Long-standing Linux commands can still be the right choice when their simple, established behavior fits the job. But the “50-year-old” label is loose: the article’s dates range from 1971 for cat to 1996 for curl, and no single tool is a measured winner over modern alternatives. What matters is the task, the input, and how safely the command handles real-world edge cases.
What “better” means for command-line tools
There is no universal ranking in which an older command beats every newer option. A tool is a better fit when it supports the operation and input format you need, is available in your environment, handles edge cases correctly, and suits whether you are working interactively or writing a script. Startup cost, memory use, and speed can matter too, but they must be judged on a defined workload. No benchmark establishes an overall winner among these commands and their alternatives.
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The five commands have different purposes: cat moves text streams, make updates files based on dependencies, awk processes records, xargs builds command arguments from input, and curl works with URLs. Their value comes from fit and availability, not age alone.
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The GNU Coreutils 9.11 manual says cat copies named files—or standard input if no file is named—to standard output. That makes it useful for displaying a file, joining files, or feeding content into another command.
#1 Best Overall
cat notes.txt
cat part-1.txt part-2.txt > combined.txt
cat records.txt | sortWhen a program accepts shell input redirection, using cat just to feed it a file may be unnecessary: command < records.txt can express the same input directly. That is a matter of clarity and convention, not proof that one form is always faster.
For interactive reading, a pager such as less offers navigation through a file; cat instead sends the content straight to standard output. The direct option is often convenient in a terminal pipeline or script, while an interactive viewer is better when you need to browse.
Rank #2
make: update outputs from declared dependencies
The GNU make manual describes make as determining which parts of a program need recompilation and issuing the commands to update them. A makefile records relationships between files and the commands used to produce or update outputs. The same dependency-driven approach can automate repeatable file-generation tasks beyond compiling programs.
report.txt: data.csv report.awk
awk -f report.awk data.csv > report.txtIn this example, the makefile declares that report.txt depends on both the data and the script. Make can use those relationships to decide whether the output needs updating. This is useful when a task has meaningful dependencies and repeatable commands; it does not mean every project needs a makefile or that make is the only way to automate it.
Rank #3
awk: select records and act on fields
The GNU Awk User’s Guide, Edition 5.4, describes awk as a language for selecting records and performing operations on them. Its documented uses include reporting, validation, extraction, small databases, sorting, and document preparation. For example, to print the first field from each line of a simple whitespace-separated file:
awk '{ print $1 }' names.txtThat compact record-oriented style can be handy for quick transformations and shell pipelines. It is not a universal replacement for tools designed around structured formats: whether awk, jq, or another tool is appropriate depends on the input and the operation. Performance and memory use likewise depend on the data and implementation, so neither should be assumed from the tool’s age or reputation.
Rank #4
The GNU Awk guide says GNU awk is compatible with the POSIX specification when used with appropriate options or environment settings. If a script must run across different systems, check which implementation and behavior the target environments provide.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11xargs: turn input items into command arguments
xargs reads input items and passes them as arguments to another command. It can help connect a stream of names or values to a command-line interface that expects operands. The important caveat is filename parsing: ordinary whitespace-separated input is unsafe when names can contain spaces or other special characters.
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With GNU find and GNU xargs, use null delimiters to preserve such filenames:
find . -type f -print0 | xargs --null commandfind -print0 separates names with NUL characters, and xargs --null reads that format. This pairing avoids treating spaces or newline characters within a filename as separators. It is a specific GNU-supported pattern; do not assume every system’s utilities provide identical options.
The article also points to xargs -P for running multiple processes. Parallel work can help when tasks are independent, but it can also add process overhead or compete for disk and other resources. Whether it speeds up a job depends on the command and workload; there is no general speedup figure established here.
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curl: a general-purpose URL command
The article characterizes curl as a general-purpose command-line tool for URLs, downloads, and web APIs, in contrast with more specialized or higher-level clients. That broad description is enough to explain why it remains useful in command-line workflows, but it does not establish that curl is faster or better than another client for a particular task. Choose a client based on the operation and requirements at hand.
Quick Recap
How to choose among old and newer tools
- Match the tool to the job: use
catfor direct stream handling,makefor dependency-based updates,awkfor record-oriented processing,xargsfor turning input items into arguments, andcurlfor URL-oriented tasks. - Check the environment: availability and supported options can differ between systems and implementations. In particular, the null-delimited
find/xargsexample relies on GNU options. - Protect correctness at boundaries: filenames with spaces or special characters require careful handling; structured data may call for a format-aware tool rather than line-oriented processing.
- Test performance on the actual workload: compare the needed operation, input size, startup and memory costs, and whether parallel work helps. Do not treat “older” or “modern” as a performance result.
- Favor the right interface: an interactive pager and a stream-printing command solve different reading needs; a concise one-off command and a maintainable build process may call for different approaches.
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