exa

Using exa

exa is a command-line program: you open a terminal window, run exa with your options and input files, then exa queries the filesystem and prints out the names and bits of metadata about the files it encounters.

exa [OPTIONS] [FILES]

exa does not care whether files or options come first in the list, though it’s customary to put the options before the files.

If you’re new to the command-line and terminals, you might prefer to go through a command-line tutorial first, such as Getting to Know the Command-Line or LinuxCommand.org.

Listing files

Listing files is exa’s bread and butter. You pass each file you want as an argument, as well as some options for how to display files, and exa will list them in the terminal.

exa --long --header Barbados.jpg Singing.mp3
Permissions Size User Date Modified Name
drwxr-xr-x  7.2M ben  18 Mar  8:50  Barbados.jpg
.rwxr-xr-x  3.8M ben  25 May 14:29  Singing.mp3

If you’re dealing with the very specific edge case where your files look like arguments, such as trying to list a file literally named “--long”, then insert the “--” argument before it. This special argument causes everything after it to be treated as file paths, rather than as options.

exa --long -- --long
.rwxr-xr-x 621 ben 23 Apr 09:13 --long

Listing directories

If you pass a directory to exa, it will list the contents of that directory rather than listing the directory itself. And if you don’t specify any files to list, it’ll list everything in the current directory.

Something like 90% of the time I just use exa with no files or options.

exa Documents
a.out  example.txt          Geocaching          Homework    skiing notes.md
code   Finance budget.xlsx  heart_and_soul.m4a  router.tar

You can prevent exa from recursing into directories with the -d or --no-recurse command-line option. This tells exa to treat directories as though they were files.

Listing links

Another feature common among OSes is the link: a file that points to another file as its “actual” contents. Unix-style systems call these symlinks.

When using a view that displays one file per line (either lines, details, or tree), exa will display a link’s target path next to its filename. It will examine the target path and highlight the resulting file as though it were a regular file. If the link points to a file that does not exist, then exa will display its intended path.

exa -l /etc/localtime /etc/resolv.conf
Permissions Size User Date Modified Name
drwxr-xr-x    33 root  31 Jan 18:14 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC
.rwxr-xr-x    22 root   1 May  2017 /etc/resolv.conf -> ../var/run/resolv.conf

Recursion

Finally, it’s possible for exa to recurse into a directory and list the contents of every subdirectory beneath it. There are the -R or --recurse command-line options for this.

When recursing, exa will provide separate listings for any subdirectories discovered underneath the original.

exa --recurse
Complete         Worksheet 8.pdf   Worksheet 11.pdf  Worksheet 14.pdf
Worksheet 6.pdf  Worksheet 9.pdf   Worksheet 12.pdf  Worksheet 15.pdf
Worksheet 7.pdf  Worksheet 10.pdf  Worksheet 13.pdf  Worksheet 16.pdf

./Complete:
Worksheet 1.pdf  Worksheet 3.pdf  Worksheet 5.pdf
Worksheet 2.pdf  Worksheet 4.pdf

Subsections

For a complete reference on what exa can do, select one of the pages below.