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macOS Ventura with a 'MacPorts' installation that includes GNU replacements for numerous "Apple-sourced" utilities including ls. The original ls is located at /bin/ls, the GNU/MacPorts version of ls is located at /opt/local/libexec/gnubin/ls.

The GNU version of ls works for most things, but in some cases (one in particular) I need the "Apple-sourced" version of ls. For example, to list the 'file flags' (ref man chflags), I need the O option... the GNU version does not provide this.

I'd like to set an alias in ~/.zshrc that handles ls -lO, and possibly other options unique to the "Apple-sourced" version of ls.

I've tried several aliases in ~/.zshrc that didn't work; e.g.

alias ls -lO='/bin/ls -lO'

How to do this?

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    The syntax is wrong. It is alias WORD=REPLACEMENT, but you have two words to the left of the equal sign. You could write a shell script or function ("shell script" would be more generally usable) with name ls, which inspects the parameters and based on them calls the desired ls` version. However I find this fiddling with ls error prone; for instance, which ls should be executed for ls -Ol? Commented Feb 14, 2025 at 8:55

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A conventional alias won't work, but you can declare a function in ~/.zshrc that should do what you need. It uses a case conditional that will allow you to add other options for ls:

function ls() {
  case $* in
    -lO* ) shift 1; command /bin/ls -lO "$@" ;;
    * ) command ls "$@" ;;
  esac
}

Note that for the -lO option; the "Apple-sourced" version of ls at /bin/ls is executed, whereas (as shown above) all other options are passed through to the GNU/MacPorts version of ls. Of course this assumes that your PATH environment is set to favor the GNU utilities; something like this:

% echo $PATH
/opt/local/libexec/gnubin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

To take effect you should add the function definition above to your ~/.zshrc file, and then source it to (each) shell you plan to use. After adding the ls function to ~/.zshrc, it can be sourced as follows:

% source ~/.zshrc
--OR--
% . ~/.zshrc

After sourcing ~/.zshrc, we can verify correct operation as follows:

% ls -lO /etc/auto_master
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  schg 284 Feb 13 22:47 /etc/auto_master
#                          ^^^^^^^^

% ls --version
ls (GNU coreutils) 9.5
Copyright (C) 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.
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