VDIR(1) General Commands Manual VDIR(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

vdir - List directory contents. Ignore files and directories starting with a '.' by default

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**vdir** \[OPTION]... \[FILE]...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

List directory contents. Ignore files and directories starting with a '.' by default

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**--help**](#help)

Print help information.

[**--format**](#format)

Set the display format.

[**-C**](#C)

Display the files in columns.

[**-l**, **--long**](#l)

Display detailed information.

[**-x**](#x)

List entries in rows instead of in columns.

[**-T**, **--tabsize** *<COLS>*](#T)

Assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8

[**-m**](#m)

List entries separated by commas.

[**--zero**](#zero)

List entries separated by ASCII NUL characters.

[**-D**, **--dired**](#D)

generate output designed for Emacs' dired (Directory Editor) mode

[**--hyperlink**\[=*<WHEN>*\] \[default: never\]](#hyperlink)

hyperlink file names WHEN

*Possible values:*

- always
- auto
- never

**-1**

List one file per line.

[**-o**](#o)

Long format without group information. Identical to --format=long with --no-group.

[**-g**](#g)

Long format without owner information.

[**-n**, **--numeric-uid-gid**](#n)

-l with numeric UIDs and GIDs.

[**--quoting-style**](#quoting)

Set quoting style.

*Possible values:*

- literal
- locale
- shell
- shell-escape
- shell-always
- shell-escape-always
- clocale
- c
- escape

[**-N**, **--literal**](#N)

Use literal quoting style. Equivalent to \`--quoting-style=literal\`

[**-b**, **--escape**](#b)

Use escape quoting style. Equivalent to \`--quoting-style=escape\`

[**-Q**, **--quote-name**](#Q)

Use C quoting style. Equivalent to \`--quoting-style=c\`

[**-q**, **--hide-control-chars**](#q)

Replace control characters with '?' if they are not escaped.

[**--show-control-chars**](#show)

Show control characters 'as is' if they are not escaped.

[**--time** *<field>*](#time)

Show time in \`<field>\`: access time (-u): atime, access, use; change time (-t): ctime, status. modification time: mtime, modification. birth time: birth, creation;

[**-c**](#c)

If the long listing format (e.g., -l, -o) is being used, print the status change time (the 'ctime' in the inode) instead of the modification time. When explicitly sorting by time (--sort=time or -t) or when not using a long listing format, sort according to the status change time.

[**-u**](#u)

If the long listing format (e.g., -l, -o) is being used, print the status access time instead of the modification time. When explicitly sorting by time (--sort=time or -t) or when not using a long listing format, sort according to the access time.

[**--hide** *<PATTERN>*](#hide)

do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN (overridden by -a or -A)

[**-I**, **--ignore** *<PATTERN>*](#I)

do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN

[**-B**, **--ignore-backups**](#B)

Ignore entries which end with ~.

[**--sort** *<field>*](#sort)

Sort by \`<field>\`: name, none (-U), time (-t), size (-S), extension (-X) or width

*Possible values:*

- name
- none
- time
- size
- version
- extension
- width

[**-S**](#S)

Sort by file size, largest first.

[**-t**](#t)

Sort by modification time (the 'mtime' in the inode), newest first.

[**-v**](#v)

Natural sort of (version) numbers in the filenames.

[**-X**](#X)

Sort alphabetically by entry extension.

[**-U**](#U)

Do not sort; list the files in whatever order they are stored in the directory. This is especially useful when listing very large directories, since not doing any sorting can be noticeably faster.

[**-L**, **--dereference**](#L)

When showing file information for a symbolic link, show information for the file the link references rather than the link itself.

[**--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir**](#dereference)

Do not follow symlinks except when they link to directories and are given as command line arguments.

[**-H**, **--dereference-command-line**](#H)

Do not follow symlinks except when given as command line arguments.

[**-G**, **--no-group**](#G)

Do not show group in long format.

[**--author**](#author)

Show author in long format. On the supported platforms, the author always matches the file owner.

[**-a**, **--all**](#a)

Do not ignore hidden files (files with names that start with '.').

[**-A**, **--almost-all**](#A)

In a directory, do not ignore all file names that start with '.', only ignore '.' and '..'.

[**-f**](#f)

List all files in directory order, unsorted. Equivalent to -aU. Disables --color unless explicitly specified.

[**-d**, **--directory**](#d)

Only list the names of directories, rather than listing directory contents. This will not follow symbolic links unless one of \`--dereference-command-line (-H)\`, \`--dereference (-L)\`, or \`--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir\` is specified.

[**-h**, **--human-readable**](#h)

Print human readable file sizes (e.g. 1K 234M 56G).

[**-k**, **--kibibytes**](#k)

default to 1024-byte blocks for file system usage; used only with -s and per directory totals

[**--si**](#si)

Print human readable file sizes using powers of 1000 instead of 1024.

[**--block-size** *<BLOCK\_SIZE>*](#block)

scale sizes by BLOCK\_SIZE when printing them

[**-i**, **--inode**](#i)

print the index number of each file

[**-r**, **--reverse**](#r)

Reverse whatever the sorting method is e.g., list files in reverse alphabetical order, youngest first, smallest first, or whatever.

[**-R**, **--recursive**](#R)

List the contents of all directories recursively.

[**-w**, **--width** *<COLS>*](#w)

Assume that the terminal is COLS columns wide.

[**-s**, **--size**](#s)

print the allocated size of each file, in blocks

[**--color**](#color)

Color output based on file type.

*Possible values:*

- always
- auto
- never

[**--indicator-style**](#indicator)

Append indicator with style WORD to entry names: none (default), slash (-p), file-type (--file-type), classify (-F)

*Possible values:*

- none
- slash
- file-type
- classify

[**-F**, **--classify**\[=*<when>*\]](#F)

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. This will 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.

*Possible values:*

- always
- auto
- never

[**--file-type**](#file)

Same as --classify, but do not append '\*'

[**-p**](#p)

Append / indicator to directories.

[**--time-style** *<TIME\_STYLE>*](#time~2)

time/date format with -l; see TIME\_STYLE below

[**--full-time**](#full)

like -l --time-style=full-iso

[**-Z**, **--context**](#Z)

print any security context of each file

[**--group-directories-first**](#group)

group directories before files; can be augmented with a --sort option, but any use of --sort=none (-U) disables grouping

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

# [EXTRA](#EXTRA)

The TIME\_STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, locale or +FORMAT. FORMAT is interpreted like in date. Also the TIME\_STYLE environment variable sets the default style to use.

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-09-30

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Document: vdir(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils