Tbh, i dont understand why people want to rewrite ls of all things.

Like don't get me wrong, if they had fun, that's great.

But all i use ls for is getting a list of files. I barely ever even use the -la options. There just doesn't seem like a lot of room for improvement in something so simple.

▲ dhruvkb 10 months ago | parent | next [-]

Hi, author of `pls`[1] here. I started `pls` as a hobby project to scratch a personal itch: a "prettier" alternative to `ls`, with more colors and customisable icons. I also wanted to learn Rust as a secondary motivation.

But as I added more and more features to it, it has become a good tool that does a number of things that `ls` doesn't do (unless you chain it with other tools like `sort` or `grep`) and even other `ls` replacements don't do.

So even though `ls` is fantastic as-is, it's always fun to build something of your own, add a little more polish in areas that matter to you and put it out there to see if it resonates with more people.

[1]: https://pls.cli.rs

▲ benrutter 10 months ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the standard ls doesn't have much in terms of color/icons, so its simplicity probably makes it a great side project for improving on.

Not a big surface area, some easy improvements. A whole lot less stressful than rewriting grep (although I'm massively grateful Burnt Sushi did such a crazy thing)

	▲	triyanox 10 months ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks @benrutter! You nailed it - ls is like the "Hello World" of system tools. Simple enough that you won't tear your hair out, but meaty enough to learn a ton. Started with "ooh, pretty colors!" and before I knew it I was deep in filesystem APIs and terminal wizardry. Way less scary than tackling grep. Sometimes the best projects are the ones where you can't mess up too badly... well, unless you accidentally delete everything while testing

▲ roywashere 10 months ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well, recursive display is nice, I guess, as well as searching on partial filenames

	▲	mbivert 10 months ago \| parent [-]
		Has been roughly doing the job since the 70s (?): `$ du -a \| grep blbl`

▲ abnry 10 months ago | parent | prev [-]

> I barely ever even use the -la options.

Certainly I use these less than plain "ls," but digging through hidden files and folders and looking at timestamps is very important for me.

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karmakaze 10 months ago | parent | next [-]

That's the first thing I noticed in the options, it has modified date but not create or access date (listing or sorting) that I could tell. Of course it could be added, or I could just use `ls`.

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dangus 10 months ago | parent | prev [-]

I use ls -la via the ll alias exclusively. I find it far more readable to my eyes than plain ls.

Hidden files are almost always of interest to me since my job involves configuring servers.

	▲	cb321 10 months ago \| parent [-]
		https://github.com/c-blake/lc shows all files, including hidden files (starting with dot aka dot files) by default, suppressible in output with -xdot or a shell/internal alias to the same effect. It helps to start with a more extensible/less built-in idea of "file type". "odd permissions" are another type that might interest someone, for example, such as "setgid but not group-executable" or "writable but not readable" or etc. Yes, I know one can also use `find` or etc. for that, but there's no crime in there being >1 way to see things and, for some people, colors can make things really stand out - as can sort order which is another more color-blind possibility in `lc` as well as the simple filter-or-not of ls -a/-A.