Eza is a modern, maintained replacement for the ls command, written in Rust, that brings color-coded output, Git status awareness, and enhanced file metadata display to directory listings. As the actively maintained successor to the original exa project, eza provides richer, more informative directory listings than the default ls command while maintaining compatibility with its core flags. It addresses the limitation of ls producing plain, hard-to-scan output by adding visual clarity and contextual information.
Eza uses colors to distinguish file types and metadata at a glance, displays Git repository status for files and directories, supports tree view for recursive directory visualization, and shows human-readable relative dates. It includes hyperlink support for terminal emulators that support clickable links, extended attribute display, mount point details, and icons for different file types. Eza also offers a customizable theme system through a YAML configuration file for personalizing colors and icons.
Eza is designed for developers and system administrators who want more informative and visually appealing directory listings in their daily terminal workflow. It runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows, and is commonly aliased to replace ls entirely. Eza is frequently used alongside other modern CLI replacements like bat, fd, and ripgrep as part of an upgraded command-line toolkit, and integrates well with shell frameworks like Oh My Zsh and Fish.