Upgrade Your Linux Workflow: 10 Powerful CLI Replacements for cat, df, and top

Hello, I'm Jie Ge. In Linux we often use the cat command to concatenate files, but a newer tool called bat offers syntax highlighting, Git integration and automatic paging.

01 bat

Installation

Arch Linux pacman -S bat Fedora dnf install bat macOS brew install bat On Ubuntu you can download the .deb package and install it:

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

The bat command works like cat but adds many conveniences:

bat > jiaoben1.sh          # create a new file
bat jiaoben1.sh           # view file content with syntax highlighting
bat jiaoben1.sh jiaoben2.sh   # view multiple files
bat jiaoben1.sh jiaoben2.sh > test.txt   # merge files

Use -n to show line numbers, --theme=Dracula to change the colour scheme, and --style=numbers,changes to customize the output.

02 duf

duf

is a Go‑written, cross‑platform disk‑usage viewer that presents information in a friendly table.

Ubuntu installation

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

/bin/zsh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://gitee.com/cunkai/HomebrewCN/raw/master/Homebrew.sh)"
brew install duf

Windows

choco install duf
scoop install duf

Typical usage:

duf                     # show all devices
duf --only local       # show only local devices
duf --sort size        # sort by size

03 tldr

tldr

(Too Long; Didn't Read) provides concise examples for common commands, simplifying the output of man.

Installation on Ubuntu:

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

Usage: simply run tldr <command> to see short examples.

04 htop

htop

is an interactive, colour‑enhanced replacement for top, written in C and available on most platforms. apt install htop It offers better visualisation, scrolling, sorting and the ability to kill or renice processes directly.

05 glances

glances

is a Python‑based, cross‑platform monitoring tool that adapts its output to the terminal size and can run in client/server mode.

It displays CPU, memory, network, disk usage, sensor data and the most resource‑hungry processes.

06 exa

exa

is a modern replacement for ls with colour‑coded output, Git integration and many view options (grid, tree, long, etc.). apt install exa Common options: -1 – one entry per line -G – grid view (default) -l – long view with details -R – recurse into directories -T – tree view --style=numbers,changes – show line numbers and Git changes

07 fd

fd

is a fast, user‑friendly alternative to find, with sensible defaults and colour output. sudo apt install fd-find On Ubuntu the binary is named fdfind; you can create an alias: alias fd=fdfind Example searches:

fd *.md               # find markdown files
fd -H .               # include hidden files

08 ag

ag

(the Silver Searcher) and ack are faster, colour‑enhanced alternatives to grep for recursive text searches.

apt-get install silversearcher-ag
apt install ack

Common options: -g – list files matching a pattern -i – case‑insensitive -A, -B, -C – show context lines -w – match whole words

09 axel

axel

is a multi‑threaded command‑line downloader that can replace wget or curl. apt-get install axel Key options: -n – number of threads -o – output directory -s – max speed -q – quiet mode

Example:

# axel -n 10 -o /tmp/ http://mirrors.163.com/ubuntu/ls-lR.gz

10 pydf

pydf

is a Python‑based, more compact replacement for df that shows disk usage with a cleaner layout.

apt install pydf

References

bat – https://github.com/sharkdp/bat

duf – https://github.com/muesli/duf

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

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

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

exa – https://github.com/ogham/exa

fd – https://github.com/sharkdp/fd/