86 lines
4 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
4 KiB
Markdown
+++
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title = "Modern Unix Commands"
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date = 2026-01-29
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description = "Modern alternatives to classic Unix commands"
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There might be dozens of "modern alternatives" to every classic Unix command if you look into them;
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I am not a big fan of reinventing wheels, but some of these alternatives are indeed nice and more user-friendly than their classic counterparts.
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## `cd` -> `zoxide`
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`cd` needs the exact absolute or relative path to work.
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[`zoxide`](https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide) will remember the directories I visited, and I can quickly jump back to those directories with fuzzy path matching.
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Let's say I am currently in `~/Documents/Projects/personal-blog` and I want to jump to `~/.config/nix`.
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With the classic `cd`, I will have to type the whole path.
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With `cd` aliased to `zoxide`, I only need to type `cd n` (supposing that `~/.config/nix` is the most frequently visited directory among all matched directories).
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{% cap() %}Fuzzy directory jump with `zoxide`.{% end %}
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Internally `zoxide` records my visits to directories in a SQLite database and sorts them based on frequency. If the first hit is not what I want, I can also interactively select from the matched list.
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{% cap() %}Candidate selection screen of `zoxide`.{% end %}
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## `du` -> `ncdu`
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`du` is quite basic, and I usually need to add several arguments to make it somewhat usable. For example, `-d 1` to control the depth, `-h` to make the size human-readable.
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[`ncdu`](https://dev.yorhel.nl/ncdu) is an interactive alternative to `du`, and is very usable out of the box. Interestingly, I also feel it is a touch faster than `du`.
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It can totally be an alternative to those fancy disk space analyzers as well.
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{% cap() %}Interface of `ncdu`.{% end %}
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## `top` -> `btop`
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`top` is quite basic and looks "unexciting". `htop` also ships with most Unix/Linux systems and looks better.
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{% cap() %}The default look of `top`.{% end %}
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[`btop`](https://github.com/aristocratos/btop) might be the most "nerdy-looking" `top` alternative out of the box. It can be a handy tool if you are trying to make people believe you are a hacker.
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{% cap() %}Interface of `btop`, with the gruvbox theme.{% end %}
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At the same time, it is very feature-rich and configurable. To some extent, it is also an alternative to bandwidth monitoring tools like `iftop` and disk utilization tools like `df`.
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## `ls` -> `eza`
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I think there is nothing wrong with the classic `ls`. So, as an alternative, [`eza`](https://github.com/eza-community/eza) just has a few quality-of-life improvements, like file type icons, Git status, and (based on personal taste) prettier colors.
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{% cap() %}`eza` adds icons and color to the `ls` command.{% end %}
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It can replace the `tree` command as well.
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{% cap() %}File tree display of `eza`.{% end %}
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## `vim` -> `nvim`
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Many people still haven't overcome the biggest `vim` challenge to this day: exit `vim` without turning off your computer.
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It took me some effort to get familiar with `vim` keybindings back when I was an undergraduate, but I am definitely not going back.
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You can simply use `vim` keybindings in many editors or IDEs. `vim` itself can feel a bit restrictive serving as a fully-featured code editor.
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[`neovim`](https://neovim.io/) is a rabbit hole that I won't be trying to comprehensively cover in this post (nor could I).
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To put it simply, it is a TUI editor that can truly be your only text editor. With countless plugins and ways to configure it, it can be a basic text editor, or a fully-featured development IDE, or anything in-between.
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Syntax highlighting, file browser, fuzzy search, intelligent autocompletion, debugging, AI™ integration. You name it, `neovim` has it.
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{% cap() %}Interface of `neovim`, with neotree file browser.{% end %}
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{% cap() %}Interface of `neovim`, with telescope search.{% end %}
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