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