Coreutils Alternatives for the Terminal
GNU Coreutils supplies the standard Unix commands that ship with almost every Linux system, including ls, cat, cp, du, df, grep and find.
The tools in this category reimplement those commands with color output, Git awareness, parallel scanning and different defaults, most of them written in Rust or Go. Common pairings are eza and lsd for ls, bat for cat, ripgrep for grep, fd for find and dust for du. They install alongside the originals, so a shell alias is usually the only change to a system.
Below is a list of terminal tools that replace or extend the standard Unix utilities.
bat
A cat(1) clone with wings.
A cat(1) clone with wings.
bfs
A breadth-first version of the UNIX find command.
A breadth-first version of the UNIX find command.
carl
a cal(1) alternative calendar for the command-line.
a cal(1) alternative calendar for the command-line.
duf
Disk Usage/Free Utility - a better 'df' alternative.
Disk Usage/Free Utility - a better 'df' alternative.
dusage
A command line disk usage information tool.
A command line disk usage information tool.
dust
A more intuitive version of du in rust
A more intuitive version of du in rust
dysk
A linux utility listing your filesystems.
A linux utility listing your filesystems.
exa
The original modern replacement for ls
The original modern replacement for ls
eza
A modern replacement for ls
A modern replacement for ls
fd
A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find'
A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find'
g
A feature-rich, customizable, and cross-platform ls alternative.
A feature-rich, customizable, and cross-platform ls alternative.
gdu
Pretty fast disk usage analyzer
Pretty fast disk usage analyzer
gomi
Unix rm(1) command that can restore deleted files.
Unix rm(1) command that can restore deleted files.
gtrash
A featureful trash CLI manager.
A featureful trash CLI manager.
hwatch
An alternative watch command.
An alternative watch command.
lla
A blazing fast ls replacement with superpowers.
A blazing fast ls replacement with superpowers.
lsd
lsdeluxe, the next gen ls command in Rust.
lsdeluxe, the next gen ls command in Rust.
lsr
Basically ls but readable.
Basically ls but readable.
lstr
A fast, minimalist directory tree viewer.
A fast, minimalist directory tree viewer.
moar
the nice pager, designed to just do the right thing without any configuration.
the nice pager, designed to just do the right thing without any configuration.
ncdu
A ncurses based disk usage analyzer
A ncurses based disk usage analyzer
ov
A feature rich terminal-based pager.
A feature rich terminal-based pager.
pdu
Highly parallelized, blazing fast directory tree analyzer.
Highly parallelized, blazing fast directory tree analyzer.
pls
A prettier and powerful ls(1) for the pros.
A prettier and powerful ls(1) for the pros.
procs
A modern replacement for ps written in Rust.
A modern replacement for ps written in Rust.
ripgrep
A recursive directory search tool using regex patterns.
A recursive directory search tool using regex patterns.
sd
Intuitive find & replace CLI (sed alternative)
Intuitive find & replace CLI (sed alternative)
srgn
A syntax‑aware grep alternative with code edits.
A syntax‑aware grep alternative with code edits.
systeroid
A more powerful alternative to sysctl(8).
A more powerful alternative to sysctl(8).
tere
A faster alternative to cd + ls.
A faster alternative to cd + ls.
tre
A modern and improved alternative to the tree(1) command.
A modern and improved alternative to the tree(1) command.
ugrep
A fast grep replacement for archives, documents and fuzzy search.
A fast grep replacement for archives, documents and fuzzy search.
viddy
A modern watch command, time machine and pager.
A modern watch command, time machine and pager.
wizu
A fast, minimalist directory tree viewer.
A fast, minimalist directory tree viewer.
zoxide
A smarter cd command. Supports all major shells.
A smarter cd command. Supports all major shells.
Know any terminal tools that would be good for this list? Post a Tool here!
