Um pequeno loop de shell faria isso:
p=/var/log/messages
while [ $p != "/" ]; do ls -ld "$p"; p=$(dirname "$p"); done; ls -ld "$p"
Exemplo de saída:
-rw-------. 1 root root 241859 Apr 10 09:23 /var/log/messages
drwxr-xr-x. 14 root root 4096 Apr 10 03:32 /var/log
drwxr-xr-x. 26 root root 4096 Dec 13 16:10 /var
dr-xr-xr-x. 30 root root 4096 Dec 13 16:10 /