nls

README

nls

A Nushell-style ls for bash, zsh, and fish. nls prints directory listings as a clean table with optional icons and colors.

Features

• Table columns: #, name, type, size, modified (permissions with -l)
• Sorted alphabetically by name
• Directory sizes estimated by summing contained files when interactive (skipped when piped; prefix ~ if truncated)
• Hidden files with -a / --all
• Human-readable sizes with -h / --human
• JSON output with --json
• Nerd Font icons when enabled via NLS_ICONS=1
• Plain one-name-per-line output when piped
• Colors for directories (blue), symlinks (cyan), executables (green)

Requirements

• Go 1.22+
• Linux or macOS

Install

go install github.com/nolight132/nls/cmd/nls@latest

Or build locally:

git clone https://github.com/nolight132/nls.git
cd nls
go build -o nls ./cmd/nls
sudo mv nls /usr/local/bin/

Output modes

Context	Behavior
TTY, no ls flags	Nushell table, colors, dir size estimates
TTY + -l/-1/-F/…	Native ls formatting (no table)
Piped / redirected	Native ls fast path (no stat per file)
Piped + -l/-F/…	Full ls flag support
--json	JSON

Nushell styling (table, LS_COLORS, purple modified, dir walks) is TTY-only with default flags.

Clustered short flags work: nls -la, nls -ltr, nls -laR.

Usage

# Current directory (table on TTY)
nls

# GNU long listing (works when piped)
nls -la
nls -lah ~/Downloads

# One per line, classify, sort
nls -1
nls -F
nls -lt
nls -lS

# Recursive
nls -R

# Pipe-friendly
nls | wc -l
nls -la | grep '\.go$'
nls -1 ~/bin | xargs -I{} echo {}

# JSON
nls --json | jq .

Flags

POSIX/GNU ls flags:

Flag	Short	Description
--all	-a	Show hidden entries (including . and ..)
--almost-all	-A	Show hidden except . and ..
--long	-l	Long listing format
--human-readable	-h	Human sizes with -l / table
--one	-1	One file per line
--recursive	-R	List subdirectories recursively
--reverse	-r	Reverse sort order
--time	-t	Sort by modification time
--access-time	-u	Sort by access time
--ctime	-c	Sort by change time
--size	-S	Sort by size
--extension	-X	Sort by extension
--unsorted	-U	Do not sort
--fast	-f	Do not sort (same as -U)
--directory	-d	List directories themselves
--classify	-F	Append *, /, @, etc.
--slash	-p	Append / to directories
--ignore-backups	-B	Skip *~ files
--dereference	-L	Follow symlinks
--comma	-m	Comma-separated output
--quote-name	-Q	Quote names
--full-time		Full timestamps with -l
--group-directories-first		Directories before files
--inode	-i	Show inode with -l
--size-blocks	-s	Show blocks with -l

nls-specific:

Flag	Description
--json	JSON output
--no-icons	Disable icons
--no-color	Disable colors

Nerd Font icons

Icons are off by default (like Nushell ls). Enable with:

NLS_ICONS=1 nls
NLS_ICONS=nerd nls   # Nerd Font glyphs
NLS_ICONS=emoji nls  # emoji icons

Colors

nls uses an LS_COLORS-compatible coloring model:

• Reads LS_COLORS when set
• Falls back to simple theme-friendly ANSI colors for directories, symlinks, and executables
• Sizes are cyan; modified column is purple

Development

go fmt ./...
go test ./...
go run ./cmd/nls

License

MIT