Views and Display

Choose a listing format: default, long, tree, table, grid, Git, timeline, sizemap, recursive, fuzzy, archives, and diff.

Views and display

lla can list a directory, archive, or individual file. A view changes how the same selected entries are presented; filters and sorting can be combined with these views unless a command documents a narrower behavior.

Choose a view

Default view

lla

Long view

Use long view for permissions, size, dates, ownership, and optional filesystem metadata:

lla -l
lla -l --hide-group --relative-dates
lla -l --date-format "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"
lla --inode --links --allocated-size
lla --extended --context --mounts

--include-dirs calculates recursive directory sizes and can be expensive on large trees. --dereference uses symlink-target metadata while retaining link identity; --no-symlink-target hides the rendered -> target suffix.

Long-view columns are configurable. Built-in column keys are permissions, inode, links, size, allocated, modified, created, accessed, user, group, xattrs, context, mount, name, path, and plugins. A plugin field uses field:<name>.

[formatters.long]
hide_group = true
relative_dates = true
date_format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"
columns = ["permissions", "size", "modified", "name", "field:git_status"]

Tree view

lla -t
lla -t -d 3

Table view

lla -T

Table columns accept the same built-in and field:<name> syntax as long view:

[formatters.table]
columns = ["permissions", "size", "modified", "name", "field:git_branch"]

Grid view

lla -g
lla -g --grid-ignore

--grid-ignore ignores terminal width, so output may extend beyond the screen.

Git view

lla -G

Timeline view

lla --timeline

Sizemap view

lla -S
lla -S --include-dirs

The second form includes recursively calculated directory sizes.

Recursive view

lla -R
lla -R -d 3
lla -R -l

Archive contents

Archives can be listed as virtual directories without extraction. Supported formats are .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, and .tgz.

lla my_archive.zip -t
lla project.tar.gz -l
lla my_archive.tgz --json
lla my_archive.zip -l -f ".rs"

A single file

lla README.md
lla Cargo.toml -l
lla src/main.rs --json

Compare files and directories

The diff command compares two local paths or one path against a Git reference:

lla diff src ../backup/src
lla diff apps/api --git
lla diff src --git --git-ref HEAD~1
lla diff Cargo.lock ../backup/Cargo.lock
lla diff Cargo.lock --git --git-ref HEAD~1

Directory comparisons show status and size deltas. File comparisons show size and line-count changes plus a unified diff; binary content is detected and is not dumped to the terminal.

Presentation modifiers

For selection and ordering, see Filtering and search. For stable script output, see Machine output.