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[ARTICLE · art-34714] src=news.ycombinator.com ↗ pub= topic=developer-tools verified=true sentiment=↑ positive

Fli -a tiny (18KB) easy to read file listing tool. Rust no_std and Libc

Developer tracyspacy released Fli, an 18KB Rust no_std file listing tool that uses emojis instead of colors for readability, designed for SSH-only access to devices like the Raspberry Pi Zero. The tool offers short and long display options with sorting capabilities, achieving a binary size of 18KB on the Pi Zero and 51KB on M-series Macs.

read1 min views1 publishedJun 20, 2026

Why?

I have access to my raspberry pi zero via ssh only. As for me it is hard to differentiate types of files etc based on colors, I needed something more readable and clear like picture/icon or emoji as I ended up with etc. And I decided to build fli and since ls is obviosly preinstalled on almost any machine, the second requirement for fli as a complimentary tool, is to be tiny.

Readability: Nice readability thanks to use of emojis ( and ) instead of text coloring.

Size: Since rust std contributes heavily to binary size, this project is no_std + libc

Current binary size: M-series Mac 51KB , rpi zero 18KB.

Display options:

fli : short (name and type) not sorted output - direct stream, no heap allocation

`fli -s`: short (name and type) sorted by name output - uses heap allocation

`fli -l`: long (name, type, metadata ) not sorted output and fixed-sized alignment (20 chars for size and n_link) - direct stream, no heap allocation

`fli -l -s`: long (name, type, metadata ) sorted by name output and dynamic alignment - uses heap allocation.

`fli -l -S`: long (name, type, metadata ) sorted by size output and dynamic alignment - uses heap allocation.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/tracyspacy/fli

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48607567](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48607567)

Points: 2

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