Top 14 Rust‑Powered CLI Tools to Supercharge Your Linux Workflow

1. lsd

lsd is a Rust‑written replacement for the traditional ls command, adding colorful output, icons, tree view, and extra formatting options. It runs on Arch Linux, Fedora, macOS, FreeBSD, Windows, Android, Ubuntu, Debian and more.

# curl -LO https://github.com/Peltoche/lsd/releases/download/0.21.0/lsd_0.21.0_amd64.deb
# dpkg -i lsd_0.21.0_amd64.deb

2. broot

broot is another Rust‑based ls alternative that provides a novel way to view and navigate directory trees, effectively acting as a terminal file manager.

Features:

Overview of large directories

Quick cd into a selected directory

Preserves hierarchical structure during search

File preview and management

Custom shortcuts for files

Can replace ls Shows disk usage sorting

Git status integration

Usage example:

# br -sdph

3. zoxide

zoxide replaces cd with a smarter, history‑driven navigation tool that remembers frequently visited directories. # zoxide /etc After using zoxide in /etc, you can type z e to jump directly to that directory.

# z e

4. fzf

fzf is a fast, dependency‑free fuzzy finder for any list, file set, command history, process list, hostname, bookmark, or Git commit. It works on many Linux distributions.

# curl -LO http://cn.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/f/fzf/fzf_0.24.3-1_amd64.deb
# dpkg -i fzf_0.24.3-1_amd64.deb

It pairs well with fd (a find replacement). To locate files containing "debug", run:

# find . -type f | fzf

5. ripgrep (rg)

ripgrep is a line‑oriented search tool that recursively searches for regex patterns, offering speed advantages over grep, git‑grep, ugrep, The Silver Searcher, and ack. # apt install ripgrep Example: find all .sh files containing the string "yum".

# rg yum *.sh
9:cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
22:yum clean all
23:yum makecache
25:echo "本地yum仓库已经创建完成！"

6. procs

procs is a Rust‑based ps replacement that provides colored, multi‑column output with keyword search.

Installation:

Arch Linux: # sudo pacman -S procs Fedora: # sudo dnf install procs RPM:

# sudo rpm -i https://github.com/dalance/procs/releases/download/v0.12.1/procs-0.12.1-1.x86_64.rpm

Run procs to list all processes. Use options like --and, --or, --nand, --nor for logical filtering.

7. diff‑so‑fancy

diff‑so‑fancy is a Node‑based pretty‑printer for git diff, improving readability and helping spot defects. # npm install -g diff-so-fancy Use it with Git: # git diff --color | diff-so-fancy Configure Git to use it as the default pager:

# git config --global core.pager "diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RFX"
# git config --global interactive.diffFilter "diff-so-fancy --patch"

8. delta

delta is a syntax‑highlighting pager for Git, diff, and grep output, offering side‑by‑side views, line numbers, merge‑conflict display, and more.

Features:

Color‑themed syntax highlighting

Highlights output from rg, git grep, grep

Side‑by‑side view with line wrapping

Shows line numbers

Merge‑conflict visualization

Supports --color-moved n/N key bindings to jump between files in large diffs

Copy code directly from diffs

Installation instructions are available in the delta manual.

9. mcfly

mcfly replaces the Ctrl+R reverse‑history search with a full‑screen, Rust‑based, fast and safe interface.

Features:

Bind Ctrl+R for fullscreen history search

Rust implementation ensures speed and safety

Use % as a wildcard for any number of characters

Maintains a normal shell history file for fallback

Can purge entries from its own database or the shell history

10. choose

choose is a modern alternative to cut, offering concise syntax similar to Python slicing, zero‑based and negative indexing, and optional start/end indices.

Features:

Simplified field selection syntax

Negative indices count from the end

Optional start/end indices

Zero‑based indexing

Reverse ranges

Faster than cut on long inputs and much faster than awk Uses Rust regex syntax for field delimiters

Example with cut:

# cat 2022.txt | cut -d " " -f 1
or
# cut -d " " -f 1 2022.txt

Equivalent choose usage:

# cat 2022.txt | choose 1
or
# choose 1 -i 2022.txt

11. httpie

httpie is a user‑friendly HTTP client that improves upon curl with a simpler syntax, formatted and colored output, and built‑in support for JSON.

# curl -X PUT -d hello=world example.com

# http PUT example.com hello=world

# http PUT pie.dev/put X-API-Token:123 name=John

# http --offline pie.dev/post hello=offline

12. curlie

curlie combines the ergonomics of httpie with the full feature set of curl, keeping curl’s syntax while presenting output like httpie.

# curlie httpbin.org/headers

# curlie -v PUT httpbin.org/status/201 X-API-Token:123 name=John

13. xh

xh is a fast, friendly HTTP client written in Rust, offering HTTP/2 support, curl‑compatible flags, and concise help output.

# xh httpbin.org/json

# xh httpbin.org/post name=ahmed age:=24

# xh get httpbin.org/json id==5 sort==true

# xh get httpbin.org/json x-api-key:66666

# xh put httpbin.org/put id:=49 age:=24 | less

# xh -d httpbin.org/json -o test.json

# xh httpbin.org/get user-agent:foobar

14. dog

dog is an open‑source DNS client that serves as a colorful alternative to dig, supporting UDP, TCP, DoT, and DoH across many record types.

# dog example.net
# dog example.net MX
# dog example.net MX @x.x.x.x
# dog example.net MX @x.x.x.x -T

References

ls – https://wangchujiang.com/linux-command/c/ls.html

lsd – https://github.com/Peltoche/lsd

broot – https://github.com/Canop/broot

exa – https://github.com/ogham/exa

zoxide – https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide

fzf – https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

fd – https://github.com/sharkdp/fd/

ripgrep – https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep

ag – https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher

procs – https://github.com/dalance/procs

diff‑so‑fancy – https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy

delta – https://github.com/dandavison/delta

mcfly – https://github.com/cantino/mcfly

choose – https://github.com/theryangeary/choose

cut – https://wangchujiang.com/linux-command/c/cut.html

httpie – https://github.com/httpie/httpie

curlie – https://github.com/rs/curlie

xh – https://github.com/ducaale/xh

dog – https://github.com/ogham/dog