This article spotlights alternative tools to uniq, a utility that reports or omits repeated lines.
The software featured here is free and open source. All tools provide a command-line interface (CLI) unless otherwise stated.
| Alternatives to uniq | |
|---|---|
| runiq | An efficient way to filter duplicate lines from input, à la uniq |
| huniq | Removes duplicates from stdin using a hash table |
| nauniq | Non-adjacent uniq |
| semiuniq | Removes nearby repeated lines in a file |
| uq | Removes duplicate lines from the output, regardless of the order |
| zet | Perform set operations on files considered as sets of lines |
| anew | Adds new lines to files, skipping duplicates |
| anewer | Appends lines from stdin to a file if they don't already exist in the file |
Are we missing any open source alternatives to uniq? Please let us know.
All the CLI tools in this series.
| Alternatives to CLI tools |
|---|
| age // awk // bc // cal // cat // cd // chmod // cksum // cloc // cmp // compress // cp // cron // curl // cut // date // dd // df // diff // dig // du // find // ftp // grep // gzip // hexdump // history // jq // kill // less // locate // ls // lsof // make // man // more // mv / ping // ps // psql // rename // rm // sed // split // ssh // strings // sudo // sysctl // talk // tar // telnet // time // top // touch // traceroute // tree // uname // uniq // uptime // vi // watch // Wget // who // whois // xargs |
 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. |
What about uq. It’s an alternative to sort | uniq.
Like so many of these alternatives to traditional tools, it’s written in the wonderful Rust language.
Yes, Rust seems very popular with these types of tools.
We’ve added an entry for uq. Many thanks for your suggestion.
Please add zet, some of its subcommands are similar to uniq
Thanks Lance, we’ve updated the article to include zet, an interesting tool.
I suggest adding anewer and anew. They are sort of alternatives to uniq
Agreed, they have both been added. Thanks Oskar