File: coreutils.info,  Node: General output formatting,  Next: Formatting file timestamps,  Prev: Sorting the output,  Up: ls invocation

10.1.4 General output formatting
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These options affect the appearance of the overall output.

‘--format=single-column’
     List one file name per line, with no other information.  This is
     the default for ‘ls’ when standard output is not a terminal.  See
     also the ‘--escape’ (‘-b’), ‘--hide-control-chars’ (‘-q’), and
     ‘--zero’ options to disambiguate output of file names containing
     newline characters.

‘-1’
     List one file per line.  This is like ‘--format=single-column’
     except that it has no effect if long format is also in effect.

‘-C’
‘--format=vertical’
     List files in columns, sorted vertically, with no other
     information.  This is the default for ‘ls’ if standard output is a
     terminal.  It is always the default for the ‘dir’ program.  GNU
     ‘ls’ uses variable width columns to display as many files as
     possible in the fewest lines.

‘--color [=WHEN]’
     Specify whether to use color for distinguishing file types; WHEN
     may be omitted, or one of:
        • none - Do not use color at all.  This is the default.
        • auto - Only use color if standard output is a terminal.
        • always - Always use color.
     Specifying ‘--color’ and no WHEN is equivalent to ‘--color=always’.
     If piping a colored listing through a pager like ‘less’, use the
     pager’s ‘-R’ option to pass the color codes to the terminal.

     Using the ‘--color’ option may incur a noticeable performance
     penalty when run in a large directory, because the default settings
     require that ‘ls’ ‘stat’ every single file it lists.  However, if
     you would like most of the file-type coloring but can live without
     the other coloring options (e.g., executable, orphan, sticky,
     other-writable, capability), use ‘dircolors’ to set the ‘LS_COLORS’
     environment variable like this,
          eval $(dircolors -p | perl -pe \
            's/^((CAP|S[ET]|O[TR]|M|E)\w+).*/$1 00/' | dircolors -)
     and on a ‘dirent.d_type’-capable file system, ‘ls’ will perform
     only one ‘stat’ call per command line argument.

‘-F’
‘--classify [=WHEN]’
‘--indicator-style=classify’
     Append a character to each file name indicating the file type.
     Also, for regular files that are executable, append ‘*’.  The file
     type indicators are ‘/’ for directories, ‘@’ for symbolic links,
     ‘|’ for FIFOs, ‘=’ for sockets, ‘>’ for doors, and nothing for
     regular files.  WHEN may be omitted, or one of:
        • none - Do not classify.  This is the default.
        • auto - Only classify if standard output is a terminal.
        • always - Always classify.
     Specifying ‘--classify’ and no WHEN is equivalent to
     ‘--classify=always’.  Do not follow symbolic links listed on the
     command line unless the ‘--dereference-command-line’ (‘-H’),
     ‘--dereference’ (‘-L’), or
     ‘--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir’ options are specified.

‘--file-type’
‘--indicator-style=file-type’
     Append a character to each file name indicating the file type.
     This is like ‘--classify’ (‘-F’, except that executables are not
     marked.

‘--hyperlink [=WHEN]’
     Output codes recognized by some terminals to link to files using
     the ‘file://’ URI format.  WHEN may be omitted, or one of:
        • none - Do not use hyperlinks at all.  This is the default.
        • auto - Only use hyperlinks if standard output is a terminal.
        • always - Always use hyperlinks.
     Specifying ‘--hyperlink’ and no WHEN is equivalent to
     ‘--hyperlink=always’.

‘--indicator-style=WORD’
     Append a character indicator with style WORD to entry names, as
     follows:

     ‘none’
          Do not append any character indicator; this is the default.
     ‘slash’
          Append ‘/’ for directories.  This is the same as the ‘-p’
          option.
     ‘file-type’
          Append ‘/’ for directories, ‘@’ for symbolic links, ‘|’ for
          FIFOs, ‘=’ for sockets, and nothing for regular files.  This
          is the same as the ‘--file-type’ option.
     ‘classify’
          Append ‘*’ for executable regular files, otherwise behave as
          for ‘file-type’.  This is the same as the ‘--classify’ (‘-F’)
          option.

‘-k’
‘--kibibytes’
     Set the default block size to its normal value of 1024 bytes,
     overriding any contrary specification in environment variables
     (*note Block size::).  If ‘--block-size’, ‘--human-readable’
     (‘-h’), or ‘--si’ options are used, they take precedence even if
     ‘--kibibytes’ (‘-k’) is placed after

     The ‘--kibibytes’ (‘-k’) option affects the per-directory block
     count written in long format, and the file system allocation
     written by the ‘--size’ (‘-s’) option.  It does not affect the file
     size in bytes that is written in long format.

‘-m’
‘--format=commas’
     List files horizontally, with as many as will fit on each line,
     separated by ‘, ’ (a comma and a space), and with no other
     information.

‘-p’
‘--indicator-style=slash’
     Append a ‘/’ to directory names.

‘-x’
‘--format=across’
‘--format=horizontal’
     List the files in columns, sorted horizontally.

‘-T COLS’
‘--tabsize=COLS’
     Assume that each tab stop is COLS columns wide.  The default is 8.
     ‘ls’ uses tabs where possible in the output, for efficiency.  If
     COLS is zero, do not use tabs at all.

     Some terminal emulators might not properly align columns to the
     right of a TAB following a non-ASCII byte.  You can avoid that
     issue by using the ‘-T0’ option or put ‘TABSIZE=0’ in your
     environment, to tell ‘ls’ to align using spaces, not tabs.

     If you set a terminal’s hardware tabs to anything other than the
     default, you should also use a ‘--tabsize’ option or ‘TABSIZE’
     environment variable either to match the hardware tabs, or to
     disable the use of hardware tabs.  Otherwise, the output of ‘ls’
     may not line up.  For example, if you run the shell command ‘tabs
     -4’ to set hardware tabs to every four columns, you should also run
     ‘export TABSIZE=4’ or ‘export TABSIZE=0’, or use the corresponding
     ‘--tabsize’ options.

‘-w COLS’
‘--width=COLS’
     Assume the screen is COLS columns wide.  The default is taken from
     the terminal settings if possible; otherwise the environment
     variable ‘COLUMNS’ is used if it is set; otherwise the default is
     80.  With a COLS value of ‘0’, there is no limit on the length of
     the output line, and that single output line will be delimited with
     spaces, not tabs.

‘--zero’
     Output a zero byte (ASCII NUL) at the end of each line, rather than
     a newline.  This option enables other programs to parse the output
     even when that output would contain data with embedded newlines.
     This option is incompatible with the ‘--dired’ (‘-D’) option.  This
     option also implies the options ‘--show-control-chars’, ‘-1’,
     ‘--color=none’, and ‘--quoting-style=literal’ (‘-N’).