Unix CLI best practices

This guide provides efficient, safe, and portable techniques for manipulating text and finding files from the command line on macOS. By default, macOS uses BSD-derived UNIX utilities (grep, find, sed, awk) which have subtle differences from their GNU/Linux counterparts.

When possible, use high-performance replacements (ripgrep and fd) which respect .gitignore rules by default and offer more ergonomic interfaces.

Modern high-performance alternatives

Use these tools instead of standard BSD utilities for local codebase operations.

ripgrep (rg)

Use ripgrep (rg) as the preferred tool for searching text. It is faster than standard grep and respects .gitignore rules by default.