GNU recutils
Hacker ApprovedText database in Developer tools
Free GNU tools that store records in readable plain-text files, with simple queries and diff-friendly data. Critics say editor support is weak and adoption is limited.
Free GNU tools that store records in readable plain-text files, with simple queries and diff-friendly data. Critics say editor support is weak and adoption is limited.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 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
Simple, readable plain-text database format
“I love recutils. The database format is simple enough, it has a bunch of options for constraints”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “GNU recutils: Plain text database” “at least does basic relational database operations on plain text files”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Agent memory as a file format” “this looks way more readable than csv”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “GNU recutils: Plain text database” Better than inventing new formats
“I wish more people knew about GNU recutils instead of inventing new formats”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system” “You should've used recutils probably”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “TurboKV: Insanely fast Rust key-value store” Handy tools for querying logs and data
“I really enjoying the toolset to query logs etc...”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “GNU recutils: Plain text database” “With recutils csv2rec I have my invoices list.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “GNU recutils: Plain text database” Good for LLM input and memory
“the rec file seems to be a great choice for formatting text that will be feed into LLMs”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “GNU recutils: Plain text database” “how they make an awesome LLM memory layer”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Limited editor and product support
“really limits adoption, because it means that product developers can't build it into”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “GNU recutils: Plain text database” “editor support to make working with that easier was basically non-existent”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system”
What people said
17 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“at least does basic relational database operations on plain text files”
“So basically recfiles[1], and an entire suite of tools replaced by fopen and sed.”
“You should've used recutils probably”
“really limits adoption, because it means that product developers can't build it into”
“this looks way more readable than csv”
“the rec file seems to be a great choice for formatting text that will be feed into LLMs”
“With recutils csv2rec I have my invoices list.”
“Amazingly rugged design that somehow places man and machine on equal footing by throwing us back to the time of casette futurism.”
“Free software is awesome (here: GNU, Linux, APT, and now recutils and visidata)!”
“I am definitely going to use this now.”
“I love recutils. The database format is simple enough, it has a bunch of options for constraints”
“I really enjoying the toolset to query logs etc...”
“The format is ideal if you want reasonable data diffs.”
“editor support to make working with that easier was basically non-existent”
“I like recfiles, it's been a while”
“how they make an awesome LLM memory layer”
“I wish more people knew about GNU recutils instead of inventing new formats”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.