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Exa, a modern replacement for ls

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Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls

#11

Post by mbrumlow »

djm_ wrote: post #5
steventhedev wrote: post #4

Is this intended as a full on ls replacement? As in, does it respect the envvars such as lscolors? Will it silently ignore -h, or will it die violently?

From the FAQ: >Is this a drop-in replacement for ls? No — exa has, in my opinion, much saner defaults than ls, so while the available command-line options are similar, they are not exactly the same. Most of the common options will work consistently, though. For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?) so ls -h no longer applies.

I almost never use the human-readable file sizes.

For this to get any traction it is going to need to accept every argument ls does and play nicely. Most people who work with nix systems work on many systems and some of them don't control the software loaded on them. If I have to remember that on this* system I have to use these arguments because I have exa, vs this system I have normal ls that is going to be a deal breaker for many.

Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls

#12

Post by thethirdone »

djm_ wrote: post #5
steventhedev wrote: post #4

Is this intended as a full on ls replacement? As in, does it respect the envvars such as lscolors? Will it silently ignore -h, or will it die violently?

From the FAQ: >Is this a drop-in replacement for ls? No — exa has, in my opinion, much saner defaults than ls, so while the available command-line options are similar, they are not exactly the same. Most of the common options will work consistently, though. For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?) so ls -h no longer applies.

> > For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?)

When its being used as part of a script.

Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls

#13

Post by pmoriarty »

djm_ wrote: post #5
steventhedev wrote: post #4

Is this intended as a full on ls replacement? As in, does it respect the envvars such as lscolors? Will it silently ignore -h, or will it die violently?

From the FAQ: >Is this a drop-in replacement for ls? No — exa has, in my opinion, much saner defaults than ls, so while the available command-line options are similar, they are not exactly the same. Most of the common options will work consistently, though. For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?) so ls -h no longer applies.

"exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?)"

When doing automated text-processing and wanting to easily do precise calculations, without having to deal with different units.

Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls

#14

Post by pbiggar »

This is really cool - bringing the great treatment of `ack` to ls. And can confirm how fast it is!

The unix philosophy is a great idea, but it doesn't really lead to a good experience. Glad people are making more integrated tools!

Oh, and It's in homebrew already: `brew install exa`

Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls

#16

Post by JustSomeNobody »

sethammons wrote: post #2

so... a mix up of the following: which ls alias ls='ls --color=auto' /bin/ls tree -L 2 git diff --stat git status

But this is "Modern".

The problem I see with these "modern" command replacements is 1) muscle memory and 2) I have to log into some old systems that simply will not have anything this "modern".

Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls

#18

Post by masklinn »

thethirdone wrote: post #12
djm_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the FAQ: >Is this a drop-in replacement for ls? No — exa has, in my opinion, much saner defaults than ls, so while the available command-line options are similar, they are not exactly the same. Most of the common options will work consistently, though. For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?) so ls -h no longer applies.

> > For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?) When its being used as part of a script.

Operative word: by default. If you want the bytes value, you can ask for it (-B).

Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls

#20

Post by zokier »

thethirdone wrote: post #12
djm_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the FAQ: >Is this a drop-in replacement for ls? No — exa has, in my opinion, much saner defaults than ls, so while the available command-line options are similar, they are not exactly the same. Most of the common options will work consistently, though. For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?) so ls -h no longer applies.

> > For example, exa prints human-readable file sizes by default (when would you not want that?) When its being used as part of a script.

I think for scripting just using stat makes lot more sense than exa (or ls).

Of course alternatively exa could aim for that lovely ls-style experience and vary its output depending on isatty(), switching between human-readable and absolute numbers.

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