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Posted on Jun 5

15 rust tools to level up your Linux terminal

#webdev #programming #coding #learning

Forget boring old ls, cat, and grep these Rust-based tools are faster, smarter, and built for real terminal power users.

Introduction

The Linux terminal is powerful but let’s be honest, it’s starting to show its age. Tools like ls, cat, grep, and find have been around for decades. They work, but they’re not exactly user-friendly, modern, or visually helpful.

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That’s where Rust comes in.

Rust is fast, safe, and increasingly becoming the language of choice for building next-gen command-line tools. Developers are rewriting the classics using Rust, and the results are impressive blazing-fast performance, sensible defaults, and beautiful output that doesn’t make your eyes bleed.

In this article, you’ll discover 15 Rust-powered tools that can replace or enhance the ones you use every day. From directory navigation to syntax-highlighting file viewers, these tools are built for power users, sysadmins, devs, and anyone who spends serious time in the terminal.

They’re not just upgrades. They’re quality-of-life improvements.

Let’s explore what a modern Linux terminal experience can really look like with Rust under the hood.

2. Exa

Replaces: ls
Why it’s better: exa is like ls if ls had a glow-up in 2025. It adds colorized output, Git status indicators, tree views, and smart file sorting. It supports icons, understands file metadata, and plays nicely with symlinks. Basically, it makes ls look like a typewriter.

Top features:

Tree view for visual directory structures (exa --tree)
Git status display (--git)
Human-readable file sizes (-h)
Sorting by file type, size, modified date, and more
Optional icons with Nerd Fonts

Use case: Replace ls -la with exa -la --git --icons and instantly get more readable, informative output.

Install:

sudo apt install exa
brew install exa
cargo install exa

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

2. Bat

Replaces: cat
Why it’s better: bat doesn’t just dump file contents it presents them. With syntax highlighting, line numbers, Git diff indicators, and auto-paging, it makes viewing files feel like scrolling through a well-formatted editor. Think of it as cat with VS Code energy.

Top features:

Syntax highlighting for 100+ languages
Git integration to show added/removed lines
Line numbers by default
Works seamlessly with less as a pager
Supports themes and config profiles

Use case: Want to inspect a .rs, .py, or .json file in style?
Try bat main.rs or bat config.yaml and enjoy the glow-up.
Can also be aliased to cat if you’re brave.

Install:

sudo apt install bat (may alias as batcat)
brew install bat
cargo install bat

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

3. Ripgrep

Replaces: grep

ripgrep (or rg) is what happens when you combine the speed of Rust with the power of recursive search. It’s faster than grep, respects .gitignore, and gives cleaner, more readable results by default. It also works great with modern editors like VS Code and Neovim.

Top features:

Blazing-fast recursive file search
Respects .gitignore and hidden files
Syntax-aware highlighting
Easy-to-read output with filename, line number, and match
Works seamlessly in CI or scripts

Use case: Instead of this mess
grep -rnw './' -e 'functionName'
Just do: rg functionName

Install:

sudo apt install ripgrep
brew install ripgrep
cargo install ripgrep

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

4. Fd

Replaces: find

fd is the search tool find wishes it was modern syntax, faster results, and colorized output that’s actually readable. It’s built for humans who don’t want to memorize cryptic flags just to locate a file.

Top features:

Smart defaults (searches current dir recursively)
Colorized, column-aligned output
Regex and glob support
Ignores hidden files and .gitignored files by default
Shell completions and interactive preview support

Use case:
Instead of typing this:
find . -name "*.rs"
Just type:
fd .rs

Install:

sudo apt install fd-find (may be aliased as fdfind)
brew install fd
cargo install fd-find

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

5. Dust

Replaces: du

dust (also known as du-dust) is a smarter, prettier alternative to du. It shows disk usage in a clean, tree-style layout with color-coded bars that help you visualize space-hogging directories at a glance. It’s fast, readable, and doesn't make you squint.

Top features:

Graph-style disk usage display
Human-readable size formatting
Sorts directories by size
Highlights largest consumers of space
Fast performance with minimal CPU usage

Use case:
Instead of running du -h --max-depth=1, just type:
dust
and get an immediate overview of which folders are eating your SSD alive.

Install:

cargo install du-dust
Available via brew install dust
Debian/Ubuntu users may need to install via cargo for latest version

GitHub: https://github.com/bootandy/dust

6. Bottom

Replaces: top, htop

bottom is a performance monitor for your terminal that looks really good. It shows CPU, memory, disk, and network usage in a slick, real-time interface with graph-based output, mouse support, and blazing responsiveness.

Top features:

Real-time system metrics with graphs
Keyboard and mouse navigation
Process tree view with filters and sorting
Custom themes and layout options
Low CPU overhead

Use case:
Need to monitor your system without launching a GUI? Just run btm.
Want to filter processes using memory or kill something directly? bottom makes it visual and interactive.

Install:

cargo install bottom
brew install bottom
snap install bottom (on supported Linux distros)

GitHub: https://github.com/ClementTsang/bottom

7. Procs

Replaces: ps

If ps aux is a printout from a 1980s dot matrix printer, procs is a modern dashboard. It gives you a structured, color-coded view of running processes with icons, command grouping, and helpful filters. It even shows process trees without needing extra flags or hacks.

Top features:

Auto-formatted and colorized process table
Displays command line, PID, CPU, memory, and status
Tree view of process hierarchy
Search and filter by user, name, or PID
Columns are customizable

Use case:
To get an instant overview of what’s running and filter it like a boss:
procs
or try procs --sort mem to catch memory hogs.

Install:

cargo install procs
Not usually available via apt/brew (use cargo for latest)

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

8. Tokei

Replaces: cloc

tokei is your go-to if you’ve ever wondered, “How many lines of code is this entire mess, really?” It analyzes your project and spits out stats on files, lines, comments, blanks, and code all categorized by language. It’s fast, clean, and surprisingly motivating (or depressing, depending on the results).

Top features:

Counts code, comments, and blank lines
Language-wise breakdown
Supports 150+ programming languages
Can output in JSON, YAML, or human-readable format
Fast even on large codebases

Use case:
Want to get a quick pulse on how big your codebase is?
Just run:
tokei
Or get structured output for dashboards:
tokei --output json

Install:

cargo install tokei
brew install tokei

GitHub: https://github.com/XAMPPRocky/tokei

9. Zoxide

Replaces: cd

zoxide is like cdbut with a memory. It tracks your most-used directories and lets you jump to them instantly with fuzzy search. The more you use it, the smarter it gets. It’s like muscle memory, but for your filesystem.

Top features:

Learns your directory habits over time
Jump to frequently used paths with just z <dir>
Fuzzy search built-in
Works across Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell
Supports interactive directory search with zi

Use case:
Instead of typing full paths or tabbing forever:
z src/components will jump there instantly.
And zi lets you fuzzy-pick interactively.

Install:

cargo install zoxide
brew install zoxide
Add to your shell’s .zshrc, .bashrc, or config

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

10. Starship

Replaces: Your shell prompt

starship is a fast, customizable, and cross-shell prompt written in Rust. It replaces your boring default prompt with a snappy, context-aware UI that shows your Git status, current directory, runtime versions, battery life, and more right in your prompt, instantly.

Top features:

Super-fast and minimal prompt
Works with Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, etc.
Shows Git branch/status, node/python/rust versions
Battery, time, jobs, and more in real-time
Full config via starship.toml

Use case:
Want your terminal prompt to actually be helpful without being cluttered?
Install starship and start seeing your dev environment at a glance.

Install:

brew install starship
cargo install starship
Follow setup instructions: https://starship.rs/guide/#🖥️-installation

GitHub: https://github.com/starship/starship

11. Hyperfine

Replaces: manual benchmarking or time

Hyperfine is a benchmarking tool for command-line programs. It doesn’t just tell you how fast a command ran it runs it multiple times, calculates averages, and gives you pretty output with bar graphs. Perfect for testing scripts, comparing tools, or settling once and for all which version of your alias is faster.

Top features:

Accurate benchmarking with warmup runs
Statistical output with standard deviation
Side-by-side comparisons with multiple commands
Built-in chart visualization
Exports results to JSON or Markdown

Use case:
Want to compare the speed of grep vs ripgrep?
Just run:
hyperfine 'grep TODO *' 'rg TODO'

Install:

brew install hyperfine
cargo install hyperfine
sudo apt install hyperfine (may require newer repos)

GitHub: https://github.com/sharkdp/hyperfine

12. Choose

Replaces: cut

choose is a smarter, more interactive alternative to cut. Instead of blindly extracting fields by position, it lets you name and select fields based on headers perfect for structured text like CSV or TSV. It’s the tool you never knew you needed until you’ve spent 10 minutes debugging a cut -d',' -f3 gone wrong.

Top features:

Select fields by name or position
Interactive mode for previewing column selections
Supports CSV, TSV, and other delimited formats
Colorized output for clarity
Ideal for data inspection in logs, exports, or pipelines

Use case:
Working with a messy CSV file?
Instead of this:
cut -d',' -f2
You can do:
choose name,email

Install:

cargo install choos
Not available via apt/brew stick with cargo

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

13. Gitui

Replaces: git CLI for common tasks

gitui is a blazing-fast terminal user interface for Git. Think of it as tig with a better UI, or a no-mouse-needed GitKraken for your terminal. It’s fast, intuitive, and gives you full control over your repos—commits, diffs, staging, and more without writing a single Git command.

Top features:

TUI for staging, committing, and branching
View diffs, logs, stash, and untracked files
Super fast with zero lag, even on large repos
Mouse-free, keyboard-navigable interface
Works out of the box, no config required

Use case:
Need to stage multiple files, inspect diffs, or resolve a conflict quickly?
Just run gitui inside your repo and do it all in one place—visually.

Install:

cargo install gitui
brew install gitui
Binary releases available via GitHub for Windows/Linux

GitHub: https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui

14. Broot

Replaces: tree and even parts of cd

broot is an interactive tree view and fuzzy finder for your filesystem. It lets you navigate directories, preview files, and jump into folders all from a single keyboard-driven interface. It’s like combining tree, cd, and fzf into one brainy tool.

Top features:

Interactive tree view with keyboard navigation
Fuzzy search to locate and jump to files
Previews file content with syntax highlighting
Git integration for status indicators
Optional mode to replace cd with b

Use case:
Want to explore your project folders, jump to a file, or see Git status — all in one go?
Just type broot, and you're flying through directories without leaving the terminal.

Install:

cargo install broot
brew install broot
Run br after install to start (or broot if not aliased)

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

15. Gping

Replaces: ping

gping is like ping, but visual. Instead of plain, scrolling text, you get a live-updating graph of your ping times to one or more hosts. It’s clean, informative, and honestly kind of addictive to watch. Great for monitoring network status in real time.

Top features:

Graphs latency over time for one or more hosts
Color-coded visual output
Easy comparison between multiple endpoints
Real-time updates with low resource usage
Works great in CI/network debugging

Use case:
Want to know if your DNS, gateway, or Google is acting up?
Try:
gping 1.1.1.1 8.8.8.8 google.com

Install:

cargo install gping
brew install gping
Linux users can build from source or use precompiled releases

GitHub: https://github

Conclusion

You don’t have to be a Rust developer to enjoy the benefits of Rust-powered tools. Whether you’re a Linux purist, a terminal enthusiast, or just someone tired of ancient utilities that never evolve, these 15 tools are proof that the CLI experience doesn’t have to stay stuck in the ‘80s.

They’re not just faster they’re cleaner, safer, more feature-rich, and often surprisingly fun to use. Even swapping out a few of your daily commands can dramatically upgrade your productivity and comfort inside the terminal.

Start small. Try bat, fd, or exa. Then let yourself fall into the rabbit hole of smarter, sharper tools. Your future self will thank you especially the next time you don’t have to decode a five-flag grep command just to find a string in a folder.