eza is a modern command-line file lister that replaces the classic ls tool with colour-coded output, file-type icons, Git status, and detailed metadata, helping developers and system administrators read and navigate directories far more quickly.
eza is a file-listing utility for the command line, built as a more featureful and friendlier alternative to ls on Linux, macOS, and Windows. You run it inside any directory and it returns an immediately readable listing: file names separated by type, metadata such as permissions, ownership, sizes and timestamps, and optional icons that make formats recognisable at a glance. The default grid view suits quick scanning, while a long view shows extended attributes, security contexts and mount details for audit work. Additional modes render directories as trees, filter hidden or ignored entries, and sort by name, size, extension or time. Editors, developers and administrators use eza to understand what is on disk without leaving the terminal.
Getting started rarely requires more than an alias. Many users point ls at eza in their shell profile, so every habitual command inherits the richer output without any new muscle memory, while scripts that call ls directly stay untouched. Behaviour is tunable through environment variables and a theme file that control colour assignments, icon spacing and per-extension iconography, and settings follow you between sessions when stored in a dotfile. The tool complements the rest of a desktop toolkit that keeps everyday file handling predictable, alongside utilities such as Microsoft Visio Viewer 2016 for reading diagram files. When colour, icons and alignment are switched off, output stays plain and stable for pipelines and automation.
The clearest benefit of eza is legibility. A directory that once appeared as an undifferentiated block of monochrome text becomes a colour-coded layout where permissions, owners, sizes and timestamps line up in predictable columns, so you spend less time decoding and more time acting. Icons reinforce file-type recognition before you read a single extension, which matters most in unfamiliar or deeply nested folders. Built-in Git awareness turns an ordinary listing into a lightweight working-tree review, removing the need to run status separately when you are scanning for edits. Tree mode exposes project structure without piping output through other tools, and filtering hides ignored or hidden entries so large directories stay manageable. Colour scaling highlights extremes such as the largest files or the oldest ones, guiding attention where it is useful. Because formatting can be disabled, the same command remains dependable inside scripts. It is a small habit change with a steady, compounding return across daily command-line work.
Key capabilities and highlights.
Every entry is coloured by type and role, so directories, executables, archives and symlinks stand apart without extra flags, while individual metadata fields such as permissions, owners and timestamps are tinted separately so a crowded folder reads as a structured table rather than an undifferentiated wall of text.
When you read a directory that sits inside a Git repository, eza can annotate each entry with its current state, marking files as tracked, staged, modified or ignored using the familiar status symbols, which turns a routine listing into a quick working-tree check you would otherwise run separately.
Entries can be prefixed with icons matched to their file type or, optionally, their exact name, so archives, scripts, images, configuration files and source code become recognisable by shape before you read a single filename, which speeds up orientation considerably in unfamiliar or deeply nested directories.
A dedicated tree mode draws the directory hierarchy with connecting lines and can be limited to a chosen depth, so you can inspect how a project is organised a few levels down without chaining find, sort or ls commands, while the same colours and icons apply at every level of the output.
You can sort by name, size, extension, inode or any of several timestamp fields, reverse the ordering, group directories before or after files, and restrict output to directories or files only, with ignore patterns, gitignore rules and glob filters keeping very large trees manageable.
The long view can add hard-link counts, inode numbers, octal permissions, security contexts, mount point details and extended attributes alongside the standard permission string, which supports access reviews and storage investigations on shared or production servers rather than simple everyday browsing.
Where the terminal supports it, filenames can be rendered as clickable hyperlinks that open in your chosen handler, and absolute-path modes print each entry with its full location, so you can act on a deep file directly instead of selecting and copying a long path by hand.
A theme file, together with environment variables, controls the palette applied to file types, metadata fields and special entries, along with icon spacing and per-extension icon choices, so the appearance can be tuned once in a dotfile and reproduced identically across every machine you work on.
Browse historical releases and previous builds.
Common questions about eza.
eza lists the contents of a directory from the command line. It is designed as a more capable, better-looking alternative to ls, adding colour, icons, Git annotations and richer metadata to output you already know how to read.
Mostly no. You run it much like ls, and the common switches for long format, recursion and hidden files have equivalents. A few option letters differ from ls, so the built-in help is worth a look the first time.
eza runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, and it is packaged by many distributions and package managers. On Windows it is normally used from a modern terminal rather than the legacy command prompt.
Yes. When you list a directory inside a Git repository it can mark each file with its Git state, including ignored files, and it can also report whether subdirectories are repositories. That makes the listing double as a quick status overview.
The common approach is to alias ls to eza in your shell configuration. Interactive sessions then use eza automatically, while scripts that invoke the real ls keep their original behaviour.
Yes. Colours, icon sets and icon spacing are configurable through a theme file and environment variables, with rules that can be set per file type. Many users share themes so that a team sees identical output on every machine.
It can be. Options let you disable colour, icons, hyperlinks and column alignment, leaving plain and predictable text. A frequent pattern is a decorated alias for interactive use and an undecorated invocation inside automation.
Beyond the usual permissions, ownership, size and timestamps, its long view can add inode numbers, hard-link counts, octal permissions, security contexts, mount information and extended attributes. That is useful when auditing access rather than simply browsing.
eza is a modern command-line file lister that replaces the classic ls tool with colour-coded output, file-type icons, Git status, and detailed metadata, helping developers and system administrators read and navigate directories far more quickly.
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