My non-built-in CLI utility recommendations, none of which are macOS specific:
* atuin - TUI for shell history, backed by SQLite - https://github.com/atuinsh/atuin
* LSD (LSDeluxe) - rewrite of `ls` - https://github.com/lsd-rs/lsd
* ripgrep - https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
* fzf - command-line fuzzy finder that enhances file search, command history search, and more - https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
Notes:
- To get pretty extra file/folder symbols with LSD, you'll probably need to install some special fonts.
- You can use `fzf` and `ripgrep` together.
In Useful built-in macOS command-line utilitiesjunegunn
fzf
Go2013–2026
junegunn / fzf
fzf
:cherry_blossom: A command-line fuzzy finder
210Distinct people
229Mentions
5Explicit recommenders
84.2KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
:cherry_blossom: A command-line fuzzy finder
GitHub
Where it is used
What people are saying
`ripgrep` is my favorite of the "new" linux utilities Yeah, but only when used together with fzf, the other favorite new cross-platform shell utility. I mean, after rg spits…
stinos used a recommendation phrase. 5 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- burntsushi/ripgrep · linked in 8 of the same discussions
- sharkdp/fd · linked in 5 of the same discussions
- clvv/fasd · linked in 4 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:01:16 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year229 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2013-11-05 12:23:55 UTC to 2026-10-19 23:55:18 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 15 | 5 | 10 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 22 | 7 | 15 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 23 | 3 | 20 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 22 | 2 | 20 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 25 | 1 | 24 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 34 | 2 | 32 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 26 | 1 | 25 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 19 | 0 | 19 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 14 | 2 | 12 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 12, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Show your love for fzf -- T-shirts, mugs, and stickers now available!
fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder and an interactive terminal toolkit.
Whether you're selecting files, browsing command history, previewing data,
navigating complex datasets with fuzzy matching, or creating custom menus and
workflows, fzf provides the building blocks to turn shell scripts into rich
terminal applications.
Highlights
Portable // Distributed as a single binary for easy installation
Fast // Optimized to process millions of items in milliseconds
Programmable // Event-driven architecture for building custom terminal interfaces and workflows
Batteries-included // Comes with integrations for Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, Vim, and Neovim
Table of Contents
Installation
Using Homebrew
Using Mise
Linux packages
Windows packages
Using git
Binary releases
Setting up shell integration
Vim/Neovim plugin
Upgrading fzf
Building fzf
Usage
Using the finder
Display modes
--height mode
--popup mode
Search syntax
Environment variables
Customizing the look
Options
Demo
Examples
Key bindings for command-line
Fuzzy completion
Files and directories
Process IDs
Host names
Environment variables / Aliases
Customizing fuzzy completion for bash and zsh
Customizing fzf options for completion
Customizing completion source for paths and directories
Supported commands (bash)
Custom fuzzy completion
Fuzzy completion for fish
Fuzzy completion for Nushell
Vim plugin
Advanced topics
Customizing for different types of input
Performance
Executing external programs
Turning into a different process
Reloading the candidate list
1. Update the list of processes by pressing CTRL-R
2. Switch between sources by pressing CTRL-D or CTRL-F
3. Interactive ripgrep integration
Preview window
Previewing an image
Tips
Respecting .gitignore
Fish shell
fzf Theme Playground
Related projects
License
Goods
Sponsors ❤️
Installation
Using Homebrew
You can use Homebrew (on macOS or Linux) to install fzf.
brew install fzf
ImportantTo set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion),
see the instructions below.
fzf is also available via MacPorts: sudo port install fzf
Using Mise
You can use mise to install fzf.
mise use -g fzf@latest
Linux packages
Package Manager
Linux Distribution
Command
APK
Alpine Linux
sudo apk add fzf
APT
Debian 9+/Ubuntu 19.10+
sudo apt install fzf
Conda
conda install -c conda-forge fzf
DNF
Fedora
sudo dnf install fzf
Nix
NixOS, etc.
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.fzf
Pacman
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S fzf
pkg
FreeBSD
pkg install fzf
pkgin
NetBSD
pkgin install fzf
pkg_add
OpenBSD
pkg_add fzf
Portage
Gentoo
emerge --ask app-shells/fzf
Spack
spack install fzf
XBPS
Void Linux
sudo xbps-install -S fzf
Zypper
openSUSE
sudo zypper install fzf
ImportantTo set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion),
see the instructions below.
Windows packages
On Windows, fzf is available via Chocolatey, Scoop,
Winget, and MSYS2:
Package manager
Command
Chocolatey
choco install fzf
Scoop
scoop install fzf
Winget
winget install fzf
MSYS2 (pacman)
pacman -S $MINGW_PACKAGE_PREFIX-fzf
Using git
Alternatively, you can "git clone" this repository to any directory and run
install script.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf
~/.fzf/install
The install script will add lines to your shell configuration file to modify
$PATH and set up shell integration.
Binary releases
You can download the official fzf binaries from the releases page.
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/releases
Setting up shell integration
Add the following line to your shell configuration file.
bash
# Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion
eval "$(fzf --bash)"
zsh
# Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion
source <(fzf --zsh)
fish
# Set up fzf key bindings
fzf --fish | source
Nushell -- Nushell does not support piping into source, so the install
script generates a file in the autoload directory. If you didn't use the
install script, you can manually set it up:
# Generate the integration script
mkdir ($nu.default-config-dir | path join "autoload")
fzf --nushell | save -f ($nu.default-config-dir | path join "autoload" "_fzf_integration.nu")
Note--bash, --zsh, --fish, and --nushell options are only available in
recent versions of fzf. If you have an older version of fzf, or want finer control, you can
source individual script files in the /shell directory. The
location of the files may vary depending on the package manager you use.
Please refer to the package documentation for more information.
(e.g. apt show fzf)
TipYou can disable CTRL-T, CTRL-R, or ALT-C bindings by setting the
corresponding *_COMMAND variable to an empty string when sourcing the
script. For example, to disable CTRL-R and ALT-C:
bash: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= eval "$(fzf --bash)"
zsh: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source <(fzf --zsh)
fish: fzf --fish | FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source
nushell: add to your env.nu:
$env.FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND = ""; $env.FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND = ""
Setting the variables after sourcing the script will have no effect.
Vim/Neovim plugin
If you use vim-plug, add this to
your Vim configuration file:
Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'do': { -> fzf#install() } }
Plug 'junegunn/fzf.vim'
junegunn/fzf provides the basic library functions
fzf#install() makes sure that you have the latest binary
junegunn/fzf.vim is a separate project
that provides a variety of useful commands
To learn more about the Vim integration, see README-VIM.md.
TipIf you use Neovim and prefer Lua-based plugins, check out
fzf-lua.
Upgrading fzf
fzf is being actively developed, and you might want to upgrade it once in a
while. Please follow the instruction below depending on the installation
method used.
git: cd ~/.fzf && git pull && ./install
brew: brew update; brew upgrade fzf
macports: sudo port upgrade fzf
chocolatey: choco upgrade fzf
vim-plug: :Plu
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
14 sourcesfzf (https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) is really great. Very useful for providing a quick and easy user interface. For example, I use it to fuzzy find inside git branches to have an "improved checkout". I do that since at work branches are usually named "<project>-<issue number>", it's faster to search for the issue number.
In We need more zero config toolsThe fzf repo has a guide/example code for ripgrep integration that works pretty well.
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/blob/master/ADVANCED.md#ripg...
In Rga: Ripgrep, but also search in PDFs, E-Books, Office documents, zip, etc.> PowerShell has up-front required prerequisites that you can declare
Anyone who's written more than a few scripts for others will have learned to do something like this at the start:
declare -a reqs
reqs+=(foo bar baz)
missing=0
for r in "${reqs[@]}"; do
if (! command -v "$r" &>/dev/null); then
echo "${r} is required, please install it"
missing=1
fi
done
if [ $missing -gt 0 ]; then
exit 1
fi
> Your script is very bravely trying to parse output that includes many different protocols, including: tcp, tcp6, udp, udp6, and unix domain sockets
They probably didn't know you could specify a type. Mine only displays TCP4.
> Now imagine putting your script side-by-side with the PowerShell script, and giving it to people to read.
I'm gonna gatekeep here. If you don't know
Read the rest
what that script would do, you have no business administering Linux for pay. I'm not saying that in a "GTFO noob" way, but in a "maybe you should know how to use your job's tools before people depend on you to do so." None of that script is using exotic syntax.
> Note that you had to use 'awk', which is a parser, and then three uses of 'grep' -- a regular expression language, which is also a kind of parsing.
They _chose_ to. You _can_ do it all with awk (see my example in a separate post).
> Literally in every discussion about PowerShell there's some Linux person who's only ever used bash complaining that PS syntax is "weird" or "hard to read". What are they talking about!? It's half the complexity for the same functionality, reads like English, and doesn't need write-only hieroglyphics for parameters.
And yet somehow, bash and its kin continue to absolutely dominate usage.
There is a reason that tools like ripgrep [0] are beloved and readily accepted: they don't require much in the way of learning new syntax; they just do the same job, but faster. You can load your local machine up with all kinds of newer, friendlier tools like fd [1], fzf[2], etc. – I definitely love fzf to death. But you'd better know how to get along without them, because when you're ssh'd onto a server, or god forbid, exec'd into a container built with who-knows-what, you won't have them.
Actually, that last point sparked a memory: what do you do when you're trying to debug a container and it doesn't have things like `ps` available? You iterate through the `/proc` filesystem, because _everything is a file._ THAT is why the *nix way exists, is wonderful, and is unlikely to ever change. There is always a way to get the information you need, even if it's more painful.
[0]: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
[1]: https://github.com/sharkdp/fd
[2]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
fzf: A command-line fuzzy finder
4 points · Open discussionfzf replacing my default ^R has been a godsend to me for remembering how to do things in the shell.
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
In Entering text in the terminal is complicatedfzf has "(Experimental) Sixel image support in preview window (not available on Windows)" since version 0.44.0
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/releases/tag/0.44.0
fzf --preview='fzf-preview.sh {}'
In lsix: Like "ls", but for imagesIn addition, I think bash's `operate-and-get-next` can be very helpful. When you go back through your shell history, you can hit Ctrl+o instead of enter and it will execute the command then put the next one in your history on the command line, and keep track of where you are in your history. This way, you can rerun a bunch of commands by going to the first one and Ctrl+o till you are done. And you can edit those commands and hit Ctrl+o and still go to the next previously run command.
Note: fzf's history search feature breaks this. https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/issues/2399
Edit: And up and down will still keep the relative position you are at in your history in case you want to skip a command.
In Ask HN: Any tool for managing large and variable command lines?I have removed limit for bash history lines and file size and am using https://github.com/junegunn/fzf for reverse-search, and of course I use ctrl+x ctrl+e to edit long command lines in vim (I have export EDITOR=vim in bashrc)
In Ask HN: Any tool for managing large and variable command lines?You probably already know these bits & bobs, but I wanted to share:
[diff]
external = difft
Use the fantastic difftastic instead of git's diff. https://difftastic.wilfred.me.uk/
[alias]
fza = "!git ls-files -m -o --exclude-standard | fzf -m --print0 | xargs -0 git add"
gone = "!f() { git fetch --all --prune; git branch -vv | awk '/: gone]/{print $1}' | xargs git branch -D; }; f"
root = rev-parse --show-toplevel
Those are the most used aliases in my gitconfig.
"git fza" shows a list of modified/new files in an fzf window, and you can select each file with tab plus arrow keys. When you hit enter, those files are fed into "git add". Needs fzf: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
"git gone" removes local branches that don't exist on the remote.
"git root" prints out the root of the repo. You can alias it to "cd $(git root)",
Read the rest
and zip back to the repo root from a deep directory structure. This one is less useful now for me since I started using zoxide to jump around. https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide
> my history is so noisy I had to find another way
The fzf search syntax [1] can help, if you become familiar with it. It is also supported in atuin [2].
[1]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#search-syntax
[2]: https://docs.atuin.sh/configuration/config/#fuzzy-search-syn...
In Keeping a long shell historyI tried this and a handful of alternatives a while back, but would often get frustrated because they’d jump to something different than what I intended or were missing some directory I wanted.
Eventually I came up with an alternative using fd¹ and fzf². I have a variant of this in my .zshrc:
function n {
cd "$(fd . "${HOME}" --type d --color never | fzf --select-1 --query "${*}")"
ls
}
Call it with `n` and get an interactive fuzzy search for your directories. If you do `n <argument>`, it’ll start the find with `<argument>` already filled in (and if there’s only one match, jump to it directly). The `ls` is optional but I find that I like having the contents visible as soon as I change directories.
In my personal setup I’m also including iCloud Drive while excluding the rest of the Library directory³ as that is too noisy. I hav
Read the rest
e a separate `nl` function which searches just inside `~/Library` for when I need it, as well as other specialised `n<char>` functions that search inside specific places that I use frequently.
¹ https://github.com/sharkdp/fd
² https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
³ Change the fd command to: fd . "${HOME}" "${HOME}/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs" --exclude '/Library/' --type d --color never
I do find the history pager stuff interesting, but ultimately not of tremendous use for me. I rebound all my history search stuff to use fzf[1] (via a fish plugin for such[2]), and so haven't been aware of the issues
[1] https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
[2] https://github.com/PatrickF1/fzf.fish
In Fish shell 3.7.0 released, the last release branch before the full Rust rewrite