Ubuntu Manpage: exa — a modern replacement for ls

NAME

       exa — a modern replacement for ls

SYNOPSIS

       exa [options] [files...]

       exa  is a modern replacement for ls.  It uses colours for information by default, helping you distinguish
       between many types of files, such as whether you are the owner, or in the owning group.

       It also has extra features not present in the  original  ls,  such  as  viewing  the  Git  status  for  a
       directory, or recursing into directories with a tree view.

EXAMPLES

       exa    Lists the contents of the current directory in a grid.

       exa --oneline --reverse --sort=size
              Displays a list of files with the largest at the top.

       exa --long --header --inode --git
              Displays a table of files with a header, showing each file’s metadata, inode, and Git status.

       exa --long --tree --level=3
              Displays a tree of files, three levels deep, as well as each file’s metadata.

DISPLAY OPTIONS

       -1, --oneline
              Display one entry per line.

       -F, --classify
              Display file kind indicators next to file names.

       -G, --grid
              Display entries as a grid (default).

       -l, --long
              Display extended file metadata as a table.

       -R, --recurse
              Recurse into directories.

       -T, --tree
              Recurse into directories as a tree.

       -x, --across
              Sort the grid across, rather than downwards.

       --color, --colour=WHEN
              When to use terminal colours.  Valid settings are `always', `automatic', and `never'.

       --color-scale, --colour-scale
              Colour file sizes on a scale.

       --icons
              Display icons next to file names.

       --no-icons
              Don’t display icons.  (Always overrides –icons)

FILTERING AND SORTING OPTIONS

       -a, --all
              Show hidden and “dot” files.  Use this twice to also show the `.' and `..'  directories.

       -d, --list-dirs
              List directories as regular files, rather than recursing and listing their contents.

       -L, --level=DEPTH
              Limit the depth of recursion.

       -r, --reverse
              Reverse the sort order.

       -s, --sort=SORT_FIELD
              Which field to sort by.

       Valid   sort  fields  are  `name',  `Name',  `extension',  `Extension',  `size',  `modified',  `changed',
       `accessed', `created', `inode', `type', and `none'.

       The modified sort field has the aliases `date', `time', and `newest',  and  its  reverse  order  has  the
       aliases `age' and `oldest'.

       Sort  fields  starting  with a capital letter will sort uppercase before lowercase: `A' then `B' then `a'
       then `b'.  Fields starting with a lowercase letter will mix them: `A' then `a' then `B' then `b'.

       -I, --ignore-glob=GLOBS
              Glob patterns, pipe-separated, of files to ignore.

       --git-ignore [if exa was built with git support]
              Do not list files that are ignored by Git.

       --group-directories-first
              List directories before other files.

       -D, --only-dirs
              List only directories, not files.

LONG VIEW OPTIONS

These options are available when running with --long (-l):

-b, --binary
List file sizes with binary prefixes.

-B, --bytes
List file sizes in bytes, without any prefixes.

--changed
Use the changed timestamp field.

-g, --group
List each file’s group.

-h, --header
Add a header row to each column.

-H, --links
List each file’s number of hard links.

-i, --inode
List each file’s inode number.

-m, --modified
Use the modified timestamp field.

-n, --numeric
List numeric user and group IDs.

-S, --blocks
List each file’s number of file system blocks.

-t, --time=WORD
Which timestamp field to list. Valid timestamp fields are `modified', `changed', `accessed', and
`created'.

--time-style=STYLE
How to format timestamps. Valid timestamp styles are `default', `iso', `long-iso', and `full-
iso'.

-u, --accessed
Use the accessed timestamp field.

-U, --created
Use the created timestamp field.

--no-permissions
Suppress the permissions field.

--no-filesize
Suppress the file size field.

--no-user
Suppress the user field.

--no-time
Suppress the time field.

-@, --extended
List each file’s extended attributes and sizes.

--git [if exa was built with git support]
List each file’s Git status, if tracked.

This adds a two-character column indicating the staged and unstaged statuses respectively. The status
character can be `-' for not modified, `M' for a modified file, `N' for a new file, `D' for deleted, `R'
for renamed, `T' for type-change, `I' for ignored, and `U' for conflicted.

Directories will be shown to have the status of their contents, which is how `deleted' is possible: if a
directory contains a file that has a certain status, it will be shown to have that status.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

exa responds to the following environment variables:

COLUMNS
Overrides the width of the terminal, in characters.

For example, `COLUMNS=80 exa' will show a grid view with a maximum width of 80 characters.

This option won’t do anything when exa’s output doesn’t wrap, such as when using the --long view.

EXA_STRICT
Enables strict mode, which will make exa error when two command-line options are incompatible.

Usually, options can override each other going right-to-left on the command line, so that exa can be
given aliases: creating an alias `exa=exa --sort=ext' then running `exa --sort=size' with that alias will
run `exa --sort=ext --sort=size', and the sorting specified by the user will override the sorting
specified by the alias.

In strict mode, the two options will not co-operate, and exa will error.

This option is intended for use with automated scripts and other situations where you want to be certain
you’re typing in the right command.

EXA_GRID_ROWS
Limits the grid-details view (`exa --grid --long') so it’s only activated when at least the given number
of rows of output would be generated.

With widescreen displays, it’s possible for the grid to look very wide and sparse, on just one or two
lines with none of the columns lining up. By specifying a minimum number of rows, you can only use the
view if it’s going to be worth using.

EXA_ICON_SPACING
Specifies the number of spaces to print between an icon (see the `--icons' option) and its file name.

Different terminals display icons differently, as they usually take up more than one character width on
screen, so there’s no “standard” number of spaces that exa can use to separate an icon from text. One
space may place the icon too close to the text, and two spaces may place it too far away. So the choice
is left up to the user to configure depending on their terminal emulator.

LS_COLORS, EXA_COLORS
Specifies the colour scheme used to highlight files based on their name and kind, as well as highlighting
metadata and parts of the UI.

For more information on the format of these environment variables, see the exa_colors(5) manual page.

EXIT STATUSES

       0      If everything goes OK.

       1      If there was an I/O error during operation.

       3      If there was a problem with the command-line arguments.

AUTHOR

       exa is maintained by Benjamin `ogham' Sago and many other contributors.

       Website: https://the.exa.website/
       Source code: https://github.com/ogham/exa
       Contributors: https://github.com/ogham/exa/graphs/contributors