Last time, I shared several open-source software written in Go, which received a lot of love from readers. In this article, I’m sharing some open-source software written in Rust, believing they will be helpful in your life. These could serve as good learning materials if you’re also learning Rust.

This article was first published in the Medium MPP plan. If you are a Medium user, please follow me on Medium. Thank you very much.

As usual, all installations and tests are based on my Mac M1.

Please note that some software doesn’t provide unified installation packages and requires compilation from source code. Therefore, you’ll need some programming experience to install the Rust programming environment and cargo build tool. You can refer to this page for guidance: Rust Cargo Installation Guide

czkawka

Stars: 16.8k | Forks: 554
A multifunctional file-cleaning tool written in Rust. This project aims to find and clean duplicate files, empty folders, and similar image files, among others. It’s free, open-source, and ad-free, featuring speed, cross-platform compatibility, and multilingual support. With this tool, you can easily clean up unnecessary files on your computer, freeing up storage space.

The author of this software also shares insights on Medium here.

Installation

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brew install rustup
rustup-init
brew install gtk4 adwaita-icon-theme librsvg libheif pkg-config
git clone https://github.com/qarmin/czkawka.git
cd czkawka
export LIBRARY_PATH=$LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/homebrew/Cellar/libheif/1.17.6/lib/
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"
cargo run --release --bin czkawka_gui --features "heif,libraw"

cmd-wrapped

Stars: 828 | Forks: 22
A command-line history analysis tool written in Rust. This command-line tool reads your command-line operation history and generates detailed analysis reports, including information about command line activity periods over the past year, commonly used commands, etc., supporting Zsh, Bash, Fish, etc.

Installation

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cargo install cmd-wrapped

Usage:

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cmd-wrapped 2024 -s zsh

The output looks like this:

lettura

Stars: 1.1k | Forks: 50
A minimalist open-source RSS reader. This is a desktop RSS reader developed based on Tauri, free, ad-free, and with a clean interface, suitable for macOS and Windows operating systems.

This software provides installation packages for you to try out.

privaxy

Stars: 2.2k | Forks: 87
A Rust-based tracking and ad-blocking tool. This project is based on the MITM (Man-In-The-Middle) attack principle, establishing bidirectional tunnels between two ends to block advertising requests by filtering URL addresses, thus intercepting ads. It consumes less memory, runs faster, supports automatic updating of filter lists, displays statistics, and customizes filter lists.

This software provides installation packages for you to try out.

lsd

Stars: 12.1k | Forks: 395
The next-generation ls command. This project is a tool written in Rust to view directory listings similar to the ls command, with added features such as colors and icons, making it more visually appealing.

Installation

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cargo install lsd

tailspin

Stars: 4.8k | Forks: 65
This project is a Rust-based command-line log viewer that is ready to use without configuration. It highlights numbers, dates, IPs, URLs, etc., making important information stand out.

Installation

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brew install tailspin

I’ve already replaced less with this tool, which looks much better.

veloren

Stars: 5.2k | Forks: 350
It’s a pixel-style RPG game written in Rust. It draws inspiration from games like “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” “Dwarf Fortress,” and “Minecraft.” Although the graphics of this game are low-resolution, it offers a vast open world where players can craft items, synthesize objects, battle, level up, tame pets, explore dungeons and caves, glide in the air, and trade with NPCs.

Summary

There are many interesting projects on GitHub. If you want to learn a language, the best way is to find interesting projects on GitHub and contribute to them. Practice is more important than theory.