(coreutils.info)Which files are listed

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10.1.1 Which files are listed
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These options determine which files ‘ls’ lists information for.  By
default, ‘ls’ lists files and the contents of any directories on the
command line, except that in directories it ignores files whose names
start with ‘.’.

‘-a’
‘--all’
     In directories, do not ignore file names that start with ‘.’.

‘-A’
‘--almost-all’
     In directories, do not ignore all file names that start with ‘.’;
     ignore only ‘.’ and ‘..’.  The ‘--all’ (‘-a’) option overrides this
     option.

‘-B’
‘--ignore-backups’
     In directories, ignore files that end with ‘~’.  This option is
     equivalent to ‘--ignore='*~' --ignore='.*~'’.

‘-d’
‘--directory’
     List just the names of directories, as with other types of files,
     rather than listing their contents.  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.

‘-H’
‘--dereference-command-line’
     If a command line argument specifies a symbolic link, show
     information for the file the link references rather than for the
     link itself.

‘--dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir’
     Do not dereference symbolic links, with one exception: if a command
     line argument specifies a symbolic link that refers to a directory,
     show information for that directory rather than for the link
     itself.  This is the default behavior when no other
     dereferencing-related option has been specified (‘--classify’
     (‘-F’), ‘--directory’ (‘-d’), (‘-l’), ‘--dereference’ (‘-L’), or
     ‘--dereference-command-line’ (‘-H’)).

‘--group-directories-first’
     Group all the directories before the files and then sort the
     directories and the files separately using the selected sort key
     (see –sort option).  That is, this option specifies a primary sort
     key, and the –sort option specifies a secondary key.  However, any
     use of ‘--sort=none’ (‘-U’) disables this option altogether.

‘--hide=PATTERN’
     In directories, ignore files whose names match the shell pattern
     PATTERN, unless the ‘--all’ (‘-a’) or ‘--almost-all’ (‘-A’) is also
     given.  This option acts like ‘--ignore=PATTERN’ except that it has
     no effect if ‘--all’ (‘-a’) or ‘--almost-all’ (‘-A’) is also given.

     This option can be useful in shell aliases.  For example, if ‘lx’
     is an alias for ‘ls --hide='*~'’ and ‘ly’ is an alias for ‘ls
     --ignore='*~'’, then the command ‘lx -A’ lists the file ‘README~’
     even though ‘ly -A’ would not.

‘-I PATTERN’
‘--ignore=PATTERN’
     In directories, ignore files whose names match the shell pattern
     (not regular expression) PATTERN.  As in the shell, an initial ‘.’
     in a file name does not match a wildcard at the start of PATTERN.
     Sometimes it is useful to give this option several times.  For
     example,

          $ ls --ignore='.??*' --ignore='.[^.]' --ignore='#*'

     The first option ignores names of length 3 or more that start with
     ‘.’, the second ignores all two-character names that start with ‘.’
     except ‘..’, and the third ignores names that start with ‘#’.

‘-L’
‘--dereference’
     When showing file information for a symbolic link, show information
     for the file the link references rather than the link itself.
     However, even with this option, ‘ls’ still prints the name of the
     link itself, not the name of the file that the link points to.

‘-R’
‘--recursive’
     List the contents of all directories recursively.