10 Must‑Have Linux CLI Tools to Supercharge Your Workflow

bat

bat is a cat‑compatible command‑line tool that adds syntax highlighting, Git integration and automatic paging.

Installation

Arch Linux: pacman -S bat Fedora: dnf install bat macOS (Homebrew): brew install bat Ubuntu (deb package):

sudo apt-get install wget
wget https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases/download/v0.18.3/bat_0.18.3_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i bat_0.18.3_amd64.deb

Basic usage (cat‑compatible)

bat file.sh               # view a file with highlighting
bat file1.sh file2.sh     # view multiple files
bat file.sh > out.txt      # redirect output
bat > newfile.sh           # create a new file (interactive)

Common options

-n

– show line numbers only (no grid) --list-themes – list available color themes --theme=THEME – apply a specific theme (e.g. --theme=Dracula) export BAT_THEME="Dracula" – make a theme permanent in your shell startup file --style=STYLE or BAT_STYLE – control displayed elements (numbers, changes, grid, header, etc.)

Full documentation is available via man bat or bat --help.

Repository: https://github.com/sharkdp/bat

duf

duf is a cross‑platform disk‑usage viewer written in Go. It categorises devices, mounts and special filesystems and presents the information in a colour‑rich table.

Installation

Ubuntu (deb package):

sudo apt install gdebi
wget https://github.com/muesli/duf/releases/download/v0.5.0/duf_0.5.0_linux_amd64.deb
sudo gdebi duf_0.5.0_linux_amd64.deb

macOS (Homebrew): brew install duf Windows (Chocolatey):

choco install duf

Running duf

duf

Without arguments duf shows all local devices, mounted cloud storage and special devices.

Useful options

--only local

– show only local devices --sort size – sort output by size --all – display all information --hide-network – hide network filesystems --inodes – display inode usage --output mountpoint,size,usage – custom column list --json – JSON formatted output --theme light – force a light colour theme

Repository: https://github.com/muesli/duf

tldr

tldr (Too Long; Didn’t Read) provides concise examples for common command‑line tools, acting as a simplified man‑page.

Installation (Ubuntu example)

sudo apt-get install nodejs npm
sudo npm -g install tldr

Update the cache

tldr --update

Usage

tldr bat

tldr has client implementations in many languages (C, Go, Python, etc.) and can be installed via the respective language’s package manager.

Repository: https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr

htop

htop is an interactive process monitor that improves on top with colourised output, mouse support, vertical/horizontal scrolling and the ability to kill or renice processes without typing PIDs.

Installation

apt install htop

Repository: https://github.com/htop-dev/htop

glances

Glances is a cross‑platform system monitoring tool written in Python. It can run in a curses‑based terminal UI or a web UI and displays CPU, memory, disk I/O, network, sensors and the most resource‑intensive processes.

Repository: https://github.com/nicolargo/glances

exa

exa is a modern replacement for ls that adds colour, grid and tree views, Git status and extended metadata.

Installation

apt install exa

Common options

-1, --oneline

– one entry per line -G, --grid – grid view (default) -l, --long – detailed view with metadata -R, --recurse – recurse into directories -T, --tree – tree view -x, --across – sort across rows instead of down columns -F, --classify – append type indicator to names --color – enable/disable colours --icons / --no-icons – show or hide file icons

Repository: https://github.com/ogham/exa

fd

fd is a simple, fast alternative to find with sensible defaults and colourised output. It automatically respects .gitignore and skips hidden directories unless instructed otherwise.

Installation (Ubuntu)

sudo apt install fd-find

On Ubuntu the binary is named fdfind to avoid conflicts. Create an alias for convenience:

alias fd=fdfind

Example searches

fd "*.md"                # find markdown files (case‑insensitive)

fd -H ""                 # include hidden files and .git directories

Repository: https://github.com/sharkdp/fd/

ag (The Silver Searcher) and ack

ag and ack are fast recursive source‑code search tools that outperform grep for typical development workflows.

Installation (Ubuntu 21.10)

apt-get install silversearcher-ag
apt install ack

Common options

-g

– list files matching a pattern (similar to find -name) -i – case‑insensitive search -A / -B / -C – show context lines after, before, or both -w – match whole words only --java, --xml – limit search to specific file types

Example

ag -w sed

Repository for ag: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher (not listed in original but implied)

axel

axel is a multithreaded download accelerator that can replace curl or wget.

Installation

apt-get install axel

Key options

-n

– number of connections (threads) -o – output directory -s – limit download speed -q – quiet mode

Example

# Download a file using 10 connections and store it in /tmp
axel -n 10 -o /tmp/ http://mirrors.163.com/ubuntu/ls-lR.gz

pydf

pydf is a Python‑based replacement for df that presents disk usage in a cleaner, colourised table.

Installation

apt install pydf

Running pydf displays a concise overview of mounted filesystems.

Repository: https://github.com/dfc/pydf (original link not provided; kept as reference)