ls -c option does nothing. unlike linux, where it actually makes ls to sort according to mtime. Proof: Below are three ls outputs, including -l output which shows that even with -c option the output is sorted alphabetically, and not according to mtime. ===Cut=== root@san1:bin/ls]# ls -1 /home/emz .cache .config .cshrc .gitconfig .histfile .history .lesshst .local .login .login_conf .mail_aliases .mailrc .profile .rhosts .shrc .ssh .subversion .wget-hsts .zshrc 4600-protocols.txt backups blockdev.txt clone-disks.sh corrupted-userdata.txt corrupted-userdata.txt.0 corrupted-userdata.txt.1 corrupted-userdata.txt.2 corrupted-userdata.txt.3 corrupted-userdata.txt.4 corrupted-userdata.txt.5 corrupted-userdata.txt.6 corrupted-userdata.txt.7 corrupted-userdata.txt.8 corrupted-userdata.txt.9 create-userdata.sh ctl ctl.conf ctl.conf.games ctl.conf.userdata ctl.conf.userdata.2nd ctl.conf.userdata.gap ctladm.txt ctld ctld-locking cycle-reload.sh delete-userdata.sh drop-snapshots.sh dumps ether-switching-table.txt ether-switching-table.txt.sw0 get-smart-errors-count.sh intel linx.txt lsi lynx-plan-nat.txt mac-2-ip.sh mac-2-ip.txt mellanox nginx recreate-corrupted-userdata.sh resolve-bulk-data.sh sandisk send-userdata.sh smart-errors.0.txt snapshots-2-drop.txt snmpwalk-sw0-lynx.txt sw0-linx-ports.txt sw1-linx-ports.txt test-remove.sh test.file update-userdata.sh userdata.txt watch-mem.sh zfsapi [root@san1:bin/ls]# ls -1c /home/emz .cache .config .cshrc .gitconfig .histfile .history .lesshst .local .login .login_conf .mail_aliases .mailrc .profile .rhosts .shrc .ssh .subversion .wget-hsts .zshrc 4600-protocols.txt backups blockdev.txt clone-disks.sh corrupted-userdata.txt corrupted-userdata.txt.0 corrupted-userdata.txt.1 corrupted-userdata.txt.2 corrupted-userdata.txt.3 corrupted-userdata.txt.4 corrupted-userdata.txt.5 corrupted-userdata.txt.6 corrupted-userdata.txt.7 corrupted-userdata.txt.8 corrupted-userdata.txt.9 create-userdata.sh ctl ctl.conf ctl.conf.games ctl.conf.userdata ctl.conf.userdata.2nd ctl.conf.userdata.gap ctladm.txt ctld ctld-locking cycle-reload.sh delete-userdata.sh drop-snapshots.sh dumps ether-switching-table.txt ether-switching-table.txt.sw0 get-smart-errors-count.sh intel linx.txt lsi lynx-plan-nat.txt mac-2-ip.sh mac-2-ip.txt mellanox nginx recreate-corrupted-userdata.sh resolve-bulk-data.sh sandisk send-userdata.sh smart-errors.0.txt snapshots-2-drop.txt snmpwalk-sw0-lynx.txt sw0-linx-ports.txt sw1-linx-ports.txt test-remove.sh test.file update-userdata.sh userdata.txt watch-mem.sh zfsapi [root@san1:bin/ls]# ls -l /home/emz total 104198 drwx------ 3 emz wheel 3 Aug 2 2017 .cache drwx------ 3 emz wheel 3 Aug 2 2017 .config -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 1055 Aug 2 2017 .cshrc -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 154 Nov 3 16:39 .gitconfig -rw------- 1 emz wheel 19843 Mar 29 18:52 .histfile -rw------- 1 emz wheel 38 Aug 2 2017 .history -rw------- 1 emz wheel 128 Feb 14 21:29 .lesshst drwx------ 3 emz wheel 3 Aug 2 2017 .local -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 254 Aug 2 2017 .login -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 163 Aug 2 2017 .login_conf -rw------- 1 emz wheel 379 Aug 2 2017 .mail_aliases -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 336 Aug 2 2017 .mailrc -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 802 Aug 2 2017 .profile -rw------- 1 emz wheel 281 Aug 2 2017 .rhosts -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 849 Aug 2 2017 .shrc drwx------ 2 emz wheel 6 Feb 28 10:47 .ssh drwxr-xr-x 3 emz wheel 6 Aug 2 2017 .subversion -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 181 Nov 15 14:15 .wget-hsts -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 1471 Aug 2 2017 .zshrc -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 2427 Oct 3 19:04 4600-protocols.txt drwxr-xr-x 2 emz wheel 6 Aug 2 2017 backups -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 43548 Aug 23 2017 blockdev.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 839 Nov 2 13:20 clone-disks.sh -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 90 Aug 16 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 513 Aug 2 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.0 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 513 Aug 6 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 126 Aug 6 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.2 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 48 Aug 6 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.3 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 290 Aug 6 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.4 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 72 Aug 6 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.5 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 24 Aug 6 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.6 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 30 Aug 7 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.7 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 30 Aug 7 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.8 -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 100 Aug 8 2017 corrupted-userdata.txt.9 -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 800 Dec 22 14:37 create-userdata.sh drwxr-xr-x 2 emz wheel 4 Feb 14 14:14 ctl -rw------- 1 emz wheel 126330 Sep 22 2017 ctl.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 104258 Nov 2 13:20 ctl.conf.games -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 92973 Dec 22 12:42 ctl.conf.userdata -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 27840 Oct 19 18:58 ctl.conf.userdata.2nd -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 27840 Dec 22 14:37 ctl.conf.userdata.gap -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 218034 Oct 4 14:52 ctladm.txt drwxr-xr-x 2 emz wheel 3 Feb 14 14:15 ctld drwxr-xr-x 3 emz wheel 8 Feb 13 19:34 ctld-locking -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 250 Aug 10 2017 cycle-reload.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 235 Aug 2 2017 delete-userdata.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 134 Nov 2 17:09 drop-snapshots.sh drwxr-xr-x 2 emz wheel 6 Nov 2 11:56 dumps -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 26376 Oct 27 18:10 ether-switching-table.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 23352 Aug 24 2017 ether-switching-table.txt.sw0 -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 264 Aug 2 2017 get-smart-errors-count.sh drwxr-xr-x 4 emz wheel 7 Nov 22 19:34 intel -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 17341 Oct 27 18:24 linx.txt drwxr-xr-x 3 emz wheel 10 Feb 26 17:56 lsi -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 863 Sep 12 2017 lynx-plan-nat.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 403 Aug 24 2017 mac-2-ip.sh -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 17118 Oct 27 18:14 mac-2-ip.txt drwxr-xr-x 3 emz wheel 7 Feb 27 15:24 mellanox drwxr-xr-x 2 emz wheel 10 Oct 27 17:48 nginx -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 602 Aug 16 2017 recreate-corrupted-userdata.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 1153 Oct 27 18:20 resolve-bulk-data.sh drwxr-xr-x 2 emz wheel 5 Aug 2 2017 sandisk -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 219 Oct 13 00:17 send-userdata.sh -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 276 Aug 2 2017 smart-errors.0.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 16250 Mar 5 12:39 snapshots-2-drop.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 574748 Sep 12 2017 snmpwalk-sw0-lynx.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 21830 Aug 24 2017 sw0-linx-ports.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 62518 Aug 24 2017 sw1-linx-ports.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 123 Jan 16 13:27 test-remove.sh -rw-r--r-- 1 emz wheel 104857600 Nov 14 11:44 test.file -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 167 Aug 2 2017 update-userdata.sh -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 13130 Mar 5 12:33 userdata.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 emz wheel 68 Aug 2 2017 watch-mem.sh drwxr-xr-x 3 emz wheel 6 Mar 1 12:24 zfsapi [root@san1:bin/ls]# ===Cut=== One may think that this is may be because of the ZFS, wgich is currently my fs. Here's the output from old 10.2-STABLE with ufs, demonstrating that the problem exists long ago: ===Cut=== [emz@kuznetsova16-1:~]> uname -a FreeBSD kuznetsova16-1.norman-trade.ru 10.2-STABLE FreeBSD 10.2-STABLE #3 r286954M: Tue Nov 3 14:30:03 MSK 2015 emz@moscow-alpha:/usr/obj/nanobsd.alix/i386.i386/usr/src/sys/ALIX i386 [emz@kuznetsova16-1:~]> mount /dev/ad0s1a on / (ufs, local, read-only) devfs on /dev (devfs, local, multilabel) /dev/md0 on /etc (ufs, local) /dev/md1 on /var (ufs, local) [emz@kuznetsova16-1:~]> ls -1 /var/log auth.log auth.log.0.bz2 auth.log.1.bz2 auth.log.2.bz2 auth.log.3.bz2 auth.log.4.bz2 auth.log.5.bz2 auth.log.6.bz2 cron cron.0.bz2 cron.1.bz2 cron.2.bz2 debug.log lpd-errs maillog maillog.0.bz2 maillog.1.bz2 maillog.2.bz2 maillog.3.bz2 maillog.4.bz2 maillog.5.bz2 maillog.6.bz2 messages messages.0.bz2 messages.1.bz2 messages.2.bz2 messages.3.bz2 messages.4.bz2 ppp.log security sendmail.st sendmail.st.0 sendmail.st.1 sendmail.st.2 sendmail.st.3 sendmail.st.4 sendmail.st.5 sendmail.st.6 userlog utx.lastlogin utx.log xferlog [emz@kuznetsova16-1:~]> ls -1c /var/log auth.log auth.log.0.bz2 auth.log.1.bz2 auth.log.2.bz2 auth.log.3.bz2 auth.log.4.bz2 auth.log.5.bz2 auth.log.6.bz2 cron cron.0.bz2 cron.1.bz2 cron.2.bz2 debug.log lpd-errs maillog maillog.0.bz2 maillog.1.bz2 maillog.2.bz2 maillog.3.bz2 maillog.4.bz2 maillog.5.bz2 maillog.6.bz2 messages messages.0.bz2 messages.1.bz2 messages.2.bz2 messages.3.bz2 messages.4.bz2 ppp.log security sendmail.st sendmail.st.0 sendmail.st.1 sendmail.st.2 sendmail.st.3 sendmail.st.4 sendmail.st.5 sendmail.st.6 userlog utx.lastlogin utx.log xferlog [emz@kuznetsova16-1:~]> ls -l /var/log total 348 -rw------- 1 root wheel 21219 Mar 30 12:44 auth.log -rw------- 1 root wheel 7809 Mar 30 09:00 auth.log.0.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 7705 Mar 30 01:00 auth.log.1.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 9121 Mar 29 20:00 auth.log.2.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 8652 Mar 29 05:00 auth.log.3.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 36346 Mar 28 17:00 auth.log.4.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 16898 Mar 28 16:00 auth.log.5.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 8548 Mar 28 07:00 auth.log.6.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 30955 Mar 30 12:45 cron -rw------- 1 root wheel 4675 Mar 29 19:00 cron.0.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 4852 Mar 27 08:00 cron.1.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 4851 Mar 24 21:00 cron.2.bz2 -rw------- 1 root wheel 4562 Mar 30 12:44 debug.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 69 Feb 13 11:18 lpd-errs -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 69 Mar 30 00:00 maillog -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 129 Mar 30 00:00 maillog.0.bz2 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 129 Mar 29 00:00 maillog.1.bz2 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 127 Mar 28 00:00 maillog.2.bz2 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 127 Mar 27 00:00 maillog.3.bz2 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 127 Mar 26 00:00 maillog.4.bz2 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 127 Mar 25 00:00 maillog.5.bz2 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 127 Mar 24 00:00 maillog.6.bz2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 47116 Mar 30 12:38 messages -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 7441 Mar 28 17:00 messages.0.bz2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 5894 Mar 28 16:00 messages.1.bz2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 5191 Mar 26 07:00 messages.2.bz2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 6494 Mar 24 21:00 messages.3.bz2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 8197 Mar 24 20:00 messages.4.bz2 -rw-r----- 1 root network 69 Feb 13 11:18 ppp.log -rw------- 1 root wheel 69 Feb 13 11:18 security -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Mar 27 12:00 sendmail.st -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Mar 27 12:00 sendmail.st.0 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Mar 20 12:00 sendmail.st.1 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Mar 13 12:00 sendmail.st.2 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Mar 6 12:00 sendmail.st.3 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Feb 27 12:00 sendmail.st.4 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Feb 20 12:00 sendmail.st.5 -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 0 Feb 13 12:00 sendmail.st.6 -rw------- 1 root wheel 149 Nov 3 2015 userlog -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 197 Mar 30 12:44 utx.lastlogin -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 198 Mar 30 12:44 utx.log -rw------- 1 root wheel 69 Feb 13 11:18 xferlog [emz@kuznetsova16-1:~]> ===Cut===
It doesn't do nothing -- it changes the printed time field and sorted-by time field to be the "changed" date. Even with plain 'ls -l' vs 'ls -cl' I can observe this on my directories. E.g., $ ls -l nacl-20110221.tar.bz2 -rw-r--r-- 1 conrad conrad 163415 Feb 20 2011 nacl-20110221.tar.bz2 $ ls -lc nacl-20110221.tar.bz2 ^^^^^^^^^^^^ -rw-r--r-- 1 conrad conrad 163415 Mar 10 11:02 nacl-20110221.tar.bz2 ^^^^^^^^^^^^ $ stat -x nacl-20110221.tar.bz2 File: "nacl-20110221.tar.bz2" Size: 163415 FileType: Regular File Mode: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 1001/ conrad) Gid: ( 1001/ conrad) Device: 0,70 Inode: 35232639 Links: 1 Access: Sat Mar 10 11:02:59 2018 Modify: Sun Feb 20 17:49:40 2011 Change: Sat Mar 10 11:02:59 2018 For sorting, it's a modifier flag for 't', which actually induces time-based sorting. Try 'ls -lt' vs 'ls -clt'. The documentation could be more clear.