altbox.dev — A catalog of 129 alternative power tools for the Linux/Unix/macOS command line
The standard Unix tools have lasted us for decades. Every programmer should know them, but there are plenty of
tools that add on to the standard tools. For example, grep works fine for finding text, but tools
like ack and ripgrep are designed for today's modern
programmer working with large trees of heterogeneous source code.
Find alternatives to cat, cd, curl, cut, df, diff, dig, du, find, free, ftp, git, grep, gzip, history, info, kill, locate, ls, man, nm, objdump, ping, ps, rm, scp, screen, sed, ssh, tail, tar, top, traceroute, tree, watch and wc.
Recently added/updated (see all tools)
| Tool | Description | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| binwalk | A firmware analysis tool for identifying and extracting files embedded inside binary images. | |
| lz4 | Extremely fast lossless compression algorithm prioritizing speed over ratio. | |
| radare2 | A libre reverse engineering framework and command-line toolset for analyzing, debugging, and patching binaries. | |
| zstd | Fast real-time compression algorithm with better ratios and speeds than gzip. | |
| doggo | A command-line DNS client with colorized tabular output and support for modern DNS protocols including DoH, DoT, DoQ, and DNSCrypt. | |
| bat | A cat clone with syntax highlighting, Git integration, and automatic paging. | |
| frei | Modern replacement for the free command with colored bar charts and multiple output formats. | |
| glances | Cross-platform extensible monitoring tool | |
| ripgrep | Extremely fast line-oriented search tool that respects .gitignore rules. | |
| zoxide | zoxide is a smarter cd command, inspired by z and autojump. |
Related links
- I just discovered lazygit. What terminal programs can you not live without? ()
- After 22 years on Linux, I finally switched to more modern CLI tools ()
- 13 CLI Tools Every Developer Should Master in 2025 ()
- 10 CLI Tools That Made the Biggest Impact on Transforming My Terminal-Based Workflow ()
- My list of CLI gems ()
- Linux commands: Drop these old utilities for modern alternatives ()
- A list of new(ish) command line tools ()
- My Favorite CLI Tools ()
- An Illustrated Guide to Some Useful Command Line Tools ()
- CLI: improved ()
- One Thing Well: A weblog about simple, useful software
Feedback
If you've got comments or feedback, email Andy Lester at andy@petdance.com.
Additions and errata
If you have a favorite tool that isn't here, please email Andy or submit an issue on our GitHub page: https://github.com/petdance/altbox