altbox.dev — A catalog of 38 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.

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

Articles about alternative tools

• CLI: improved, by Remy Sharp

All 38 tools

• ack

  A grep-like tool optimized for searching source code, skipping VCS dirs and binaries by default.

  Alternative to grep Perl Artistic license

• ag

  A code searching tool similar to ack, with a focus on speed.

  Alternative to grep C Apache-2.0 license

• atop

  Linux performance monitor that tracks CPU, disk, memory, and network usage per process.

  Alternative to top C GPL-2.0 license

• autojump

  A cd command that learns — easily navigate directories from the command line.

  Alternative to cd Python GPL-3.0 license

• bat

  A cat clone with syntax highlighting, Git integration, and automatic paging.

  Alternative to cat Rust MIT license Works with JSONWorks with MarkdownWorks with YAML

• bfs

  Breadth-first search for your files

  Alternative to find C BSD Zero Clause license

• byobu

  Text-based window manager and terminal multiplexer with enhanced keybindings and status notifications.

  Alternative to screen Python GPL-3.0 license

• cw

  A fast replacement for wc that counts words, lines, characters and bytes, with multi-threaded support.

  Alternative to wc Rust MIT license

• diff-so-fancy

  Makes diffs human-readable instead of machine-readable, to help spot defects faster.

  Alternative to diff Perl MIT license

• duc

  A collection of tools for indexing, inspecting, and visualizing disk usage.

  Alternative to du C LGPL-3.0 license

• duf

  Disk usage/free utility with user-friendly, colorful output for Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows.

  Alternative to duAlternative to df Go MIT license

• dust

  A more intuitive version of du that shows which directories are using disk space.

  Alternative to du Rust Apache-2.0 license

• duu

  Recursively display disk usage in kilobytes of the given directory.

  Alternative to du Python MIT license

• exa

  A modern replacement for ls with colour, Git integration, and a tree view.

  Alternative to ls Rust MIT license

• eza

  file-listing tool with colors, handling for symlinks and Git, and more

  Alternative to ls Rust EUPL-1.2 license

• fd

  Simple, fast, and user-friendly alternative to find.

  Alternative to find Rust MIT license

• fkill

  Kill processes by pid, name, port, or interactively via a fuzzy-search UI.

  Alternative to kill Node.js MIT license

• fzf

  A general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder for files, history, processes, and more.

  Alternative to find Go MIT license

• gat

  cat clone written in Go

  Alternative to cat Go MIT license Works with MarkdownWorks with JPEGWorks with GIFWorks with PNG

• glow

  Render Markdown on the CLI, with pizzazz! Can also fetch Markdown documents from the web.

  Alternative to cat Go MIT license

• gping

  ping, but with a graph

  Alternative to ping Rust MIT license

• gron

  Makes JSON greppable

  Alternative to grep Go BSD-3 license Works with JSON

• htop

  An interactive process viewer with a full-screen, colour display and mouse support.

  Alternative to top C GPL-2.0 license

• hwatch

  hwatch is a alternative watch that records the result of command execution and can display it history and diffs.

  Alternative to watch C MIT license

• lftp

  A sophisticated file transfer program supporting ftp, http, sftp, fish, torrent and more.

  Alternative to ftp C GPL-3.0 license

• ls++

  Colorized ls on steroids — a wrapper that lets you reorganize the order of columns.

  Alternative to ls Perl GPL-2.0 license

• lsd

  The next generation ls command, with colour coding and special font icons.

  Alternative to ls Rust Apache-2.0 license

• mdcat

  Renders Markdown to the terminal with syntax highlighting and inline images.

  Alternative to cat Rust MPL-2.0 license Works with Markdown

• mtr

  Network diagnostic tool that combines traceroute and ping in a single live display.

  Alternative to tracerouteAlternative to ping C GPL-2.0 license

• multitail

  Monitor logfiles and command output in multiple windows in a terminal, with colorizing, filtering and merging.

  Alternative to tail C GPL-2.0 license

• nat

  ls with colors and more

  Alternative to ls C MIT license

• ncdu

  ncurses disk usage analyzer, fast and easy to use in any minimal POSIX environment.

  Alternative to du C MIT license

• prettyping

  ping with colour-coded, graphical output and live statistics.

  Alternative to ping Bash + awk MIT license

• rip

  Command-line deletion tool focused on safety, ergonomics, and performance.

  Alternative to rm Rust GPL-3.0 license

• ripgrep

  Extremely fast line-oriented search tool that respects .gitignore rules.

  Alternative to grep Rust MIT license

• tmux

  Terminal multiplexer — run multiple terminals from a single screen, detach and reattach sessions.

  Alternative to screen C ISC license

• trash

  Moves files to the trash safely and reversibly, instead of permanently deleting them.

  Alternative to rm Node.js MIT license

• ydiff

  View colored, incremental diff in workspace or from stdin, side by side and auto paged.

  Alternative to diff Python BSD-3 license