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eza / exa — Modern ls

A modern ls replacement with colour coding, Git status, icons, tree view, and rich metadata. eza is the actively maintained fork of the original exa project.

eza exa ls files cli rust git Apr 24, 2026

4 min read 11 snippets 2d ago quick read

eza / exa — Modern ls#

Note: exa is no longer maintained. eza is the actively maintained fork and drop-in replacement. Both share the same flags.

Installation#

sudo apt install eza           # Debian/Ubuntu (24.04+)
sudo dnf install eza           # Fedora 39+
brew install eza               # macOS / Linux via Homebrew
cargo install eza              # via cargo

# Older systems — install exa
sudo apt install exa

Basic listing#

eza                            # basic list (coloured)
eza -l                         # long list (like ls -l)
eza -la                        # long list including hidden files
eza -lh                        # long list with human-readable sizes
eza -la --sort=size            # sort by size
eza -la --sort=modified        # sort by modification time
eza -la --sort=ext             # sort by extension
eza -la -r                     # reverse sort
eza -1                         # one file per line
eza -x                         # horizontal grid layout

Metadata columns (`-l`)#

eza -l --no-permissions        # hide permissions column
eza -l --no-filesize           # hide file size
eza -l --no-user               # hide owner
eza -l --no-time               # hide timestamps
eza -l --octal-permissions     # show permissions in octal (e.g. 0644)
eza -l --time=modified         # show modification time (default)
eza -l --time=accessed         # show access time
eza -l --time=created          # show creation time (macOS/BSD)
eza -l --time-style=relative   # "2 hours ago"
eza -l --time-style=long-iso   # "2025-04-24 14:32:00"
eza -l --time-style=full-iso   # with nanoseconds
eza -l --inode                 # show inode number
eza -l --links                 # show hard link count
eza -l --blocks                # show number of filesystem blocks

Hidden files#

eza -a                         # include hidden (dot) files
eza -A                         # include hidden, but exclude . and ..
eza -la                        # long + all

Tree view#

eza --tree                     # recursive tree (like tree command)
eza --tree --level=2           # limit depth
eza --tree -l                  # tree with long format
eza --tree --level=3 src/      # tree a specific directory
eza -T                         # shorthand for --tree
eza -lT --level=2 .            # long tree, 2 levels deep

Git integration#

eza -l --git                   # show Git status per file
eza -l --git --git-repos       # show repo status for directories

Git status symbols:

Symbol	Meaning
`-`	Not modified
`M`	Modified
`N`	New (untracked)
`A`	Added to index
`D`	Deleted
`R`	Renamed
`U`	Updated but unmerged
`I`	Ignored

Icons (requires Nerd Font)#

eza --icons                    # file-type icons
eza -la --icons                # long list with icons
eza -T --icons --level=2       # tree with icons

Filtering#

eza -l --only-dirs             # directories only
eza -l --only-files            # files only (eza 0.17+)
eza -l --no-symlinks           # hide symlinks
eza -l -D                      # shorthand: dirs only

Sorting options#

Value	Sort by
`name`	filename (default)
`size`	file size
`modified` / `date`	modification time
`accessed`	access time
`created`	creation time
`inode`	inode number
`extension` / `ext`	file extension
`type`	file type (dirs first)
`none`	directory order

eza -la --sort=size -r          # largest first
eza -la --sort=modified -r      # most recently modified first
eza -la --group-directories-first  # dirs before files

Colour and display#

eza --colour=always             # force colour (for piping)
eza --colour=never              # disable colour
eza --colour=auto               # colour only if TTY (default)
eza --colour-scale              # gradient colour for file sizes
eza --colour-scale-mode=gradient  # or 'fixed'

Aliases to replace ls#

# ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias ls='eza --colour=auto'
alias la='eza -la'
alias ll='eza -lh'
alias lt='eza -lT --level=2'
alias lg='eza -la --git'
alias tree='eza -T --level=3'

eza vs ls equivalents#

ls	eza
`ls -l`	`eza -l`
`ls -la`	`eza -la`
`ls -lh`	`eza -lh`
`ls -ltr`	`eza -l --sort=modified -r`
`ls -lS`	`eza -l --sort=size -r`
`ls --color=always`	`eza --colour=always`
`tree -L 2`	`eza -T --level=2`

[!TIP] Install a Nerd Font (e.g. JetBrainsMono Nerd Font) in your terminal emulator to unlock --icons with proper file-type glyphs. Most modern terminals (WezTerm, Kitty, Alacritty) support Nerd Fonts natively.