One of the great strengths of Linux is the whole raft of weird and wonderful open source utilities. That strength does not simply derive from the functionality they offer, but from the synergy generated by using them together, sometimes in conjunction with applications.
The Unix philosophy spawned a “software tools” movement which focused on developing concise, basic, clear, modular and extensible code that can be used for other projects. This philosophy remains an important element for many Linux projects.
Good open source developers writing utilities seek to make sure the utility does its job as well as possible, and work well with other utilities. The goal is that users have a handful of tools, each of which seeks to excel at one thing. Some utilities work well on their own.
This article looks at six tiny utilities that offer menu facilities. They get virtually zero coverage in the Linux press, so you may not have heard of them before, but they are well crafted and might just fit the bill. Here’s our verdict on each tool captured in a legendary LinuxLinks’ ratings chart.
Click the links in the table below to learn more about each utility.
| Small Console Menu Utilities | |
|---|---|
| fzf | General-purpose fuzzy finder for your shell |
| percol | Interactive grep tool in your terminal |
| pdmenu | Console menu program |
| sentaku | Pipe at the command line into sentaku, and it presents a full-screen menu |
| pmenu | Dynamic terminal-based menu inspired by dmenu |
| tmenu | Dynamic menu for tty devices |
This article has been revamped in line with our recent announcement.
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |