Linux with Operating System Concepts

Option
Meaning
-A
Same as -a except that . and .. are not shown
-B
Ignore items whose names end with ~ (~is used for backup files)
-C
List entries in columns (fits more items on the screen)
-d
List directories by name, do not list their content
-F
Append listings with item classifications (ends directory names with/, ends 
executable files with *)
-g
Same as –l except that owner is not shown
-G
Same as –l except that group owner is not shown
-h
When used with –l, modifies file sizes to be “human readable”
-i
Include inode number of items (inodes are discussed in Chapter 10)
-L
Dereference links—that is, display information about item being linked to, 
not the link itself (links are discussed in Chapters 3 and 10)
-r
List items in reverse alphabetical order
-R
Recursive listing (list contents of all subdirectories)
-s
When used with –l, outputs sizes in blocks rather than bytes
-S
Sort files by size rather than name
-t
Sort files by modification time rather than name
-X
Sort files by extension name rather than name
-1
(numeric 1) List files one per line (do not use columns)

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Linux with Operating System Concepts
command and how to use it. The information can be cryptic for introductory users how-
ever. So, it is worthwhile reviewing man pages as you learn commands to gain a better 
understanding of the command as well as to learn how to interpret man pages.
The man command expects the name of a Linux command as its argument. The result 
of man is displayed in the current terminal window, filling the screen. In almost every case, 
the man contents are longer than one page, so at the end of each page, you receive a prompt 
of 
:
which waits for one of several keystrokes described below. The items displayed in a 
man page are described in Table 2.2.
What follows are the entries listed under the man page for the 
ls
command.
• NAME
• 
ls
—list directory contents
• SYNOPSIS
• 
ls
[OPTION]…. [FILE]…
OPTION is the list of optional options and FILE is the optional list of files/directories. 
The [] indicate that these entries are optional.
This is followed by approximately nine screens’ worth of options and their descriptions.
• AUTHOR
• Written by Richard Stallman and David MacKenzie.
• REPORTING BUGS
• Report bugs to 
<
[e-mail]
>
.
TABLE 2.2 
Man Page Contents