vdir — list directory contents
Examples (TL;DR)
-
List files and directories in the current directory, one per line, with details:
vdir -
List with sizes displayed in human readable units (KB, MB, GB):
vdir -h -
List including hidden files (starting with a dot):
vdir -a -
List files and directories sorting entries by size (largest first):
vdir -S -
List files and directories sorting entries by modification time (newest first):
vdir -t -
List grouping directories first:
vdir --group-directories-first -
Recursively list all files and directories in a specific directory:
vdir --recursive path/to/directory
Synopsis
vdir [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Description
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default). Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
- -a, --all
do not ignore entries starting with .
- -A, --almost-all
do not list implied . and ..
- --author
with -l, print the author of each file
- -b, --escape
print C-style escapes for nongraphic characters
- --block-size=SIZE
with -l, scale sizes by SIZE when printing them; e.g., '--block-size=M'; see SIZE format below
- -B, --ignore-backups
do not list implied entries ending with ~
- -c
with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last modification of file status information); with -l: show ctime and sort by name; otherwise: sort by ctime, newest first
- -C
list entries by columns
- --color[=WHEN]
colorize the output; WHEN can be 'always' (default if omitted), 'auto', or 'never'; more info below
- -d, --directory
list directories themselves, not their contents
- -D, --dired
generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
- -f
do not sort, enable -aU, disable -ls --color
- -F, --classify
append indicator (one of */=>@|) to entries
- --file-type
likewise, except do not append '*'
- --format=WORD
across -x, commas -m, horizontal -x, long -l, single-column -1, verbose -l, vertical -C
- --full-time
like -l --time-style=full-iso
- -g
like -l, but do not list owner
- --group-directories-first
-
group directories before files;
can be augmented with a --sort option, but any use of --sort=none (-U) disables grouping
- -G, --no-group
in a long listing, don't print group names
- -h, --human-readable
- --si
likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
- -H, --dereference-command-line
follow symbolic links listed on the command line
- --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir
-
follow each command line symbolic link
that points to a directory
- --hide=PATTERN
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden by -a or -A)
- --hyperlink[=WHEN]
hyperlink file names; WHEN can be 'always' (default if omitted), 'auto', or 'never'
- --indicator-style=WORD
append indicator with style WORD to entry names: none (default), slash (-p), file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)
- -i, --inode
print the index number of each file
- -I, --ignore=PATTERN
do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
- -k, --kibibytes
default to 1024-byte blocks for disk usage; used only with -s and per directory totals
- -l
use a long listing format
- -L, --dereference
when showing file information for a symbolic link, show information for the file the link references rather than for the link itself
- -m
fill width with a comma separated list of entries
- -n, --numeric-uid-gid
like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs
- -N, --literal
print entry names without quoting
- -o
like -l, but do not list group information
- -p, --indicator-style=slash
append / indicator to directories
- -q, --hide-control-chars
print ? instead of nongraphic characters
- --show-control-chars
show nongraphic characters as-is (the default, unless program is 'ls' and output is a terminal)
- -Q, --quote-name
enclose entry names in double quotes
- --quoting-style=WORD
use quoting style WORD for entry names: literal, locale, shell, shell-always, shell-escape, shell-escape-always, c, escape (overrides QUOTING_STYLE environment variable)
- -r, --reverse
reverse order while sorting
- -R, --recursive
list subdirectories recursively
- -s, --size
print the allocated size of each file, in blocks
- -S
sort by file size, largest first
- --sort=WORD
sort by WORD instead of name: none (-U), size (-S), time (-t), version (-v), extension (-X)
- --time=WORD
with -l, show time as WORD instead of default modification time: atime or access or use (-u); ctime or status (-c); also use specified time as sort key if --sort=time (newest first)
- --time-style=TIME_STYLE
time/date format with -l; see TIME_STYLE below
- -t
sort by modification time, newest first
- -T, --tabsize=COLS
assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
- -u
with -lt: sort by, and show, access time; with -l: show access time and sort by name; otherwise: sort by access time, newest first
- -U
do not sort; list entries in directory order
- -v
natural sort of (version) numbers within text
- -w, --width=COLS
set output width to COLS. 0 means no limit
- -x
list entries by lines instead of by columns
- -X
sort alphabetically by entry extension
- -Z, --context
print any security context of each file
- -1
- --help
display this help and exit
- --version
output version information and exit
The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024). Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.
The TIME_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale, or +FORMAT. FORMAT is interpreted like in date(1). If FORMAT is FORMAT1<newline>FORMAT2, then FORMAT1 applies to non-recent files and FORMAT2 to recent files. TIME_STYLE prefixed with 'posix-' takes effect only outside the POSIX locale. Also the TIME_STYLE environment variable sets the default style to use.
Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and with --color=never. With --color=auto, ls emits color codes only when standard output is connected to a terminal. The LS_COLORS environment variable can change the settings. Use the dircolors command to set it.
Exit status
- 0
if OK,
- 1
if minor problems (e.g., cannot access subdirectory),
- 2
if serious trouble (e.g., cannot access command-line argument).
Reporting Bugs
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
See Also
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/vdir>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) vdir invocation'