Modern alternatives for ls
Improving the View
LSDeluxe and eza are modern implementations of the ancient Unix ls command in the Rust programming language.
Some people who rely on the command line may not be aware that some of the commands they type were introduced 40, 50, or even 60 years ago. They often date back to Unix or the early days of GNU. Of course, modernized versions of many of these frequently used commands from the Unix era are now available.
Early versions of the Unix ls
command from the coreutils package have existed since the early 1960s. Later on, ls
was revised by Richard Stallman and added to the GNU tools. The abbreviation ls
stands for "list", because the command lists files and directories on the terminal. Along with cd
, ls
is definitely one of the most frequently used commands under Linux.
Alternatives
Previous Linux Magazine articles have looked at some of the ls
alternatives listed on GitHub, such as broot
or ripgrep
[1]. Many of these alternatives are implementations in modern programming languages. Besides offering improved speed and extended information, they occasionally come with new parameters and are almost always visually enhanced.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.