On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, John Bowling wrote:
ls -d
returns only '.'
Per your faq this is the designed in operation
ls --help
does not reflect that operation:
-d, --directory list directory entries instead of contents,
and do not dereference symbolic links
"." is the directory entry (not the contents) of ".", which is the
default argument to ls.
For that result it should read
-d, --directory lists base directory entry only instead of
contents,
"ls -d" is not a useful command on its own, without any arguments.
Changing the --help text as suggested would mis-describe the intended
purpose of -d, which is detailed in the referenced FAQ.
There is no way to get directory entries (plural or multiple levels)
with just -d
making that description of -d very inaccurate.
From the FAQ:
"If you are trying to find files in the directory hierarchy then you
should look into using the find command."
--help output is intended to be more of a quick reference; the coreutils
manual contains a longer description of -d.
Cheers,
Phil
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