It appears that `LC_COLLATE` controls the "alphabetical order" used by ls, as well. The US locale will sort as follows: a.C aFilename.C aFilename.H a.H basically ignoring the periods. You might prefer: a.C a.H aFilename.C aFilename.H I certainly do. Setting `LC_COLLATE` to `C` accomplishes this. Note that it will also sort lower case after all capitals: A.C A.H AFilename.C a.C a.H