bin/ls/ls.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\"
.\"     @(#)ls.1	8.7 (Berkeley) 07/29/94
.\"
.Dd
.Dt LS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ls
.Nd list directory contents
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm ls
.Op Fl ACFLRTWacdfiloqrstu1
.Op Ar file ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
For each operand that names a
.Ar file
of a type other than
directory,
.Nm ls
displays its name as well as any requested,
associated information.
For each operand that names a
.Ar file
of type directory,
.Nm ls
displays the names of files contained
within that directory, as well as any requested, associated
information.
.Pp
If no operands are given, the contents of the current
directory are displayed.
If more than one operand is given,
non-directory operands are displayed first; directory
and non-directory operands are sorted separately and in
lexicographical order.
.Pp
The following options are available:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl A
List all entries except for
.Ql \&.
and
.Ql \&.. .
Always set for the super-user.
.It Fl C
Force multi-column output; this is the default when output is to a terminal.
.It Fl F
Display a slash (/) immediately after each pathname
that is a directory, an asterisk (*) after each that is
executable,
an at sign (@) after each symbolic link,
and a percent sign (%) after each whiteout.
.\" and a vertical bar (|) after each that is a
.\" .Tn FIFO .
.It Fl L
If argument is a symbolic link, list the file or directory the link references
rather than the link itself.
.It Fl R
Recursively list subdirectories encountered.
.It Fl T
Display complete time information for the file, including
month, day, hour, minute, second, and year.
.It Fl W
Display whiteouts when scanning directories.
.It Fl a
Include directory entries whose names begin with a
dot (.).
.It Fl c
Use time when file status was last changed for sorting or printing.
.It Fl d
Directories are listed as plain files (not searched recursively) and
symbolic links in the argument list are not indirected through.
.It Fl f
Output is not sorted.
.It Fl i
For each file, print the file's file serial number (inode number).
.It Fl l
(The lowercase letter ``ell.'')  List in long format. (See below.)
If the output is to a terminal, a total sum for all the file
sizes is output on a line before the long listing.
.It Fl o
Include the file flags in a long
.Pq Fl l
output
.It Fl q
Force printing of non-graphic characters in file names as
the character `?'; this is the default when output is to a terminal.
.It Fl r
Reverse the order of the sort to get reverse
lexicographical order or the oldest entries first.
.It Fl s
Display the number of file system blocks actually used by each file, in units
of 512 bytes, where partial units are rounded up to the next integer value.
If the output is to a terminal, a total sum for all the file
sizes is output on a line before the listing.
.It Fl t
Sort by time modified (most recently modified
first) before sorting the operands by lexicographical
order.
.It Fl u
Use time of last access,
instead of last modification
of the file for sorting
.Pq Fl t
or printing
.Pq Fl l .
.It Fl \&1
(The numeric digit ``one.'')  Force output to be
one entry per line.
This is the default when
output is not to a terminal.
.El
.Pp
The
.Fl 1 ,
.Fl C ,
and
.Fl l
options all override each other; the last one specified determines
the format used.
.Pp
The
.Fl c ,
and
.Fl u
options override each other; the last one specified determines
the file time used.
.Pp
By default,
.Nm ls
lists one entry per line to standard
output; the exceptions are to terminals or when the
.Fl C
option is specified.
.Pp
File information is displayed with one or more
<blank>s separating the information associated with the
.Fl i ,
.Fl s ,
and
.Fl l
options.
.Ss The Long Format
If the
.Fl l
option is given, the following information
is displayed for each file:
file mode,
number of links, owner name, group name,
number of bytes in the file, abbreviated
month, day-of-month file was last modified,
hour file last modified, minute file last
modified, and the pathname.
In addition, for each directory whose contents are displayed, the total
number of 512-byte blocks used by the files in the directory is displayed
on a line by itself immediately before the information for the files in the
directory.
.Pp
If the owner or group names are not a known user or group name
the numeric ID's are displayed.
.Pp
If the file is a character special or block special file,
the major and minor device numbers for the file are displayed
in the size field. If the file is a symbolic link the pathname of the
linked-to file is preceded by
.Dq \-> .
.Pp
The file mode printed under the -l option consists of the
entry type, owner permissions, and group permissions.
The entry type character describes the type of file, as
follows:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width 4n -offset indent -compact
.It Sy b
Block special file.
.It Sy c
Character special file.
.It Sy d
Directory.
.It Sy l
Symbolic link.
.It Sy s
Socket link.
.\" .It Sy p
.\" .Tn FIFO .
.It Sy w
Whiteout.
.It Sy \-
Regular file.
.El
.Pp
The next three fields
are three characters each:
owner permissions,
group permissions, and
other permissions.
Each field has three character positions:
.Bl -enum -offset indent
.It
If
.Sy r ,
the file is readable; if
.Sy \- ,
it is not readable.
.It
If
.Sy w ,
the file is writable; if
.Sy \- ,
it is not writable.
.It
The first of the following that applies:
.Bl -tag -width 4n -offset indent
.It Sy S
If in the owner permissions, the file is not executable and
set-user-ID mode is set.
If in the group permissions, the file is not executable
and set-group-ID mode is set.
.It Sy s
If in the owner permissions, the file is executable
and set-user-ID mode is set.
If in the group permissions, the file is executable
and setgroup-ID mode is set.
.It Sy x
The file is executable or the directory is
searchable.
.It Sy \-
The file is neither readable, writeable, executable,
nor set-user-ID nor set-group-ID mode, nor sticky. (See below.)
.El
.Pp
These next two apply only to the third character in the last group
(other permissions).
.Bl -tag -width 4n -offset indent
.It Sy T
The sticky bit is set
(mode
.Li 1000 ) ,
but not execute or search permission. (See
.Xr chmod 1
or
.Xr sticky 8 . )
.It Sy t
The sticky bit is set (mode
.Li 1000 ) ,
and is searchable or executable.
(See
.Xr chmod 1
or
.Xr sticky 8 . )
.El
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm ls
utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
.Sh ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES
The following environment variables affect the execution of
.Nm ls :
.Bl -tag -width BLOCKSIZE
.It Ev BLOCKSIZE
If the environmental variable
.Ev BLOCKSIZE
is set, the block counts
(see
.Fl s )
will be displayed in units of that size block.
.It COLUMNS
If this variable contains a string representing a
decimal integer, it is used as the
column position width for displaying
multiple-text-column output.
The
.Nm ls
utility calculates how
many pathname text columns to display
based on the width provided.
(See
.Fl C . )
.It Ev TZ
The timezone to use when displaying dates.
See
.Xr environ 7
for more information.
.El
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
The group field is now automatically included in the long listing for
files in order to be compatible with the
.St -p1003.2
specification.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chmod 1 ,
.Xr symlink 7 ,
.Xr sticky 8
.Sh HISTORY
An
.Nm ls
command appeared in
.At v6 .
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm ls
function is expected to be a superset of the
.St -p1003.2
specification.