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Post by ylee on Jul 27, 2020 11:19:49 GMT
The Unix/Linux command line is a programmers dream come true, despite some obvious flaws such as a lack of consistency with respect to command line arguments and more. With only classic Unix tools (grep, sed, ...) one can do incredible things. These classic tools are installed on almost every Distro you will find. However I am starting this thread about tools you may use that are somewhat off the beaten path., not necessarily installed and maybe not even in the Repos. What more modern and not so common CLI tools do you find useful, open source tools prefered? For me it is quite a few as I install and sometimes uninstall so many that I find myself losing track of them all. But here is a small list of ones I find useful: - ack is a Perl program that aims to be a replacement for grep. For most things I prefer ack.
- cheat a command line 'cheatsheet' program (originally I think it was python but now it is a go program). Sort of a man replacement
- ditaa is a Java program that can convert diagrams drawn using ascii into nice looking images.
Ack and cheat are well known in my opinion but ditiaa is one I just recently discovered. Very cool if you ever have need of such diagrams. All 3 are in the repos.
What CLI tools do you use frequently or even occasionally but find impressive, cool or whatnot?
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ondoho
Member
Posts: 34
Likes: 12
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Post by ondoho on Jul 27, 2020 12:50:38 GMT
espeak. I like to get auditory confirmation after a long-running process has finished. Instead of searching for a suitable audio file, espeak is quick and easy. Example:
alias itisdone='espeak "It is done!" >/dev/null 2>&1' sudo dd if=bodhi.iso of=/dev/sdX; sync; itisdone
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Post by thewaiter on Jul 27, 2020 14:55:27 GMT
I also use ack since Robert recommended me. Command "find" is also my very good friend. Anyway, although I should respect the thread label, I will expand the topic to terminal useful shortcuts.
I can't live without: CTRL U delete all previous chars from the cursor position CTRL W delete previous word from the cursor position CTRL K delete all chars after cursor position CTRL - switch to last folder path
Stefan
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Post by Hippytaff on Jul 27, 2020 15:45:50 GMT
It’s not a very useful cli tool, but I like to use cmatrix as a screensaver. It’s just the matrix scrolling characters. Something a bit more useful I use quite a lot is htop and I also used byobu a lot in the past, which is a lot like gnu screen. When I use byobu I usually get a tty-clock going. A bit random and meandering but that’s my pennies worth 
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ondoho
Member
Posts: 34
Likes: 12
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Post by ondoho on Jul 28, 2020 10:49:06 GMT
dmenu is not really a cli tool, but fzf is. It rocks! Try something like $EDITOR "$(find -name '*.sh' | fzf)"
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Post by thewaiter on Jul 28, 2020 12:03:45 GMT
That fuzzy finder looks interesting, thx
Stefan
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Post by ylee on Jul 30, 2020 19:21:35 GMT
Since I recommend it elsewhere:
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Post by deepspeed on Nov 7, 2021 6:23:17 GMT
Old thread, but I have a few cool tricks.
- sshfs
Mount drives on remote PC's through ssh tunnels, then drag/drop files between the PC's with Thunar, etc as if they were all the same device. Great for working with remote servers.
- ls -Flash /path/to/x/
using ls with -Flash is easy to remember and gives me whatever extra info I need most of the time. Uncommon but useful version of a very common command.
- tldr
Another version of 'man', but it parses out only the examples and leaves the bulky text to the 'man' command.
- thef*ck
Okay, this is a new one to me, but it's funny and useful. It's a terminal helper with a lot of functions. For instance, anytime you type a command which needs 'sudo', but you forget to type sudo or you make a simple typo and you get an error, you don't have to go edit the old command anymore. Just type "f*ck" (with a 'u', not a '*') and your previous command will be repeated, but with magical auto-fixes to make it work. It's already in the repos.
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