This binds to libgit2, which binds to curl. I believe that brings it in.

You are correct. exa uses libgit2 for its Git column, and the library's networking parts must still be included when they aren't even being used anyway.

I can see how it looks VERY SUSPICIOUS for a file lister to be parsing HTTP headers! I'm not going to sell your directory entries to advertisers, I promise.

For more paranoid folks, it would be nice to have a configuration option to forego the git features and thereby remove the need for linking in any networking code. :)

There is one already; it's a cargo feature.

I wrote the original Homebrew formula for exa and remembered adding support for the Git-less install, so I was surprised to see it wasn't there anymore! Seems like it was removed in this version bump [1] — I'll open a PR adding it back in.

[1]: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/13676

I am wondering that too, but FWIW `sudo apt-get install libhttp-parser2.1` will have you on your way.

Thanks, but I wanted to report it nevertheless because it says the file is self contained.

A bug was filed a week ago https://github.com/ogham/exa/issues/194