GNU bug report logs - #12664
Not possible to list directories recursiv (-d switch ignores -R)

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vamp898 <vamp898 <at> ignaz.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Not possible to list directories recursiv (-d switch ignores -R)
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:01:14 +0200

Documentation says the following:

-d, --directory :: list directory entries instead of contents, and do not 
dereference symbolic links

and

-R, --recursive :: list subdirectories recursively

And this is what i get when i use ls -dR /

$ ls -dR /
/

I even tried

ls -d --recursiv -R -R -R -RRRRRRRRRRR /
/

The -R switch stand-alone works fine

Im using the coreutils 8.19 package from Archlinux

Message #12 received at 12664-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Vamp898 <vamp898 <at> ignaz.org>
Cc: 12664-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#12664: Not possible to list directories recursiv (-d switch
	ignores -R)
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:44:12 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

tag 12664 notabug
thanks

On 10/17/2012 12:01 PM, Vamp898 wrote:
> Documentation says the following:
> 
> -d, --directory :: list directory entries instead of contents, and do not 
> dereference symbolic links
> 
> and
> 
> -R, --recursive :: list subdirectories recursively
> 
> And this is what i get when i use ls -dR /
> 
> $ ls -dR /
> /

Thanks for the report.  However, POSIX require -d to treat directories
as files rather than directories, and says that mixing -d and -R is
unspecified:

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/ls.html
> -d
>     Do not follow symbolic links named as operands unless the -H or -L options are specified. Do not treat directories differently than other types of files. The use of -d with -R produces unspecified results.

In GNU, we take this to mean that -d always overrides -R, because
recursion makes sense only if you treat a directory as a directory, but
-d says to treat it as a file instead.

If you need to mix recursion with listing of directories, consider using
find(1), as in:

find . -type d

or with specific ls options:

find . -type d -exec ls -ld {} +

As such, I'm closing this as not a bug; but you are free to still add
comments or questions to this conversation.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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Message #15 received at 12664 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bob Proulx <bob <at> proulx.com>
To: 12664 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Vamp898 <vamp898 <at> ignaz.org>
Subject: Re: bug#12664: Not possible to list directories recursiv (-d switch
	ignores -R)
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:41:14 -0600

Vamp898 wrote:
> Documentation says the following:
> 
> -d, --directory :: list directory entries instead of contents, and do not 
> dereference symbolic links
> 
> and
> 
> -R, --recursive :: list subdirectories recursively
> 
> And this is what i get when i use ls -dR /
> 
> $ ls -dR /
> /

Right.  Because the -d said to list the directory and not the contents.
In addition to everything Eric said see also this FAQ entry:

  http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#ls-_002dd-does-not-list-directories_0021

Bob

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