Biff
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 31 of 86 privilege escalation tools by recommenders
Recommended for thorough, example-rich command line datetime handling that uses the system timezone database. Critics note its specialised language and that LLMs can now do similar work.
Recommended for thorough, example-rich command line datetime handling that uses the system timezone database. Critics note its specialised language and that LLMs can now do similar work.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Clear examples show command line possibilities
“This is pretty neat. My proficiency with the command line is woefully underdeveloped and seeing examples like this help me see the possibilities.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Biff is a command line datetime Swiss army knife” “a really cool example of something that Biff can do”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Biff is a command line datetime Swiss army knife” Thorough, comprehensive datetime coverage
“I'm quite proud of it, because if you look at the implementation, it's almost entirely about dealing with the specification rules.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Biff is a command line datetime Swiss army knife” “it's way more comprehensive than what I built”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Nanji – A minimal Rust CLI for timezone conversion” Cool project that replaces scripts
“Anyway, cool tool, and it's rare that I would actually care about the machine efficiency”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Biff is a command line datetime Swiss army knife” “This is a really great project.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Biff is a command line datetime Swiss army knife”
Other privilege escalation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other privilege escalation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 86 privilege escalation tools, rankedWhat people said
14 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“This is a really great project.”
“I just can't see myself using a specialised tool and language for this”
“I honestly probably agree with you at this point.”
“this kind of tool has been completely obsoleted by LLMs”
“Anyway, cool tool, and it's rare that I would actually care about the machine efficiency”
“The datetime Swiss army knife utility discussed here violates both policies.”
“I'm quite proud of it, because if you look at the implementation, it's almost entirely about dealing with the specification rules.”
“would have replaced about 40 lines of bash for me”
“Please read `LANG` like everything else”
“This is pretty neat. My proficiency with the command line is woefully underdeveloped and seeing examples like this help me see the possibilities.”
“a really cool example of something that Biff can do”
“I think the way it has wired things up is easier to follow”
“it's way more comprehensive than what I built”
“It can do this and it will use your system's tzdb, unlike chrono.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.