10.1.7 Formatting the file names

These options change how file names themselves are printed.

`-b'

`--escape'

`--quoting-style=escape'

Quote nongraphic characters in file names using alphabetic and octal backslash sequences like those used in C.

`-N'

`--literal'

`--quoting-style=literal'

Do not quote file names.

`-q'

`--hide-control-chars'

Print question marks instead of nongraphic characters in file names. This is the default if the output is a terminal and the program is ls.

`-Q'

`--quote-name'

`--quoting-style=c'

Enclose file names in double quotes and quote nongraphic characters as in C.

`--quoting-style=word'

Use style word to quote output names. The word should be one of the following:

`literal'

Output names as-is; this is the same as the `-N' or `--literal' option.

`shell'

Quote names for the shell if they contain shell metacharacters or would cause ambiguous output.

`shell-always'

Quote names for the shell, even if they would normally not require quoting.

`c'

Quote names as for a C language string; this is the same as the `-Q' or `--quote-name' option.

`escape'

Quote as with `c' except omit the surrounding double-quote characters; this is the same as the `-b' or `--escape' option.

`clocale'

Quote as with `c' except use quotation marks appropriate for the locale.

`locale'

Like `clocale', but quote `like this' instead of "like this" in the default C locale. This looks nicer on many displays.

You can specify the default value of the `--quoting-style' option with the environment variable QUOTING_STYLE. If that environment variable is not set, the default value is `literal', but this default may change to `shell' in a future version of this package.

`--show-control-chars'

Print nongraphic characters as-is in file names. This is the default unless the output is a terminal and the program is ls.