1exa(1) exa(1)
2
6 exa - a modern replacement for ls
7
9 exa [options] [files]...
10
12 exa is a modern replacement for ls. It uses colours for information by
13 default, helping you distinguish between many types of files, such as
14 whether you are the owner, or in the owning group. It also has extra
15 features not present in the original ls, such as viewing the Git status
16 for a directory, or recursing into directories with a tree view.
17
19 -1, --oneline
20 display one entry per line
21 -G, --grid
23 display entries as a grid (default)
24 -l, --long
26 display extended file metadata as a table
27 -x, --across
29 sort the grid across, rather than downwards
30 -R, --recurse
32 recurse into directories
33 -T, --tree
35 recurse into directories as a tree
36 --color, --colour=WHEN
38 when to use terminal colours (always, automatic, never)
39 --color-scale, --colour-scale
41 highlight levels of file sizes distinctly
42
44 -a, --all
45 show hidden and 'dot' files. Use this twice to also show the .
46 and .. directories.
47 -d, --list-dirs
49 list directories like regular files
50 -r, --reverse
52 reverse the sort order
53 -s, --sort=SORT_FIELD
55 which field to sort by. Valid fields are name, Name, extension,
56 Extension, size, modified, accessed, created, inode, type, and
57 none. The modified field has the aliases date, time, and new‐
58 est, and its reverse order has the aliases age and oldest.
59 Fields starting with a capital letter will sort uppercase before
60 lowercase: 'A' then 'B' then 'a' then 'b'. Fields starting with
61 a lowercase letter will mix them: 'A' then 'a' then 'B' then
62 'b'.
63 -I, --ignore-glob=GLOBS
65 Glob patterns, pipe-separated, of files to ignore
66 --git-ignore
68 ignore files mentioned in '.gitignore'
69 --group-directories-first
71 list directories before other files
72
74 These options are available when running with --long (-l):
75 -b, --binary
77 list file sizes with binary prefixes
78 -B, --bytes
80 list file sizes in bytes, without any prefixes
81 -g, --group
83 list each file's group
84 -h, --header
86 add a header row to each column
87 -H, --links
89 list each file's number of hard links
90 -i, --inode
92 list each file's inode number
93 -L, --level=DEPTH
95 limit the depth of recursion
96 -m, --modified
98 use the modified timestamp field
99 -S, --blocks
101 list each file's number of file system blocks
102 -t, --time=WORD
104 which timestamp field to list (modified, accessed, created)
105 --time-style=STYLE
107 how to format timestamps (default, iso, long-iso, full-iso)
108 -u, --accessed
110 use the accessed timestamp field
111 -U, --created
113 use the created timestamp field
114 -@, --extended
116 list each file's extended attributes and sizes
117 --git list each file's Git status, if tracked
119
121 To display a list of files, with the largest at the top:
122 exa --reverse --sort=size
124 To display a tree of files, three levels deep:
126 exa --long --tree --level=3
128
130 exa responds to the following environment variables:
131 COLUMNS
133 Overrides the width of the terminal, in characters. For example, COL‐
134 UMNS=80 exa will show a grid view with a maximum width of 80 charac‐
135 ters.
136 This option won't do anything when exa's output doesn't wrap, such as
138 when using the --long view.
139 EXA_STRICT
141 Enables strict mode, which will make exa error when two command-line
142 options are incompatible. Usually, options can override each other
143 going right-to-left on the command line, so that exa can be given
144 aliases: creating an alias exa=exa --sort=ext then running
145 exa --sort=size with that alias will run exa --sort=ext --sort=size,
146 and the sorting specified by the user will override the sorting speci‐
147 fied by the alias. In strict mode, the two options will not co-oper‐
148 ate, and exa will error.
149 This option is intended for use with automated scripts and other situa‐
151 tions where you want to be certain you're typing in the right command.
152 EXA_GRID_ROWS
154 Limits the grid-details view (exa --grid --long) so it's only activated
155 when at least the given number of rows of output would be generated.
156 With widescreen displays, it's possible for the grid to look very wide
157 and sparse, on just one or two lines with none of the columns lining
158 up. By specifying a minimum number of rows, you can only use the view
159 if it's going to be worth using.
160 LS_COLORS and EXA_COLORS
162 The EXA_COLORS variable is the traditional way of customising the
163 colours used by ls.
164 You can use the dircolors program to generate a script that sets the
166 variable from an input file, or if you don't mind editing long strings
167 of text, you can just type it out directly. These variables have the
168 following structure:
169 · A list of key-value pairs separated by =, such as *.txt=32.
171 · Multiple ANSI formatting codes are separated by ;, such as
173 *.txt=32;1;4.
174 · Finally, multiple pairs are separated by :, such as
176 *.txt=32:*.mp3=1;35.
177 The key half of the pair can either be a two-letter code or a file
179 glob, and anything that's not a valid code will be treated as a glob,
180 including keys that happen to be two letters long.
181 LS_COLORS can use these ten codes:
183 · di, directories
185 · ex, executable files
187 · fi, regular files
189 · pi, named pipes
191 · so, sockets
193 · bd, block devices
195 · cd, character devices
197 · ln, symlinks
199 · or, symlinks with no target
201 · mi, a missing symlink target
203 EXA_COLORS can use many more:
205 · ur, the user-read permission bit
207 · uw, the user-write permission bit
209 · ux, the user-execute permission bit for regular files
211 · ue, the user-execute for other file kinds
213 · gr, the group-read permission bit
215 · gw, the group-write permission bit
217 · gx, the group-execute permission bit
219 · tr, the others-read permission bit
221 · tw, the others-write permission bit
223 · tx, the others-execute permission bit
225 · su, setuid, setgid, and sticky permission bits for files
227 · sf, setuid, setgid, and sticky for other file kinds
229 · xa, the extended attribute indicator
231 · sn, the numbers of a file's size
233 · sb, the units of a file's size
235 · df, a device's major ID
237 · ds, a device's minor ID
239 · uu, a user that's you
241 · un, a user that's someone else
243 · gu, a group that you belong to
245 · gn, a group you aren't a member of
247 · lc, a number of hard links
249 · lm, a number of hard links for a regular file with at least two
251 · ga, a new file in Git
253 · gm, a modified file in Git
255 · gd, a deleted file in Git
257 · gv, a renamed file in Git
259 · gt, a file with modified metadata in Git
261 · xx, "punctuation", including many background UI elements
263 · da, a file's date
265 · in, a file's inode number
267 · bl, a file's number of blocks
269 · hd, the header row of a table
271 · lp, the path of a symlink
273 · cc, an escaped character in a filename
275 Values in EXA_COLORS override those given in LS_COLORS, so you don't
277 need to re-write an existing LS_COLORS variable with proprietary exten‐
278 sions.
279 Unlike some versions of ls, the given ANSI values must be valid colour
281 codes: exa won't just print out whichever characters are given. The
282 codes accepted by exa are:
283 · 1, for bold
285 · 4, for underline
287 · 31, for red text
289 · 32, for green text
291 · 33, for yellow text
293 · 34, for blue text
295 · 35, for purple text
297 · 36, for cyan text
299 · 37, for white text
301 · 38;5;nnn, for a colour from 0 to 255 (replace the nnn part)
303 Many terminals will treat bolded text as a different colour, or at
305 least provide the option to.
306 exa provides its own built-in set of file extension mappings that cover
308 a large range of common file extensions, including documents, archives,
309 media, and temporary files. Any mappings in the environment variables
310 will override this default set: running exa with LS_COLORS="*.zip=32"
311 will turn zip files green but leave the colours of other compressed
312 files alone.
313 You can also disable this built-in set entirely by including a reset
315 entry at the beginning of EXA_COLORS. So setting EXA_COL‐
316 ORS="reset:*.txt=31" will highlight only text files; setting EXA_COL‐
317 ORS="reset" will highlight nothing.
318 Examples
320 · Disable the "current user" highlighting: EXA_COLORS="uu=0:gu=0"
321 · Turn the date column green: EXA_COLORS="da=32"
323 · Highlight Vagrantfiles: EXA_COLORS="Vagrantfile=1;4;33"
325 · Override the existing zip colour: EXA_COLORS="*.zip=38;5;125"
327 · Markdown files a shade of green, log files a shade of grey: EXA_COL‐
329 ORS="*.md=38;5;121:*.log=38;5;248"
330 BUILT-IN EXTENSIONS
332 · "Immediate" files are the files you should look at when downloading
333 and building a project for the first time: READMEs, Makefiles,
334 Cargo.toml, and others. They're highlighted in yellow and under‐
335 lined.
336 · Images (png, jpeg, gif) are purple.
338 · Videos (mp4, ogv, m2ts) are a slightly purpler purple.
340 · Music (mp3, m4a, ogg) is a deeper purple.
342 · Lossless music (flac, alac, wav) is deeper than that purple. In gen‐
344 eral, most media files are some shade of purple.
345 · Cryptographic files (asc, enc, p12) are a faint blue.
347 · Documents (pdf, doc, dvi) are a less faint blue.
349 · Compressed files (zip, tgz, Z) are red.
351 · Temporary files (tmp, swp, ~) are grey.
353 · Compiled files (class, o, pyc) are faint orange. A file is also
355 counted as compiled if it uses a common extension and is in the same
356 directory as one of its source files: 'styles.css' will count as com‐
357 piled when next to 'styles.less' or 'styles.sass', and 'scripts.js'
358 when next to 'scripts.ts' or 'scripts.coffee'.
359
361 exa is maintained by Benjamin 'ogham' Sago and many other contributors.
362 You can view the full list at <https://github.com/ogham/exa/graphs/con‐
363 tributors>.
364exa 0.7.0 2017-07-07 exa(1)