rlwrap
Shares rank 50 of 86 privilege escalation tools by recommenders
A free wrapper that adds readline line editing and history to any command line program that lacks it, such as SQL clients.
A free wrapper that adds readline line editing and history to any command line program that lacks it, such as SQL clients.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 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
Adds readline editing to any program
“Wait till people learn they can use rlwrap to get the benefit of readline even in things like commandline sql clients”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “You probably don't need Oh My Zsh” “imbues whatever program with readline editing and history niceness. Really helpful.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “You probably don't need Oh My Zsh” “you can run it with rlwrap to remedy that”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “A shell exclamation mark is not for yelling. Be lazy” Useful with SQL and database clients
“Wait till people learn they can use rlwrap to get the benefit of readline even in things like commandline sql clients”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “You probably don't need Oh My Zsh” “This has helped me a lot some years ago when I was working with Oracle Databases”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Rlwrap your CLI tools, dammit” Essential daily tool for many
“Rlwrap has made my life easier so many times, it's in my top 3 most useful CLI tools.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System” “rlwrap has been an essential tool for me”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System”
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
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Learn emacs once and use ratpoison, readline and rlwrap everywhere.”
“you can run it with rlwrap to remedy that”
“This has helped me a lot some years ago when I was working with Oracle Databases”
“rlwrap has been an essential tool for me”
“rlwrap is recommended with Clojure”
“Rlwrap has made my life easier so many times, it's in my top 3 most useful CLI tools.”
“imbues whatever program with readline editing and history niceness. Really helpful.”
“Wait till people learn they can use rlwrap to get the benefit of readline even in things like commandline sql clients”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.