exa/man/exa.1.md
Benjamin Sago 51be9f4c43 Introduce EXA_ICON_SPACING environment variable
This commit remove the extra space that was added between icons and file names in commit 128fadd, and adds an option to put them back.

Re-fixes GH-619 and fixes GH-541.
2020-10-24 19:41:07 +01:00

6.9 KiB
Raw Blame History

% exa(1) v0.9.0

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 files metadata, inode, and Git status.
exa --long --tree --level=3
Displays a tree of files, three levels deep, as well as each files 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.

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 like regular files.
-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
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 files group.
-h, --header
Add a header row to each column.
-H, --links
List each files number of hard links.
-i, --inode
List each files inode number.
-m, --modified
Use the modified timestamp field.
-S, --blocks
List each files 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 files extended attributes and sizes.
--git
List each files Git status, if tracked.

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 wont do anything when exas output doesnt 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 youre typing in the right command.

EXA_GRID_ROWS

Limits the grid-details view (exa --grid --long) so its only activated when at least the given number of rows of output would be generated.

With widescreen displays, its 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 its 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 theres 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

SEE ALSO

  • exa_colors(5)