Newer CLI Tools

bat

cat with:

• automatic paging
• git diffs
• syntax highlighting

See bat-extras for shell scripts integrating bat with other commands.

Configuration Basics

bat --config-file

BAT_CONFIG_PATH

bat --generate-config-file

exa

ls with:

• compiled file dimming
• configuration via standard and exa-specific environment variables
• git statuses
• icon mode (requires font support e.g. Nerd Fonts)
• long listing grid mode
• more coloring (“It’s like having a huge LS_COLORS built-in.”)
• tree mode with optional long listing

fd

simplified find for most use cases with:

• color configuration via LS_COLORS
• exclusion of hidden items and .gitignore patterns by default
• fast parallel directory search
• parallel command execution
• regex by default
• same regex and ignore crates as ripgrep
• smart casing (i.e. insensitivity unless the pattern has uppercase characters)

fzf

general-purpose command line fuzzy finder with:

• batteries included
  • Vim/Neovim plugin
  • fuzzy auto-completion for bash and zsh
  • fzf-tmux script to launch fzf in a pane
  • key bindings for bash, fish, and zsh
• built-in file previewing
• configuration via environment variables and shell function definitions
• great performance
• no dependencies

Search Syntax

triggers:

• **<Tab>: unfiltered
• <Ctrl-R>: command history
• <Ctrl-T>: filtered
• <Alt-C>: change directory

prefix tokens:

• !: inverse/exclusionary exact match
• ': exact match
• ^: prefix exact match

infix tokens:

• |: or
• space: and

suffix tokens:

• $: suffix exact match

hexyl

hexdump with byte type coloring

hyperfine

command line benchmarking with:

• arbitrary shell command support
• benchmark configuration support (e.g. number of threads)
• cache clearing
• integration with Chronologer (a tool to visualize changes across git history)
• multiple run statistics
• outlier detection
• progress and current estimates
• the ability to generate visualizations and benchmark flowcharts
• the ability to specify warm-up runs
• various output formats:
  • AsciiDoc
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • Markdown

pass

password store that adheres to the Unix philosophy with:

• bash, fish, and zsh integration
• clipboard integration
• community clients, extensions, and migrations
• directory organization with different GnuPG keys per directory as an option
• git integration with automatic commits
• local GnuPG-encrypted files
• password generation

ripgrep

grep with:

• always on Unicode support
• configuration via a file of arguments at RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH
• exclusion of hidden, ignored, and NUL byte-containing files by default
• great performance
• recursion by default
• support for and automatic switching between Rust regex and PCRE2
• support for arbitrary preprocessing filters (e.g. PDF extraction, decryption)
• support for searching in compressed files
• support for searching in files that aren’t UTF-8
• the ability to filter files by type

tealdeer

command cheat sheet client

vivid

dircolors with:

• separate files for file types and themes
• the ability to specify colors as RGB hex codes

zoxide

cd with:

• a memory
• aging to limit the database size
• configuration via initialization flags and environment variables
• frecency
• fuzzy matching