Decoded: dir (coreutils)

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Note: This page explores the design of command-line utilities. It is not a user guide.
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Logical flow of dir command (coreutils)

Summary

dir - brief list of directory contents

[Source] [Code Walkthrough]

Lines of code: 2
Principal syscall: None
Support syscalls: None
Options: 2 (help and version)

Setup

The two lines of code for dir set the global mode of the ls utility.

Parsing

The dir utility forces the -C and -b options during parsing

Execution

See ls. The dir utility executes the same code as ls except that it guarantees column listing and C-style escaped names.

Note that dir is a standalone utility and does not directly depend on ls.

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