eza $FLAGS

Go on, flip some flags.

eza lists your files with colour, Git status, icons and a tree view. Toggle a flag and watch the listing change.

Toggle a flag

The listing is eza’s own repository.

~/src/ezaLive

~/src/ezaonmain

eza -lTh --level=2 --git --icons

~/src/ezaonmain

small and fast: One binary
Windows, macOS, Linux and BSDs: Everywhere
what it’s written in: Rust
free software: EUPL-1.2

eza --long features/

Everything ls never told you.

By deliberately making some decisions differently, eza attempts to be a more featureful, more user-friendly version of ls.

It knows about Git

Per-file status with --git, per-repository status with --git-repos.

> eza -l --git
.rw-r--r--  72k ces  4 Oct 11:11 -M Cargo.lock
.rw-r--r--  13k ces  5 Oct 11:09 M- flake.nix
.rw-r--r-- 6.1k ces  4 Oct 15:24 -N TESTING.md
drwxr-xr-x    - ces  4 Oct 20:13 -I .direnv

> eza -l --git-repos ~/src
drwxr-xr-x    - ces 10 Oct 11:31 | main   eza
drwxr-xr-x    - ces 11 Oct 09:49 | main   eza.rocks

A tree, built in

Recurse into directories as a tree, and limit the depth of recursion when it gets deep.

> eza --tree --level=2 docs
docs
├── images
│   └── screenshots.png
├── tapes
│   └── demo.tape
└── theme.yml

Dates for humans

Human readable relative dates, or any timestamp format you care to write.

> eza -l --time-style relative
.rw-r--r--  72k ces 6 days  Cargo.lock
.rw-r--r--  287 ces 1 week  Cargo.toml
drwxr-xr-x    - ces 1 week  crates
.rw-r--r--  14k ces 1 month LICENSE.txt
.rw-r--r--  11k ces 6 days  README.md

Links you can click

Display entries as hyperlinks, and open a file straight from the listing in any terminal that supports them.

> eza --hyperlink
Cargo.lock    flake.nix
Cargo.toml    INSTALL.md
CHANGELOG.md  LICENSE.txt
crates        README.md
docs          tests

Colours that mean something

It uses colours to distinguish file types and metadata, so you can tell what a thing is before you read its name.

cratesdirectory
Cargo.tomlbuild file
screenshots.pngimage
CHANGELOG.mdsymlink
demo.tapeeverything else

-M, --mounts: Show mount details, on Linux and macOS.
-Z, --context: List each file’s security context.
-@, --extended: List each file’s extended attributes and sizes.
--total-size: Show recursive directory size.

eza --oneline install/

In a package manager near you.

eza is available for Windows, macOS, Linux and BSDs. Pick how you install things and copy the line.

Cargoany platform

cargo install eza

Builds the eza binary from crates.io. You’ll need a Rust environment set up.

Just want a look first? With Nix flakes: nix run github:eza-community/eza

Every install method and shell completions, in INSTALL.md

man eza

eza’s options are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike ls’s.

Full man pages

Display options

-1, --oneline: display one entry per line
-G, --grid: display entries as a grid (default)
-l, --long: display extended details and attributes
-R, --recurse: recurse into directories
-T, --tree: recurse into directories as a tree
-x, --across: sort the grid across, rather than downwards
-F, --classify=(when): display type indicator by file names
--colo[u]r=(when): when to use terminal colours
--colo[u]r-scale=(field): highlight levels of field distinctly (all, age, size)
--color-scale-mode=(mode): use gradient or fixed colours in --color-scale
--icons=(when): when to display icons
--hyperlink=(when): when to display entries as hyperlinks
--absolute=(mode): display entries with their absolute path
-w, --width=(columns): set screen width in columns

Filtering options

-a, --all: show hidden and ‘dot’ files
-d, --treat-dirs-as-files: list directories like regular files
-L, --level=(depth): limit the depth of recursion
-r, --reverse: reverse the sort order
-s, --sort=(field): which field to sort by
--group-directories-first: list directories before other files
--group-directories-last: list directories after other files
-D, --only-dirs: list only directories
-f, --only-files: list only files
--no-symlinks: don’t show symbolic links
--show-symlinks: explicitly show links alongside --only-dirs or --only-files
--git-ignore: ignore files mentioned in .gitignore
-I, --ignore-glob=(globs): glob patterns (pipe-separated) of files to ignore

Long view options

-b, --binary: list file sizes with binary prefixes
-B, --bytes: list file sizes in bytes, without any prefixes
-g, --group: list each file’s group
--smart-group: show the group only if it differs from the owner
-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
-M, --mounts: show mount details (Linux and macOS only)
-S, --blocksize: show size of allocated file system blocks
-t, --time=(field): which timestamp field to use
-u, --accessed: use the accessed timestamp field
-U, --created: use the created timestamp field
-X, --dereference: dereference symlinks for file information
-Z, --context: list each file’s security context
-@, --extended: list each file’s extended attributes and sizes
--changed: use the changed timestamp field
--git: list each file’s Git status, if tracked or ignored
--git-repos: list each directory’s Git status, if tracked
--git-repos-no-status: list whether a directory is a Git repository, but not its status (faster)
--no-git: suppress Git status
--time-style=(style): how to format timestamps: default, iso, long-iso, full-iso, relative, or +FORMAT
--total-size: show recursive directory size
--no-permissions: suppress the permissions field
-o, --octal-permissions: list each file’s permission in octal format
--no-filesize: suppress the filesize field
--no-user: suppress the user field
--no-time: suppress the time field
--stdin: read file names from stdin

$EDITOR ~/.config/eza/theme.yml

Make it yours.

Every colour and every icon can be set in a theme.yml. Your existing LS_COLORS and EXA_COLORS keep working, and take precedence.

# docs/theme.yml
filekinds:
  directory:
    foreground: Blue
  symlink:
    foreground: Cyan
perms:
  user_read:
    foreground: Yellow
    is_bold: true

> eza -l crates/eza
drwxr-xr-x    - ces  3 Oct 23:18 benches
.rw-r--r-- 3.7k ces  3 Oct 23:18 build.rs
.rw-r--r-- 2.2k ces  2 Oct 22:53 Cargo.toml
lrwxrwxrwx    - ces  3 Oct 23:18 CHANGELOG.md -> ../../CHANGELOG.md
drwxr-xr-x    - ces  3 Oct 23:18 src

Pre-made themes, and room for yours: eza-community/eza-themes

git diff exa eza

Coming from exa?

eza is the maintained, community fork of exa, and a good deal has been added since. This list is non-exhaustive.

@@ features not in exa @@

Fixes “The Grid Bug” introduced in exa 2021.
Hyperlink support.
Mount point details.
SELinux context output.
Git repo status output.
Human readable relative dates.
Several security fixes.
Support for bright terminal colours.
A theme.yml file for customising colours and icons.
Many smaller bug fixes and changes!
...and like, so much more that it became exhausting to update this all the time. Like seriously, we have a lot of good stuff.