual/chap1. Without
the -d option, this command lists the files in and
manual instead of providing detailed information
about the directories themselves. To list the
files in the current directory in order of modification
time, enter: ls -l -t
This displays a long listing of the files that were
modified most recently, followed by the older
files.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES [Toc] [Back] The following environment variables affect the execution
of ls: Determines the user's preferred column position
width for writing multiple text-column output. If this
variable contains a string representing a decimal integer,
the ls utility calculates how many pathname text columns
to write (see -C) based on the width provided. If COLUMNS
is not set or invalid, an implementation-dependent number
of column positions is assumed, based on the implementation's
knowledge of the output device. The column width
chosen to write the names of files in any given directory
will be constant. Filenames will not be truncated to fit
into the multiple text-column output. Provides a default
value for the internationalization variables that are
unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding
value from the default locale is used. If any of the
internationalization variables contain an invalid setting,
the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been
defined. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides
the values of all the other internationalization variables.
Determines the locale for character collation
information in determining the pathname collation
sequence. Determines the locale for the interpretation of
sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for
example, single-byte as opposed to multibyte characters in
arguments). Determines the locale for the format and contents
of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
Determines the format and contents for the date and time
strings written by ls. Determines the location of message
catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. Determines
the timezone for date and time strings written by ls.
Contains user information. Contains group information.
Commands: chmod(1), du(1), find(1), ln(1), stty(1)
Functions: ioctl(2)
Files: acl(4)
Standards: standards(5)
ls(1)
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