eza cheat sheet

replaces ls

List files with git status, icons, and a built-in tree view.

Covers eza v0.23.4 [+git]. Click any command for details & copy · press / to search.

Basic Display

`eza`	List current directory as a grid (default)
`eza -1`	One entry per line (oneline view)
`eza -G`	Explicit grid view (default; useful to override an alias)
`eza -x`	Grid sorted across columns instead of down
`eza -l`	Long view: permissions, size, date, owner in a table
`eza -lh`	Long view with a header row above each column
`eza --icons=always`	Show Nerd Font icons beside every file name
`eza --icons=auto`	Show icons only when output is a real terminal (auto-detect)
`eza -F`	Append type indicators: / dirs, * executables, @ symlinks
`eza --hyperlink`	Render file names as OSC-8 terminal hyperlinks (clickable in supported terminals)
`eza --color=always`	Force ANSI colors even when output is piped
`eza --color-scale=size`	Use a gradient color to visually rank file sizes
`eza --color-scale=age`	Use a gradient color to visually rank file ages
`eza --color-scale-mode=gradient`	Smooth gradient for color-scale (default; alternative: fixed)
`eza -w 100`	Force grid to use 100 columns wide
`eza --absolute=on`	Print full absolute path for every entry
`eza --absolute=follow`	Print absolute path and resolve symlinks to their targets
`eza --no-quotes`	Do not add quotes around file names that contain spaces

Long View: Metadata Columns

`eza -l -g`	Long view + show group column (omitted by default)
`eza -l --smart-group`	Show group only when it differs from the owner
`eza -l -H`	Add hard link count column
`eza -l -i`	Add inode number column
`eza -l -n`	Show numeric UID/GID instead of names
`eza -l -b`	Show sizes with binary prefixes (KiB, MiB, GiB)
`eza -l -B`	Show raw byte counts, no prefix at all
`eza -l -S`	Show allocated filesystem block size instead of logical size
`eza -l --total-size`	Show recursive total size for directories (Unix only)
`eza -l -o`	Show permissions as octal (e.g. 755) instead of rwxrwxrwx
`eza -l --no-permissions`	Hide the permissions column
`eza -l --no-filesize`	Hide the file size column
`eza -l --no-user`	Hide the user/owner column
`eza -l --no-time`	Hide the timestamp column
`eza -l -O`	Show macOS/BSD file flags or Windows attributes column
`eza -l -@`	List each file's extended attributes (xattr) and their sizes
`eza -l -Z`	List each file's SELinux / security context
`eza -l -M`	Show mount point details (Linux and macOS only)
`eza -l -X`	Dereference symlinks: show target metadata instead of link metadata

Timestamps

`eza -l -m`	Use modified time (default timestamp field)
`eza -l -u`	Use accessed time
`eza -l -U`	Use created time
`eza -l --changed`	Use changed (ctime) timestamp
`eza -l -t modified`	Explicitly select which time field to show via --time flag
`eza -l --time-style=relative`	Show human-relative times ("3 days ago")
`eza -l --time-style=iso`	ISO-8601 short format (2024-05-01)
`eza -l --time-style=long-iso`	ISO-8601 with time (2024-05-01 14:30)
`eza -l --time-style=full-iso`	Full ISO-8601 with nanoseconds and timezone offset
`eza -l --time-style='+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'`	Custom strftime-style timestamp format

Tree View

`eza -T`	Recurse into directories as a tree (like the tree command)
`eza -T -L 2`	Tree view limited to 2 levels deep
`eza -lT`	Tree view with full long-view metadata on every entry
`eza -lT -L 3`	Long tree view, 3 levels deep
`eza -T --group-directories-first`	Tree view with directories listed before files at each level
`eza -T --git-ignore`	Tree view that omits files listed in .gitignore
`eza -T -I 'node_modules\|.git'`	Tree view ignoring node_modules and .git directories
`eza -T --follow-symlinks`	Descend into symlinked directories as if they were real dirs

Git Integration

`eza -l --git`	Add a two-character Git status column per file (staged + unstaged)
`eza -l --git --git-ignore`	Long view with Git status, hiding .gitignore'd files
`eza -l --git-repos`	For each directory, show its Git repo root status (\|= clean, += dirty)
`eza -l --git-repos-no-status`	Mark Git repos without computing status (much faster on large repos)
`eza -l --no-git`	Explicitly suppress Git status even if --git is in an alias
`eza --git-ignore`	Filter out files that are ignored by Git (no long view required)

Filtering

`eza -a`	Show hidden dot-files
`eza -aa`	Show hidden files AND the . and .. entries
`eza -A`	Almost-all: hidden files but not . and .. (ls -A compatible)
`eza -D`	List only directories
`eza -f`	List only files (no directories)
`eza -D --show-symlinks`	List only dirs but also include symlinks (use with -D or -f)
`eza --no-symlinks`	Hide symbolic links from the listing
`eza -d`	Treat directory arguments as files (show metadata about the dir, not its contents)
`eza -I 'pattern1\|pattern2'`	Ignore files matching any of these pipe-separated glob patterns
`eza --git-ignore`	Respect .gitignore — omit any file the repo ignores
`eza -R`	Recurse into all subdirectories (flat listing)
`eza -R -L 2`	Recurse up to 2 levels deep

Sorting

`eza -s name`	Sort by name, case-insensitive mix (a, A, b, B...)
`eza -s Name`	Sort by name, uppercase before lowercase (A, B... a, b...)
`eza -s extension`	Sort by file extension
`eza -s size`	Sort by file size, smallest first
`eza -s modified`	Sort by modification time, oldest first (aliases: date, time, old)
`eza -s new`	Sort by modification time, newest first (alias for reverse-modified)
`eza -s accessed`	Sort by last-accessed time
`eza -s created`	Sort by creation time
`eza -s type`	Sort by file type (directories, files, symlinks grouped)
`eza -s inode`	Sort by inode number
`eza -s none`	No sorting; preserve filesystem order
`eza -r -s size`	Reverse sort order: largest files first when sorting by size
`eza --group-directories-first`	Always list directories before files, regardless of sort field
`eza --group-directories-last`	Always list directories after files

Stdin and Scripting

`eza --stdin`	Read file/directory paths from stdin, one per line
`eza --color=always \| less -R`	Pipe with forced color preserved for less
`EZA_STRICT=1 eza ...`	Enable strict mode: error on conflicting options instead of last-wins

Environment Variables & Configuration

`EZA_COLORS='*.rs=36:da=32'`	Override file and metadata colors using LS_COLORS-style key=ANSI pairs, colon-separated
`LS_COLORS='di=1;34'`	Standard LS_COLORS variable; eza reads it as a fallback when EZA_COLORS is unset
`EZA_ICONS_AUTO=1`	Auto-enable icons globally without passing --icons every time
`EZA_ICON_SPACING=2`	Set number of spaces between icon and filename (tune for your terminal font)
`EZA_GRID_ROWS=10`	Only use grid+long (eza -lG) when at least N rows of output would be shown
`EZA_MIN_LUMINANCE=50`	Set minimum brightness for color-scale gradient (-100 to 100)
`EZA_STDIN_SEPARATOR=':'`	Use a custom separator when reading paths from stdin
`EZA_OVERRIDE_GIT=1`	Override any --git or --git-repos argument
`NO_COLOR=1`	Disable all color output (standard NO_COLOR convention; overridable with --color=always)
`COLUMNS=120`	Override terminal width for grid layout (--width takes precedence)

Killer recipes

Long view with Git status, icons, header, dirs first

eza -lah --icons=always --git --group-directories-first --time-style=relative

The definitive ls alias for a developer: permissions, sizes (human), relative timestamps, Git status per file, Nerd Font icons, hidden files included, directories on top. Drop into your shell aliases as `ll`.

Interactive file picker piped to bat via fzf

eza -1 --icons=always --color=always | fzf --ansi --preview 'bat --color=always --style=numbers {}'

Browse the current directory with icons and colors in fzf, with a live syntax-highlighted preview of each file via bat. Press Enter to select.

Large-file hunt: sorted by size, largest first

eza -lah -s size -r --total-size --color-scale=size

Recursively-aware size view sorted largest-first, with gradient color scaling to immediately spot the biggest files. Add -R to go recursive across all subdirs.

Project tree respecting .gitignore, limited depth

eza -lT -L 3 --git-ignore --group-directories-first --icons=always

Print a clean project tree 3 levels deep, automatically omitting everything your .gitignore excludes, with dirs first and icons for quick scanning.

Recently modified files, newest on top

eza -lah -s new --time-style=long-iso

Sort all files (including hidden) by modification time, newest first, with ISO timestamps — fast way to find what changed recently in a directory.

Combine fd + eza for filtered long listing

fd --type f --extension py | eza --stdin -lah --git --icons=always

Use fd to find all Python files recursively, then pipe into eza via --stdin for a rich long-view listing with Git status on exactly those files.

Notes & tips

exa is dead — use eza exa was abandoned in 2022; eza is the maintained community fork hosted at github.com/eza-community/eza. Installed as eza, not exa. As of v0.23.4 it ships with git support compiled in ([+git] shown in --version).

Shell alias setup (recommended)

alias ls='eza --icons=auto --group-directories-first'
alias ll='eza -lah --icons=auto --git --group-directories-first --time-style=relative'
alias lt='eza -lT --icons=auto --git-ignore -L 3'
alias la='eza -lah --icons=auto'

Add EZA_ICONS_AUTO=1 to your shell profile to enable icons globally.

Icons require a Nerd Font --icons renders blank boxes or question marks in terminals not configured with a Nerd Font (e.g. FiraCode Nerd Font, Hack Nerd Font). Install one and set it as your terminal's font.

Git columns explained --git adds two characters per file — first is staged status, second is unstaged. Codes: - not modified, M modified, N new, D deleted, R renamed, T type-change, I ignored, U conflicted.

--git-repos vs --git --git shows per-file status inside a directory; --git-repos shows the status of directories that are git repos (useful when listing a parent folder of many projects). --git-repos-no-status is much faster and just marks which dirs are repos without computing diff status.

Color customization EZA_COLORS uses the same key=ANSI format as LS_COLORS (colon-separated). Two-letter codes cover metadata (permissions: ur/uw/ux, git: ga/gm/gd, etc.); file globs like *.rs=36 color by extension. Prepend reset: to disable all built-in defaults.

EXA_ prefix backward compat If EZA_* env vars are not set, eza falls back to reading EXA_* equivalents for compatibility with old exa configs.

--total-size is recursive but slow It must stat every file in a directory tree; avoid on very large directories or network mounts.

Piping strips auto-detection --icons=auto and --color=auto both detect a TTY and turn off when piped. Use =always variants when piping to tools like fzf or less that can handle ANSI (e.g. --color=always | less -R).