Return to Answer

If you can't get ls to sort the way you want, try shell expansion.

You can use file name patterns to run ls with a list of files that the shell already sorted, bypassing the method that ls uses.

ls -lf _* [!_]*

Assuming you have the files

_a a _b b _c c

this is like running

ls -lf _a _b _c a b c

Explanation:

_* is a shell pattern matching any file name beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

[!_]* matches any file name not beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

-f tells ls to not sort, because the shell already did.

More information: bash filename expansion

If there are directories in the current directory you will want to run the command like this to avoid ls listing files in the directories:

ls -lfd * [!]*

If you can't get ls to sort the way you want, try shell expansion.

You can use file name patterns to run ls with a list of files that the shell already sorted, bypassing the method that ls uses.

ls -lf _* [!_]*

Assuming you have the files

_a a _b b _c c

this is like running

ls -lf _a _b _c a b c

Explanation:

_* is a shell pattern matching any file name beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

[!_]* matches any file name not beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

-f tells ls to not sort, because the shell already did.

More information: bash filename expansion

If there are directories in the current directory you will want to run the command like this to avoid ls listing files in the directories:

ls -lfd _* [!_]*

If you can't get ls to sort the way you want, try shell expansion.

You can use file name patterns to run ls with a list of files that the shell already sorted, bypassing the method that ls uses.

ls -lf _* [!_]*

Assuming you have the files

_a a _b b _c c

this is like running

ls -lf _a _b _c a b c

Explanation:

_* is a shell pattern matching any file name beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

[!_]* matches any file name not beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

-f tells ls to not sort, because the shell already did.

More information: bash filename expansion

If you can't get ls to sort the way you want, try shell expansion.

You can use file name patterns to run ls with a list of files that the shell already sorted, bypassing the method that ls uses.

ls -lf _* [!_]*

Assuming you have the files

_a a _b b _c c

this is like running

ls -lf _a _b _c a b c

Explanation:

_* is a shell pattern matching any file name beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

[!_]* matches any file name not beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

-f tells ls to not sort, because the shell already did.

More information: bash filename expansion

If there are directories in the current directory you will want to run the command like this to avoid ls listing files in the directories:

ls -lfd * [!]*

If you can't get ls to sort the way you want, try shell expansion.

You can use file name patterns to run ls with a list of files that the shell already sorted, bypassing the method that ls uses.

ls -lf _* [!_]*

This is like running

ls -lf _a _b _c a b c

Explanation:

_* matches any file name beginning with an underscore.

[!_]* matches any file name not beginning with an underscore.

The shell expands each pattern (_* and [!_]* in this case) into the file names that match that pattern, and sorts them alphabetically.

-f tells ls to not sort, because the shell already did.

More information: bash filename expansion

If you can't get ls to sort the way you want, try shell expansion.

You can use file name patterns to run ls with a list of files that the shell already sorted, bypassing the method that ls uses.

ls -lf _* [!_]*

Assuming you have the files

_a a _b b _c c

this is like running

ls -lf _a _b _c a b c

Explanation:

_* is a shell pattern matching any file name beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

[!_]* matches any file name not beginning with an underscore, expanded in alphabetic order.

-f tells ls to not sort, because the shell already did.

More information: bash filename expansion