diff --git a/core/commands/cat.go b/core/commands/cat.go
index d48d11a13..389e1b4c2 100644
--- a/core/commands/cat.go
+++ b/core/commands/cat.go
@@ -1,24 +1,17 @@
 package commands
 
 import (
-	"fmt"
 	"io"
 
 	cmds "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/commands"
 	core "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/core"
 	coreunix "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/core/coreunix"
 
-	"github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/cheggaaa/pb"
 	context "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/Godeps/_workspace/src/golang.org/x/net/context"
 )
 
 const progressBarMinSize = 1024 * 1024 * 8 // show progress bar for outputs > 8MiB
 
-type clearlineReader struct {
-	io.Reader
-	out io.Writer
-}
-
 var CatCmd = &cmds.Command{
 	Helptext: cmds.HelpText{
 		Tagline: "Show IPFS object data",
@@ -54,12 +47,10 @@ it contains.
 			return
 		}
 
-		bar := pb.New(int(res.Length())).SetUnits(pb.U_BYTES)
-		bar.Output = res.Stderr()
+		bar, reader := progressBarForReader(res.Stderr(), res.Output().(io.Reader), int64(res.Length()))
 		bar.Start()
 
-		reader := bar.NewProxyReader(res.Output().(io.Reader))
-		res.SetOutput(&clearlineReader{reader, res.Stderr()})
+		res.SetOutput(reader)
 	},
 }
 
@@ -76,11 +67,3 @@ func cat(ctx context.Context, node *core.IpfsNode, paths []string) ([]io.Reader,
 	}
 	return readers, length, nil
 }
-
-func (r *clearlineReader) Read(p []byte) (n int, err error) {
-	n, err = r.Reader.Read(p)
-	if err == io.EOF {
-		fmt.Fprintf(r.out, "\033[2K\r") // clear progress bar line on EOF
-	}
-	return
-}
diff --git a/core/commands/get.go b/core/commands/get.go
index 7c00a283a..6c6c271bb 100644
--- a/core/commands/get.go
+++ b/core/commands/get.go
@@ -112,13 +112,35 @@ may also specify the level of compression by specifying '-l=<1-9>'.
 	},
 }
 
-func progressBarForReader(out io.Writer, r io.Reader) (*pb.ProgressBar, *pb.Reader) {
+type clearlineReader struct {
+	io.Reader
+	out io.Writer
+}
+
+func (r *clearlineReader) Read(p []byte) (n int, err error) {
+	n, err = r.Reader.Read(p)
+	if err == io.EOF {
+		// callback
+		fmt.Fprintf(r.out, "\033[2K\r") // clear progress bar line on EOF
+	}
+	return
+}
+
+func progressBarForReader(out io.Writer, r io.Reader, l int64) (*pb.ProgressBar, io.Reader) {
 	// setup bar reader
 	// TODO: get total length of files
-	bar := pb.New(0).SetUnits(pb.U_BYTES)
+	bar := pb.New64(l).SetUnits(pb.U_BYTES)
 	bar.Output = out
+
+	// the progress bar lib doesn't give us a way to get the width of the output,
+	// so as a hack we just use a callback to measure the output, then git rid of it
+	bar.Callback = func(line string) {
+		terminalWidth := len(line)
+		bar.Callback = nil
+		log.Infof("terminal width: %v\n", terminalWidth)
+	}
 	barR := bar.NewProxyReader(r)
-	return bar, barR
+	return bar, &clearlineReader{barR, out}
 }
 
 type getWriter struct {
@@ -159,7 +181,7 @@ func (gw *getWriter) writeArchive(r io.Reader, fpath string) error {
 	defer file.Close()
 
 	fmt.Fprintf(gw.Out, "Saving archive to %s\n", fpath)
-	bar, barR := progressBarForReader(gw.Err, r)
+	bar, barR := progressBarForReader(gw.Err, r, 0)
 	bar.Start()
 	defer bar.Finish()
 
@@ -169,7 +191,7 @@ func (gw *getWriter) writeArchive(r io.Reader, fpath string) error {
 
 func (gw *getWriter) writeExtracted(r io.Reader, fpath string) error {
 	fmt.Fprintf(gw.Out, "Saving file(s) to %s\n", fpath)
-	bar, barR := progressBarForReader(gw.Err, r)
+	bar, barR := progressBarForReader(gw.Err, r, 0)
 	bar.Start()
 	defer bar.Finish()