Eric Blake <ebl...@redhat.com> wrote: [...]
> All -d does is to list command line arguments that are directories as > the name of the directory itself, rather than descending and showing the > directory's contents. That description is already better than the current one in the man page, which reads: -d, --directory list directory entries instead of contents, and do not derefer- ence symbolic links I'd say that one can reasonably be understood to mean that files would not be listed, as Eddie did. I'd suggest a new wording: -d, --directory If an argument is a directory, list the directory itself instead of its contents. Frequently used with -l to display the properties of directories. I don't see any relevant effect on symbolic links, so unless soeone can come up with an explanation, maybe that part can be dropped. $ ls -ld b lrwxr-xr-x 1 canavan user 1 Aug 8 12:45 b -> a $ ls -l b lrwxr-xr-x 1 canavan user 1 Aug 8 12:45 b -> a $ ls -d b b $ ls b b rainer