Info: (coreutils) ls invocation

coreutils: ls invocation

 
 10.1 ‘ls’: List directory contents
 ==================================
 
 The ‘ls’ program lists information about files (of any type, including
 directories).  Options and file arguments can be intermixed arbitrarily,
 as usual.
 
    For non-option command-line arguments that are directories, by
 default ‘ls’ lists the contents of directories, not recursively, and
 omitting files with names beginning with ‘.’.  For other non-option
 arguments, by default ‘ls’ lists just the file name.  If no non-option
 argument is specified, ‘ls’ operates on the current directory, acting as
 if it had been invoked with a single argument of ‘.’.
 
    By default, the output is sorted alphabetically, according to the
 locale settings in effect.(1)  If standard output is a terminal, the
 output is in columns (sorted vertically) and control characters are
 output as question marks; otherwise, the output is listed one per line
 and control characters are output as-is.
 
    Because ‘ls’ is such a fundamental program, it has accumulated many
 options over the years.  They are described in the subsections below;
 within each section, options are listed alphabetically (ignoring case).
 The division of options into the subsections is not absolute, since some
 options affect more than one aspect of ‘ls’’s operation.
 
    Exit status:
 
      0 success
      1 minor problems  (e.g., failure to access a file or directory not
        specified as a command line argument.  This happens when listing a
        directory in which entries are actively being removed or renamed.)
      2 serious trouble (e.g., memory exhausted, invalid option, failure
        to access a file or directory specified as a command line argument
        or a directory loop)
 
    Also see ⇒Common options.

 
· Which files are listed
· What information is listed
· Sorting the output
· General output formatting
· Formatting file timestamps
· Formatting the file names
 
    ---------- Footnotes ----------
 
    (1) If you use a non-POSIX locale (e.g., by setting ‘LC_ALL’ to
 ‘en_US’), then ‘ls’ may produce output that is sorted differently than
 you’re accustomed to.  In that case, set the ‘LC_ALL’ environment
 variable to ‘C’.

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