C
CLI tools written in C
2048-cli
A 2048 clone that runs in the terminal
abduco
Session management for running programs independently of their terminal
aclock
ASCII analog clock for text console displays and terminals
3D-renderer
Console-based 3D renderer using ASCII characters to display and rotate shapes
Aewan
Multi-layered ASCII graphics and animation editor
ag
The Silver Searcher - a fast code search tool inspired by ack
alpine
User-friendly terminal email client suitable for beginners and power users
Alsamixer
ALSA sound mixer with ncurses interface
amused
Minimal music player that composes well with other tools
Angband
A free, single-player dungeon exploration game
antiword
Reader and converter for the proprietary MS .doc file format
ascii-matrix
Render the Matrix effect in the terminal with ASCII art overlays
ASCII Saver
Screensaver for terminals
asciit
A compact and intuitive ASCII table in your terminal
astroterm
A planetarium for your terminal to explore stars, planets, and constellations
atop
TUI performance monitor for Linux with daily activity logging
awk
Historical general-purpose text processing and data extraction tool
Bash
The most widespread Unix/Linux system shell
bb
The portable BB ASCII art demo from AAlib
bcal
Byte CALculator for storage expressions, conversions, and address calculations
bfs
A breadth-first version of the UNIX find command
Bitwise
Base conversion and bit manipulator in ncurses
blinkenlights
TUI debugger for x86_64-linux and i8086 programs across platforms
bmon
Network monitoring and debugging tool with human-friendly visual statistics
boxes
Draw ASCII art boxes around your input text
Bren
Command line file renamer with GNU Guile scripting support
brightnessctl
Read and control device brightness from the command line
cacaview
Display images in the terminal using ASCII art characters
calcurse
A calendar and scheduling application for the command line
catdoc
Convert Microsoft Word documents to plain text
CAVA
Cross-platform audio visualizer for the terminal
cbonsai
A bonsai tree generator written in C using ncurses
ccube
Rotating 3D cube animation in the terminal, written in C
cfiles
ncurses file manager written in C with vim-like keybindings
cgdb
Console front-end to the GNU debugger
cgol
Conway's Game of Life in C for the terminal
chadsay
Like cowsay, but pronounced by GigaChad
chafa
Terminal graphics for the 21st century - render images in the terminal
cheezee
Chess TUI client built for Linux
cho
The safe echo and quoting utility for reliable text output
climenu
Compact app for creating shell menus with executable entries
clifm
Shell-like, non-curses terminal file manager written in C
cmatrix
Display The Matrix scrolling text effect in your terminal
cmenu
Minimal TUI menu utility similar to dmenu, reads from stdin and writes to stdout
cmus
Fast and lightweight terminal audio player with configurable keybindings
compsize
Find compression type and ratio on btrfs file systems
conspy
View and control Linux virtual consoles remotely
CoreFreq
CPU monitoring TUI for 64-bit processors
cream
Encrypt and decrypt streams of data with a master password
Csope
C source code browser - improved fork of Cscope
cue
A command-line music player
cTune
ncurses-based internet radio player for Linux
curl
Transfer data with URLs supporting dozens of protocols
darkhttpd
Simple, fast HTTP 1.1 web server for static content
DASH
POSIX-compliant /bin/sh implementation that aims to be as small as possible
dateutils
Command-line tools for date and time manipulation and arithmetic
del
Save deleted files to a .del/ subdirectory instead of removing them
detox
Clean up filenames by replacing spaces, special chars, and UTF-8
dfc
Display filesystem space usage with style and color
dmidecode
System information utility for reading DMI/SMBIOS data
dtach
A program that emulates the detach feature of screen
dvtm
Dynamic console window manager for multiple terminal applications
ed
GNU line-oriented text editor, the standard Unix editor
Elinks
Advanced text-mode web browser with CSS support and background downloads
Emacs
Extensible, customizable text editor with a massive ecosystem of packages
entr
Run arbitrary commands when files change
es
Extensible shell with first-class functions and lexical scope based on Plan9 rc
Fastfetch
Like Neofetch, but much faster because written in C
feuille
A fast, dead-simple socket-based pastebin
ffmpeg
The Swiss knife of video editing from the command line
FIGlet
Create large ASCII art text banners from ordinary text
finch
Terminal-based IM client supporting many protocols via libpurple
Firejail
Security sandbox for restricting untrusted applications on Linux
fnc
Interactive text-based user interface for Fossil VCS
fortune
Display random quotes and aphorisms from a quotation database
fossil
Simple, high-reliability distributed SCM with built-in web interface
Frotz
Interpreter for Infocom games and Z-machine games
fzy
A better fuzzy finder for the terminal
GCTU
Convert DNA code sequences to RNA sequences
genius
General purpose calculator and mathematics tool
gifsicle
Create, manipulate, and optimize GIF images and animations
git
The most widely used distributed version control system
GNU Freetalk
Console-based Jabber/XMPP chat client with autocompletion
GNU Recutils
Tools and libraries for human-editable text-based databases
GnuPG
Complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard
gnuplot
Generate two and three-dimensional plots of data
goaccess
Real-time web log analyzer and interactive viewer with fast HTTP statistics
gplaces
Simple but powerful terminal Gemini client
Graphviz
Open source graph visualization software with CLI tools
GraphicsMagick
Swiss army knife of image processing
greed
A terminal game where you move and consume numbers in a table
hardv
CLI flashcard app for UNIX systems following the UNIX philosophy
hashcat
World's fastest and most advanced password recovery tool
hstr
Manage shell history with visual search and editing capabilities
htop
An interactive process viewer for Unix
ictree
Like tree but interactive
ImageMagick
Powerful command-line image manipulation and conversion suite
irssi
The most popular IRC client for the command line
jed
User-friendly text editor with drop-down menu facility
jo
Create JSON objects from the command line
joe
Compact text editor written in C, great for handling large files
journalC
Simple encrypted terminal journaling book
jp2a
Convert images to ASCII art in the terminal
jq
Command-line JSON processor
jshon
JSON parser designed for maximum convenience within the shell
kew
Command-line music player with gapless playback and simple playlist management
kirc
A tiny IRC client written in POSIX C99
kitty
Fast, feature-rich, GPU-based terminal emulator
krep
Blazingly fast text search with multiple algorithms and SIMD acceleration
ksh93
KornShell - powerful shell compatible with Bourne Shell with csh features
liboping
Protocol-independent ANSI-C ping library and command line utility
Line Select
Interactive line selection from stdin for pipeline integration
Links
Text-based web browser with tables and frames support
LinuxLogo
Display the Linux distribution logo in ASCII format
logrotate
Rotate, compress, and mail system logs
Lotus 1-2-3 for Linux
A native port of Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3 to Linux
lowdown
Markdown translator for HTML5, roff, LaTeX, gemini, and terminal output
lSel
Simple no-fuss TUI selection menu for use in scripts
ltorah
Read the ancient Hebrew Torah from the command line
lxc
Userspace interface for Linux kernel containment features
Lynx
Highly configurable text-based web browser, one of the oldest CLI browsers
mbsync
Synchronize IMAP mailboxes to local MailDir format
MCABBER
Small XMPP console client with encryption and MUC support
mdp
A command-line based Markdown presentation tool
memo
Unix-style note-taking software for POSIX systems
menucd
Directory browser and changer for the command line
Midnight Commander
Classic dual-pane visual file manager for the terminal
Minisign
A dead simple tool to sign files and verify digital signatures
mksh
MirBSD Korn Shell - actively developed free Korn Shell implementation
mlterm
Fast low-latency terminal with variable-width fonts and bidirectional support
mmv-c
Interactively rename files with your favorite editor
MOC
Powerful console audio player with Midnight Commander-style interface
mpg123
Fast command-line MP3 player with no visual interface
mplayer
Versatile media player supporting most audio and video formats
mpv
Cross-platform media player with minimal UI and excellent format support
mtm
Micro Terminal Multiplexer - simple, stable, and minimalistic
mtr
Network diagnostic tool combining traceroute and ping
multitail
Monitor multiple log files simultaneously in a single terminal
Mutt
Powerful terminal email client with extensive customization and protocol support
nano
Easy to use, lightweight text editor with on-screen key bindings
nc2048
ncurses 2048 game for the terminal
ncursesFM
Lightweight and responsive file manager written in C
nemu
Ncurses UI for QEMU virtual machine management
NeoMutt
A command-line email client forked from Mutt with modern features
neovim
Modernized fork of Vim with better extensibility and Lua scripting
netdump
Simple network packet analyzer with real-time and offline ASCII visualization
Nethack
Classic single-player roguelike dungeon exploration game
Newsraft
Lightweight ncurses feed reader inspired by Newsboat
ngrep
Network packet grep - match regex against network traffic payloads
nmon
Nigel's performance Monitor for Linux systems
nnn
The unorthodox terminal file manager that's blazing fast
No More Secrets
Recreates the data decryption effect from the 1992 movie Sneakers
Notmuch
Fast, tag-based email indexing and search system
nvtop
htop-like task monitor for AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA GPUs
nyancat
Nyancat in your terminal, rendered through ANSI escape sequences
ogg123
Command-line player for Ogg Vorbis audio files
oksh
Portable OpenBSD ksh
Oldrunner
ASCII character-based remake of Lode Runner with 150 levels
opencubicplayer
Music visualizer for tracked music formats, chiptunes, and demoscene formats
pal
Calendar for Unix/Linux with plain text event storage
pick
Choose one option from a set of choices with fuzzy search
podbit
Minimal, performant replacement for newsboat's podboat podcast tool
Profanity
Console-based XMPP client written in C using ncurses
Programmer calculator
Terminal calculator for programmers working with multiple number representations
progress
Show progress of coreutils commands like cp, mv, dd, tar, rsync
ptable
Beautiful TUI periodic table for GNU/Linux terminals
pv
archivedMonitor the progress of data through a pipe
QEMU
Generic machine and userspace emulator and virtualizer
qman
A more modern man page viewer for the terminal
quark
Extremely small and simple HTTP web server for static content
radeontop
View AMD GPU utilization for total activity and individual blocks
rawhide
File finder using C expressions to specify filenames
Remind
Powerful calendar with complex event rules and text-based storage
rename
Bulk rename files using regex from util-linux
renameutils
Rename files and directories interactively by editing in-place
rmlint
Find and remove duplicate and broken files with reports
rmw
Trashcan/recycle bin utility for the command line
rofi
A window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement
rsync
Fast, versatile file synchronization and transfer over SSH
safe
Password-protected secret keeper with encryption
sandsifter
The x86 processor fuzzer
sc-im
Feature-rich ncurses spreadsheet calculator for the terminal
sclocka
The real screensaver/lock for terminals
screen
Terminal multiplexer that splits a terminal between several processes
scrot
Simple command-line screenshot tool for Linux
sent
Simple plain-text presentation tool from suckless
Sfeed
RSS and Atom parser that converts feeds to TAB-separated format
sic
Extremely simple IRC client in less than 250 lines of code
Siren
A text-based audio player for UNIX-like operating systems
sitecopy
Synchronize local website copy with a remote FTP server
skroll
Make text scroll from right to left in the terminal
Slash'EM
Extended Nethack variant with extra features, monsters, and items
slurm
Yet another network load monitor
smenu
Powerful and versatile CLI selection tool for interactive use
sngrep
Ncurses SIP message flow viewer
Snoop
Provide information about files in a directory on Linux
sntop
Simple network top for monitoring connectivity
sshfs
Mount remote filesystems over SSH using FUSE
sslh
SSL/SSH multiplexer to share ports between protocols
sssnake
The classic snake game for the terminal that can play itself as a screensaver
st
Simple terminal implementation for X from suckless
Steam Locomotive
ASCII steam locomotive animation when you type sl instead of ls
stftp
Simple, easy-to-use terminal FTP client
svgshift
Quickly adjust colors in SVG files by manipulating RGB and HSL values
symlinks
Find and remedy problematic symbolic links on a system
T-RexC
Simple console Google T-Rex game
task-spooler
Unix batch system for queuing and executing commands sequentially
Tcsh
Enhanced C shell with command completion and editing
Teapot
Compact ncurses-based spreadsheet with 3D-style and built-in functions
teetail
Like tee, but only the tail goes in the file
Telegram messenger CLI
Command-line interface for Telegram using readline
Telescope
Gemini client inspired by Emacs and W3M
termfu
A multi-language debugger frontend with custom terminal layouts
testdisk
Undelete files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS, ext2 and recover deleted partitions
The Rock
Command line King James Bible viewer for Linux
tig
ncurses-based text-mode interface and repository browser for git
titan
Command-line password manager written in C for the Unix shell
Tmate
Instant terminal sharing via a fork of tmux
tmux
Terminal multiplexer for managing multiple sessions
toilet
Enhanced FIGlet with Unicode, color fonts, and multiple output formats
top
Classic Unix utility showing top CPU-using processes in real-time
toxic
A Tox-based instant messaging and video chat client
trashbhuwan
Trashing CLI application for Linux distros, written in C
tree
Display directory structure as a depth-indented tree
trurl
Command-line tool for URL parsing and manipulation
trre
Transductive regular expressions for text editing and grep-like searching
ttyd
Share your terminal over the web
ttygif
Convert ttyrec files into GIF files
ttyload
Color-coded graph of system load averages in the terminal
ttyscheme
Collection of color schemes for the TTY
tui-sudoku
Configurable terminal interface sudoku game with many features
Twin
Text mode window environment for embedded or remote systems
typeinc
ncurses-based terminal typing speed test with difficulty levels and cool UI
Typespeed
Typing speed game with words flying across the terminal
uacme
Lightweight ACMEv2 client written in plain C with minimal dependencies
vifm
ncurses file manager with vim-like keybindings and configuration
vim
Highly configurable modal text editor with a massive plugin ecosystem
virsh
Interactive shell for managing libvirt domains, networks, and storage
vis
Modern, legacy-free, vim-like editor with Lua scripting and structural regex
w3m
Text-based web browser and pager that can render HTML as plain text
watch
Periodically run a command and display its output, highlighting changes
wavemon
ncurses-based wireless network monitoring application for Linux
WeeChat
Fast, light, extensible chat client with text-based interface
whowatch
Monitor logged-in Linux users and their processes in real time
WordGrinder
Terminal word processor designed for writing text, not desktop publishing
wterm
Native Wayland terminal emulator based on an st fork
wv
Utility for performing operations on .doc files (deprecated)
yank
Read stdin and select a field to copy to the clipboard
Yash
POSIX-compliant command line shell written in C99
zbar
Read bar codes and QR codes from video streams and image files
zeitkatze
Simplest stopwatch in a Linux console
Zsh
Powerful interactive shell with extensive customization and plugin support
zsv
The world's fastest SIMD CSV parser with an extensible CLI