Bug 149983

Summary:	ls missing option to list directories first
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3	Reporter:	ilja lunev <uxadm>
Component:	coreutils	Assignee:	Tim Waugh <twaugh>
Status:	CLOSED UPSTREAM	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	3.0	CC:	shillman
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	FutureFeature
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Enhancement
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2005-05-14 10:44:34 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description ilja lunev 2005-03-01 07:36:44 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
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Description of problem:
The good old 'ls' command has many options but there are missing some essential things.
1. There is no option to get a properly ascii sorted output (see examples below). Instead it relies on the LANG variable
2. On HP-UX a regular 'ls' done as super-user always lists all files (except . and ..). There is no option for this on Linux.
3. There is no option to get directories before files (like windows does it)

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
just do an 'ls' or 'ls -a'
  

Actual Results:  LANG=en_US ls -a 
.           .B          !!CTestFile  eTestFile   .g
..          bTestFile   .d           !eTestFile  !!GdTestFile
.a          !bTestFile  dTestFile    @eTestFile  gTestFile
aTestFile   @bTestFile  !dTestFile   .f          !gTestFile
!aTestFile  .c          @dTestFile   fTestFile   @gTestFile
@aTestFile  cTestFile   @DTestFile   !fTestFile
@ATestFile  !cTestFile  .e           @fTestFile
.b          @cTestFile  .E           !FTestFile


Expected Results:  root ls under HP-UX
!!CTestFile   !eTestFile    .c            @aTestFile    aTestFile
!!GdTestFile  !fTestFile    .d            @bTestFile    bTestFile
!FTestFile    !gTestFile    .e            @cTestFile    cTestFile
!aTestFile    .B            .f            @dTestFile    dTestFile
!bTestFile    .E            .g            @eTestFile    eTestFile
!cTestFile    .a            @ATestFile    @fTestFile    fTestFile
!dTestFile    .b            @DTestFile    @gTestFile    gTestFile


Additional info:

Comment 1 Tim Waugh 2005-03-01 11:03:01 UTC

> 1. There is no option to get a properly ascii sorted output (see examples
below). Instead it relies on the LANG variable

You can set the LC_COLLATE=C variable to get ASCII sorting without affecting
other locale variables (see POSIX).

> 2. On HP-UX a regular 'ls' done as super-user always lists all files (except .
and ..). There is no option for this on Linux.

I think the -A option does what you want.

> 3. There is no option to get directories before files (like windows does it)

This feature enhancement has been requested previously, for example:
  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2004-03/msg00033.html

Comment 2 Juliano F. Ravasi 2005-03-05 21:15:18 UTC

I also would like an option to sort directories first, but it seems
that coreutils people dislike it and ignores every patch or message
that suggests this addition (which is quite trivial).

Comment 3 Tim Waugh 2005-03-07 15:53:33 UTC

The main objection I think is that sort-directories-first isn't orthorgonal to
sort-by-name/size/date etc.

In other words: What if someone wants this option, but with things sorted on
size or extension, rather than on name?

Comment 5 Tim Waugh 2005-05-14 10:44:34 UTC

Closing as 'upstream', since this issue is known to the upstream developers.