This week's tip of the week is eza. If you're still using the standard ls command, you need to check this out.
eza is a modern, maintained fork of exa. It's a file lister that uses colours to distinguish file types and metadata. It has a great tree view built in, can show git status for files in the list, and is much faster than the default ls in large directories.
Here's what it looks like in action compared to regular ls
eza running its equivalent of ls
The real power shows when you use flags. eza -la gives you a detailed view with permissions, file sizes, and timestamps. eza --tree shows your directory structure as a tree. eza --git displays git status right in your file listing. I also find eza’s colour coding helpful when reading file/directory permissions.
eza running its equivalent of ls -la
Here's a bonus tip: alias eza to ls for a smoother experience. Adding this to your shell config makes eza a drop-in replacement:
# For bash
echo "alias ls='eza'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
# For zsh
echo "alias ls='eza'" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
# For fish
alias ls 'eza'
One caveat: some scripts depend on traditional ls behaviour, so aliasing might cause unexpected results in automated workflows. If you run into issues, explicitly call /bin/ls in those scripts.
That's it! Short and sweet. Until the next one!
