ll - a more informative ls, based on k

Description

ll is an alternative to k, which was created to make directory listings more informative and readable, using colour to add visual weight to important information in the listing.

Motivation

k only works with zsh, and I've found that it can occasionally be a little slow when working with large directories or with large git repositories. I was looking for a project which would be a good match to learn/use nim, and this seemed like a great opportunity to make something a little more general-purpose that could be used without the zsh dependency.

Features

Full file listing

Calling ll provides a full file listing for a directory, similar to calling ls -l.

File weight colours

Files sizes are graded from green for small (< 1k), to red for huge (> 1mb).

Human readable files sizes can be shown by using the -h or --human flag.

"Rotting" dates

Dates fade with age, so that recently changed files/directories can be easily identified.

Broken Symlinks

Broken symlinks are identified by a ~> (tilde-arrow) leading symbol and differing colors.

Git integration

ll provides easy-to-understand information about the git status of your files/directories.

Git status on entire repos

When listing a directory which contains git repos, ll displays the active state of those repos:

Git status on files within a working tree

When listing files/directories within a working tree, ll displays the active state of each file, and the overall state for directories:

Speed

ll improves on k's rendering speeds. Currently ll is comparable to ls display times when using the --no-vcs flag. Listing git repositories and trees take a little longer, but even with large listings with many git-tracked entries ll is still sub-second.

Installation

The latest binary distribution is avilable here.

It is also possible to build and install using the following instructions:

Requirements

• Nim, minimum v1.2.*
• make

Steps

Firstly install Nim. I personally use asdf to manage Nim versions on my machine. With asdf installed, this is as simple as calling asdf install nim latest.

Once Nim is installed, clone this repository. From within the cloned directory, call make install which will build ll into the working directory and will then opy the resulting ll binary to /usr/local/bin.

Usage

$ ll

That's it. For more options, pass -? or --help.

Status

• Full file listing
• File weight colours
• "Rotting" dates
• Display symlink status
• Git status on entire repos
• Git status on files within a working tree
• Sort output by size
• Sort output by modified time
• Sort output in reversed order
• Options for filtering directories
• Remove dependency on PCRE (using the regex package)
• Installable via Homebrew
• Support light themes
• Support globs

Fixes over k

• k has an odd behaviour; given pwd is a git-tracked directory, if you k somedir where somedir contains git-tracked directories but isn't itself tracked, k reports as though it is working inside a work-tree. ll reports this as one would expect, as though pwd is somedir. UPDATE: This has now been fixed.

Future plans

According to the k source, there are future plans to colorise file permissions. If this happens, I plan to bring those changes over. If any other enhancements are added, I hope to port those also.

I'd like to display some additional information in the summary line of the listing; I'm currently reviewing what would be most useful.

Contributing

Contributions and pull-requests are always welcome, as is constructive feedback around code structure, hints, tips, etc.

If you would like to request a feature or report a bug, please add a new issue here and we'll do our best to address them. Please note that this is not a funded project and fixes will be addressed on a best-effort basis.

To contribute directly:

1. Fork it (https://github.com/OldhamMade/ll/fork)
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new pull request

Liability

We take no responsibility for the use of this tool, or external instances provided by third parties. We strongly recommend you abide by the valid official regulations in your country. Furthermore, we refuse liability for any inappropriate or malicious use of this tool. This tool is provided to you in the spirit of free, open software.

You may view the LICENSE in which this software is provided to you here.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.