I used it now for a year (maybe more, I can't remember) and I find it fantastic. It's great, and I can't imagine using plain old ls any more. No matter what people say, I love it.
Exa, a modern replacement for ls
401–410 of 420 posts
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
re: PuTTY, it seems so odd that its default blue continues to be the shade it is to this day. It is a nearly unreadable default.
What colour "blue" should be is something that isn't going to ever satisfy everyone. * http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#dont_like_b...
On that subject, notice that Microsoft has made a big fanfare about how it has altered the colour blue in console windows.
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, you're ignoring the "by default" part. Yes, when you want to see uniform units, you can add a command line argument. HN is so predictable that I knew someone would complain about this the second I read it, including ignoring the "by default" part so that they can by contrary.
I'm not ignoring the "by default" part; it's the crux of my complaint. There's a reason that I included that part of the text when I quoted it, after all. I perfectly understand that exa has a "-B" option. > HN is so predictable that I knew someone would complain about this the second I read it And I considered there'd be a pretty good chance that I'd get a reply like this.
"""When I've got two similar but non-identical files, and I think that the difference between their sizes might be important."""
Doesn't sound like a default case to me.
Seems obvious that you're responding to "when would you not want human-readable file sizes?" which was a question never asked.
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not ignoring the "by default" part; it's the crux of my complaint. There's a reason that I included that part of the text when I quoted it, after all. I perfectly understand that exa has a "-B" option. > HN is so predictable that I knew someone would complain about this the second I read it And I considered there'd be a pretty good chance that I'd get a reply like this.
"""When I've got two similar but non-identical files, and I think that the difference between their sizes might be important.""" Doesn't sound like a default case to me. Seems obvious that you're responding to "when would you not want human-readable file sizes?" which was a question never asked.
I think it's obvious that you're bikeshedding minor parts of my comments. As I originally stated, the whole thing is a "silly nitpick" about something that I (quite honestly) only have a weak preference toward.
So, yes, I concede that my posts weren't composed with exquisite clarity, and they aren't devoid of opportunity for misunderstanding. You win.
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I hate using 'du' Why? On the other hand, I like to have small tools that do one thing and do it well, and that you can combine to do more powerful things. Personal preference, I guess.
In my case the problem is I'm running out of disk space and need to find stuff to delete. So, `du -csh `. Wow, three huge directories. `cd dir1; du -csh `. Repeat. `du -d 3` would seem to be the solution, but it is pretty noisy. I really want something that prints all the "big" stuff in a tree, nicely indented and sorted by size. I end up using a KDE app ported to macOS that shows all the big files in packed rectangl…
I have the same issue with the same solution. It’s called Disk Inventory X on macOS.
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that's the thing: built in gnu tools might be used by other tools/scripts/etc. - if you're ls isn't there or delivers unexpected output, they will fail miserably or cause havoc
No script should parse ls output, though. There are always better ways than parsing ls output.
The POSIX specification for ls's output is sufficiently precise[1] that it is quite reasonable to rely upon it. As a result, many scripts from a diverse array of vendors do so. A cursory glance at my home Ubuntu server has 'ls' invoked in many of the base package installation scripts and more besides.
One could sometimes use find(1) of course, but it has different semantics and output to ls unless you jump through some very silly command-line hoops that will make you say "should've just used ls".
As for the stat(1) program, which might be an alternative for individual files, it is not standardised, is not portable, and is in fact totally incompatible between GNU coreutils and BSD userland (including Mac OS).
[1] http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/ls...
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I hate using 'du' Why? On the other hand, I like to have small tools that do one thing and do it well, and that you can combine to do more powerful things. Personal preference, I guess.
In my case the problem is I'm running out of disk space and need to find stuff to delete. So, `du -csh `. Wow, three huge directories. `cd dir1; du -csh `. Repeat. `du -d 3` would seem to be the solution, but it is pretty noisy. I really want something that prints all the "big" stuff in a tree, nicely indented and sorted by size. I end up using a KDE app ported to macOS that shows all the big files in packed rectangl…
What you're looking for is
du -hc | sort -hn | tail
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
(author here) You know what's funny? Every time I have to use ls, I'm so used to seeing the colours that I have so much trouble finding anything. Which column in the permissions is group-read? I can just scan for the green one. Which file in the listing am I supposed to be looking at? I just look for the one with the yellow underline. Colours have familiarity to me in a way that letters and words do not -- if I expec…
Ignore what they all said. It's proven that adding 3 dimensions of color means the information entropy is at least trippled. If you think about the terminal as a computer interface, then it's pretty obvious that we're bandwidth limited by how much information you can fit onto the page. Any amount of improvement in that bandwidth are certainly welcome changes. Niceties like having color-coded file sizes and filetypes…
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Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that's the thing: built in gnu tools might be used by other tools/scripts/etc. - if you're ls isn't there or delivers unexpected output, they will fail miserably or cause havoc
No script should parse ls output, though. There are always better ways than parsing ls output.
xyproto, exactly my opinion too.
Re: Exa, a modern replacement for ls
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
From my experience as a colorblind person, the use of color to convey information falls into several categories. 1. It improves the presentation of information. The vast majority of colorblind can still see color. In this respect, we are no different from people who have normal color vision. 2. It has no impact upon the presentation of information. In these cases, the colors may not be distinguishable but there are o…
Sure, I'm largely aware of how colorblindness works (my father is colorblind and my friend is colorblind and I've discussed it multiple times with each). I'm really looking for whether experiencially you, or the root comment, have experienced good color schemes that work well within the constraints you impose, and whether that alters the statement slightly from "it should not default to color" to "it should not defau…
I would rather see color done well.
In the case of text that means asking the question: does removing all color remove any information? If the answer is no, then a colorblind individual can use other cues. (While my prior post focused upon legibility, two different colors may look like the same color to me even when the text is perfectly legible.)
I would also suggest keeping the number of colors used to a minimum. More color combinations means more opportunities for problems and more difficulty in resolving those problems by setting a custom palette.
Finally, only use color when it adds value. The use of color to highlight different file types was useful. (The file extension still existed as a cue, which is great.) The use of color to highlight columns is just asking for trouble without adding value. It is not adding value because all of the elements in a column are the same color anyhow, so it adds the risk of reduced legibility without highlighting anything in particular.