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

<code>pacman -S bat</code>

Fedora

<code>dnf install bat</code>

macOS

<code>brew install bat</code>

On Ubuntu you can download the .deb package and install it:

<code>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</code>

The

bat

command works like

cat

but adds many conveniences:

<code>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</code>

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

<code>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</code>

macOS

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

Windows

<code>choco install duf
scoop install duf</code>

Typical usage:

<code>duf                     # show all devices
duf --only local       # show only local devices
duf --sort size        # sort by size</code>

03 tldr

tldr

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

man

.

Installation on Ubuntu:

<code>sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm
sudo npm install -g tldr
tldr --update</code>

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.

<code>apt install htop</code>

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.).

<code>apt install exa</code>

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.

<code>sudo apt install fd-find</code>

On Ubuntu the binary is named

fdfind

; you can create an alias:

<code>alias fd=fdfind</code>

Example searches:

<code>fd *.md               # find markdown files
fd -H .               # include hidden files</code>

08 ag

ag

(the Silver Searcher) and

ack

are faster, colour‑enhanced alternatives to

grep

for recursive text searches.

<code>apt-get install silversearcher-ag
apt install ack</code>

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

.

<code>apt-get install axel</code>

Key options:

-n

– number of threads

-o

– output directory

-s

– max speed

-q

– quiet mode

Example:

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

10 pydf

pydf

is a Python‑based, more compact replacement for

df

that shows disk usage with a cleaner layout.

<code>apt install pydf</code>

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/