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README REVAMP
• Make the README look a bit nicer, with centered text and links and badges and stuff like that. Everyone knows that software is better if it has badges in its readme • Fix bug where the options list was unnaturally spaced • More OS installation commands • A couple of rephrasings
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README.md
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README.md
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# exa [![Build status](https://travis-ci.org/ogham/exa.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/ogham/exa)
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<div align="center">
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<h1>exa</h1>
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[exa](https://the.exa.website/) is a replacement for `ls` written in Rust.
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[exa](https://the.exa.website/) is a modern replacement for _ls_.
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## Rationale
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**README Sections:** [Options](#options) — [Installation](#installation) — [Development](#development)
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**exa** is a modern replacement for the command-line program `ls` that ships with Unix and Linux operating systems, with more features and better defaults. It uses colours to distinguish file types and metadata. It knows about symlinks, extended attributes, and Git. And it’s **small**, **fast**, and just one **single binary**.
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<a href="https://travis-ci.org/github/ogham/exa">
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<img src="https://travis-ci.org/ogham/exa.svg?branch=master" alt="Build status" />
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</a>
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By deliberately making some decisions differently, exa attempts to be a more featureful, more user-friendly version of `ls`.
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## Screenshots
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<a href="https://saythanks.io/to/ogham%40bsago.me">
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<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Say%20Thanks-!-1EAEDB.svg" alt="Say thanks!" />
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</a>
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</div>
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![Screenshots of exa](screenshots.png)
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---
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## Options
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**exa** is a modern replacement for the venerable file-listing command-line program `ls` that ships with Unix and Linux operating systems, giving it more features and better defaults.
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It uses colours to distinguish file types and metadata.
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It knows about symlinks, extended attributes, and Git.
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And it’s **small**, **fast**, and just **one single binary**.
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exa’s options are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike `ls`'s.
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By deliberately making some decisions differently, exa attempts to be a more featureful, more user-friendly version of `ls`.
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For more information, see [exa’s website](https://the.exa.website/).
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### Display Options
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---
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<a id="options">
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<h1>Command-line options</h1>
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</a>
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exa’s options are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike `ls`’s.
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### Display options
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- **-1**, **--oneline**: display one entry per line
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- **-G**, **--grid**: display entries as a grid (default)
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@ -30,7 +48,7 @@ exa’s options are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike `ls`'s.
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- **--colo[u]r-scale**: highlight levels of file sizes distinctly
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- **--icons**: display icons
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### Filtering Options
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### Filtering options
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- **-a**, **--all**: show hidden and 'dot' files
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- **-d**, **--list-dirs**: list directories like regular files
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@ -44,91 +62,175 @@ exa’s options are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike `ls`'s.
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Pass the `--all` option twice to also show the `.` and `..` directories.
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### Long View Options
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### Long view options
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These options are available when running with --long (`-l`):
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These options are available when running with `--long` (`-l`):
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- **-b**, **--binary**: list file sizes with binary prefixes
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- **-B**, **--bytes**: list file sizes in bytes, without any prefixes
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- **-g**, **--group**: list each file's group
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- **-g**, **--group**: list each file’s group
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- **-h**, **--header**: add a header row to each column
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- **-H**, **--links**: list each file's number of hard links
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- **-i**, **--inode**: list each file's inode number
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- **-H**, **--links**: list each file’s number of hard links
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- **-i**, **--inode**: list each file’s inode number
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- **-m**, **--modified**: use the modified timestamp field
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- **-S**, **--blocks**: list each file's number of file system blocks
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- **-S**, **--blocks**: list each file’s number of file system blocks
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- **-t**, **--time=(field)**: which timestamp field to use
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- **-u**, **--accessed**: use the accessed timestamp field
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- **-U**, **--created**: use the created timestamp field
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- **-@**, **--extended**: list each file's extended attributes and sizes
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- **-@**, **--extended**: list each file’s extended attributes and sizes
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- **--changed**: use the changed timestamp field
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- **--git**: list each file's Git status, if tracked or ignored
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- **--git**: list each file’s Git status, if tracked or ignored
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- **--time-style**: how to format timestamps
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- **--no-permissions**: suppress the permissions field
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- **--no-filesize**: suppress the filesize field
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- **--no-user**: suppress the user field
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- **--no-time**: suppress the time field
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Some of the options accept parameters:
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- Valid **--color** options are **always**, **automatic**, and **never**.
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- Valid sort fields are **accessed**, **changed**, **created**, **extension**, **Extension**, **inode**, **modified**, **name**, **Name**, **size**, **type**, and **none**. Fields starting with a capital letter sort uppercase before lowercase. The modified field has the aliases **date**, **time**, and **newest**, while its reverse has the aliases **age** and **oldest**.
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- Valid time fields are **modified**, **changed**, **accessed**, and **created**.
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- Valid time styles are **default**, **iso**, **long-iso**, and **full-iso**.
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## Installation
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---
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exa is written in [Rust](http://www.rust-lang.org). You will need rustc version 1.35.0 or higher. The recommended way to install Rust is from the official download page.
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Once you have it set up, a simple `make install` will compile exa and install it into `/usr/local/bin`.
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<a id="installation">
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<h1>Installation</h1>
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</a>
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exa depends on [libgit2](https://github.com/alexcrichton/git2-rs) for certain features.
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If you’re unable to compile libgit2, you can opt out of Git support by running `cargo build --release --no-default-features`.
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exa is available for macOS and Linux.
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More information on how to install exa is available on [the Installation page](https://the.exa.website/install).
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If you intend to compile for musl you will need to use the flag vendored-openssl if you want to get the Git feature working: `cargo build --release --target=x86_64-unknown-linux-musl --features vendored-openssl,git`
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### Arch Linux
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### Cargo Install
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On Arch, install the [`exa`](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/exa/) package.
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If you’re using a recent version of Cargo (0.5.0 or higher), you can use the `cargo install` command:
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$ pacman -S exa
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cargo install exa
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### Debian
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or:
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On Debian, install the [`exa`](https://packages.debian.org/unstable/exa) package.
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For now, exa is in the _unstable_ repository.
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cargo install --no-default-features exa
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Cargo will build the `exa` binary and place it in `$HOME/.cargo` (this location can be overridden by setting the `--root` option).
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### Homebrew
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If you're using [homebrew](https://brew.sh/), you can use the `brew install` command:
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brew install exa
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or:
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brew install exa --without-git
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[Formulae](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/exa.rb)
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$ apt install exa
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### Fedora
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You can install the `exa` package from the official Fedora repositories by running:
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On Fedora, install the [`exa`](https://src.fedoraproject.org/modules/exa) package.
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dnf install exa
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$ dnf install exa
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### Gentoo
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On Gentoo, install the [`sys-apps/exa`](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/exa) package.
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$ emerge sys-apps/exa
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### Homebrew
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If you’re using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) on macOS, install the [`exa`](http://formulae.brew.sh/formula/exa) formula.
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$ brew install exa
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### MacPorts
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If you're using [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/) on macOS, install the [`exa`](https://ports.macports.org/port/exa/summary) port.
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$ port install exa
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### Nix
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`exa` is also installable through [the derivation](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/tools/misc/exa/default.nix) using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix/) by running:
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On nixOS, install the [`exa`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/tools/misc/exa/default.nix) package.
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nix-env -i exa
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$ nix-env -i exa
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## Testing with Vagrant
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### openSUSE
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On openSUSE, install the [`exa`](https://software.opensuse.org/package/exa) package.
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$ zypper install exa
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### Ubuntu
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On Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla) and later, install the [`exa`](https://packages.ubuntu.com/groovy/exa) package.
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$ apt install exa
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### Void Linux
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On Void Linux, install the [`exa`](https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/blob/master/srcpkgs/exa/template) package.
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$ xbps-install -S exa
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### Manual installation from GitHub
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Compiled binary versions of exa are uploaded to GitHub when a release is made.
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You can install exa manually by [downloading a release](https://github.com/ogham/exa/releases), extracting it, and copying the binary to a directory in your `$PATH`, such as `/usr/local/bin`.
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For more information, see the [Manual Installation page](https://the.exa.website/install/linux#manual).
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### Cargo
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If you already have a Rust environment set up, you can use the `cargo install` command:
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$ cargo install exa
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Cargo will build the `exa` binary and place it in `$HOME/.cargo`.
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To build without Git support, run `cargo install --no-default-features exa` is also available, if the requisite dependencies are not installed.
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---
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<a id="development">
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<h1>Development
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<a href="https://blog.rust-lang.org/2020/03/12/Rust-1.42.html">
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<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/rustc-1.42+-lightgray.svg" alt="Rust 1.42+" />
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</a>
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<a href="https://github.com/ogham/exa/blob/master/LICENCE">
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<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/licence-MIT-green" alt="MIT Licence" />
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</a>
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</h1></a>
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exa is written in [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/).
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You will need rustc version 1.42.0 or higher.
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The recommended way to install Rust for development is from the [official download page](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install), using rustup.
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Once Rust is installed, you can compile exa with Cargo:
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$ cargo build
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$ cargo test
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The [just](https://github.com/casey/just) command runner can be used to run some helpful development commands, in a manner similar to `make`.
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exa depends on [libgit2](https://github.com/rust-lang/git2-rs) for certain features.
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If you’re unable to compile libgit2, you can opt out of Git support by running `cargo build --no-default-features`.
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If you intend to compile for musl, you will need to use the flag `vendored-openssl` if you want to get the Git feature working.
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The full command is `cargo build --release --target=x86_64-unknown-linux-musl --features vendored-openssl,git`.
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For more information, see the [Building from Source page](https://the.exa.website/install/source).
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### Testing with Vagrant
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exa uses [Vagrant][] to configure virtual machines for testing.
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Programs such as exa that are basically interfaces to the system are [notoriously difficult to test][testing]. Although the internal components have unit tests, it’s impossible to do a complete end-to-end test without mandating the current user’s name, the time zone, the locale, and directory structure to test. (And yes, these tests are worth doing. I have missed an edge case on more than one occasion.)
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Programs such as exa that are basically interfaces to the system are [notoriously difficult to test][testing].
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Although the internal components have unit tests, it’s impossible to do a complete end-to-end test without mandating the current user’s name, the time zone, the locale, and directory structure to test.
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(And yes, these tests are worth doing. I have missed an edge case on many an occasion.)
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The initial attempt to solve the problem was just to create a directory of “awkward” test cases, run exa on it, and make sure it produced the correct output. But even this output would change if, say, the user’s locale formats dates in a different way. These can be mocked inside the code, but at the cost of making that code more complicated to read and understand.
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The initial attempt to solve the problem was just to create a directory of “awkward” test cases, run exa on it, and make sure it produced the correct output.
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But even this output would change if, say, the user’s locale formats dates in a different way.
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These can be mocked inside the code, but at the cost of making that code more complicated to read and understand.
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An alternative solution is to fake *everything*: create a virtual machine with a known state and run the tests on *that*. This is what Vagrant does. Although it takes a while to download and set up, it gives everyone the same development environment to test for any obvious regressions.
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An alternative solution is to fake *everything*: create a virtual machine with a known state and run the tests on *that*.
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This is what Vagrant does.
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Although it takes a while to download and set up, it gives everyone the same development environment to test for any obvious regressions.
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[Vagrant]: https://www.vagrantup.com/
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[testing]: https://eev.ee/blog/2016/08/22/testing-for-people-who-hate-testing/#troublesome-cases
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@ -137,7 +239,8 @@ First, initialise the VM:
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host$ vagrant up
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The first command downloads the virtual machine image, and then runs our provisioning script, which installs Rust, exa’s dependencies, configures the environment, and generates some awkward files and folders to use as test cases. This takes some time, but it does write to output occasionally. Once this is done, you can SSH in, and build and test:
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The first command downloads the virtual machine image, and then runs our provisioning script, which installs Rust and exa’s build-time dependencies, configures the environment, and generates some awkward files and folders to use as test cases.
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Once this is done, you can SSH in, and build and test:
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host$ vagrant ssh
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vm$ cd /vagrant
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vm$ ./xtests/run
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All the tests passed!
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### Running without Vagrant
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Of course, the drawback of having a standard development environment is that you stop noticing bugs that occur outside of it. For this reason, Vagrant isn’t a *necessary* development step — it’s there if you’d like to use it, but exa still gets used and tested on other platforms. It can still be built and compiled on any target triple that it supports, VM or no VM, with `cargo build` and `cargo test`.
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Of course, the drawback of having a standard development environment is that you stop noticing bugs that occur outside of it.
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For this reason, Vagrant isn’t a *necessary* development step — it’s there if you’d like to use it, but exa still gets used and tested on other platforms.
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It can still be built and compiled on any target triple that it supports, VM or no VM, with `cargo build` and `cargo test`.
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