🛠️ Essential CLI Tools You Should Know - Part 5: bottom & bat Link to heading

Monitoring system resources and viewing files are daily tasks in the command line. But default tools like htop and cat lack modern usability features. Thankfully, two powerful replacements make these tasks faster, clearer, and more efficient:

  • bottom → A feature-rich htop alternative for system monitoring

  • bat → A smarter, more user-friendly replacement for cat

🌟 bottom -- A Modern htop Alternative Link to heading

If you’re still using htop for system monitoring, you’re missing out. bottom (btm) is a lightweight, high-performance process monitor with real-time graphs and a beautiful interface.

🔹 Why bottom? Link to heading

✅ Faster than htop – Rust-powered for efficiency
✅ Beautiful UI – Real-time CPU, memory, disk, and network graphs
✅ Tree view for processes – See parent-child relationships
✅ Customizable widgets – Tailor your monitoring experience
✅ Battery monitoring – Useful for laptop users

⚡ Quick Start Link to heading

📥 Install: Link to heading

  • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install bottom

  • MacOS: brew install bottom

  • Rust Users: cargo install bottom

💡 Common Usage: Link to heading 

# Start system monitor
btm  

# Minimal UI with essential stats
btm --basic  

# View processes in hierarchical tree view
btm --tree

🔥 Why switch? bottom gives a better, more insightful view of system resources with less overhead than htop.

🌟 bat -- The Modern cat Replacement Link to heading

The default cat command works, but it lacks modern usability features. bat makes file viewing more powerful and readable with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and Git integration.

🔹 Why bat? Link to heading

✅ Syntax highlighting – Works for code, configs, logs
✅ Git integration – Shows diffs and untracked changes
✅ Built-in paging – Scroll through large files automatically
✅ Supports multiple files – Compare files side by side
✅ Drop-in replacement for cat – Works the same way, just better

⚡ Quick Start Link to heading

📥 Install: Link to heading

  • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install bat

  • MacOS: brew install bat

💡 Common Usage: Link to heading 

# View file with syntax highlighting
bat filename  

# Disable extra formatting for raw output
bat --style=plain filename  

# Compare multiple files side by side
bat file1 file2  

# Use bat in pipelines
cat file | bat

🔥 Why switch? bat makes reading files visually appealing and more functional while keeping cat’s simplicity.

✅ Final Thoughts Link to heading

Both bottom and bat replace outdated CLI tools with modern, feature-rich alternatives that improve productivity.

🔥 Pro Tips: Link to heading

🔸 Use btm --tree to quickly analyze resource-hungry processes
🔸 Set bat as your default pager by adding this to your shell config:

export PAGER="bat"

🔸 Combine fd + bat for rapid file searches:

fd "pattern" | bat --paging=never

🚀 These tools will supercharge your workflow!