gem-hunterGraphical user interfaces are super friendly to computer users. They were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs).
However, they often require more resources, are less powerful and hard to automate via scripting.
As a computer expert, we want to be more efficient and do our jobs better. We know that command words may not be easily discoverable or mnemonic, so we try to list some common tasks that you might be tempted to do in GUI.
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE 👎
Copy readme.txt to the documents directory
$ cp readme.txt documents/
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A FILE 👎
$ cp readme.txt readme.bak.txt
More advanced:
$ cp readme{,.bak}.txt
# Note: learn how the {} works with touch foo{1,2,3}.txt and see what happens.STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A DIRECTORY, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A DIRECTORY 👎
Copy myMusic directory to the myMedia directory
$ cp -a myMusic myMedia/
# or
$ cp -a myMusic/ myMedia/myMusic/STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A DIRECTORY 👎
$ cp -a myMusic/ myMedia/
# or if `myMedia` folder doesn't exist
$ cp -a myMusic myMedia/STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE 👎
$ mv readme.txt documents/
Always use a trailing slash when moving files, for this reason.
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A FILE 👎
$ mv readme.txt README.md
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A DIRECTORY, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A DIRECTORY 👎
$ mv myMedia myMusic/
# or
$ mv myMedia/ myMusic/myMediaSTOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A DIRECTORY 👎
$ mv myMedia/ myMusic/
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING TO MERGE DIRECTORIES 👎
$ rsync -a /images/ /images2/ # note: may over-write files with the same name, so be careful!STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW FILE 👎
$ touch 'new file' # updates the file's access and modification timestamp if it already exists # or $ > 'new file' # note: erases the content if it already exists
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW DIRECTORY 👎
$ mkdir 'untitled folder' # or $ mkdir -p 'path/may/not/exist/untitled folder'
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND SHOW FILE/directory INFO 👎
$ du -sh node_modules/
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND SHOW FILE/DIRECTORY INFO 👎
$ stat -x readme.md # on macOS $ stat readme.md # on Linux
STOP DOUBLE CLICKING ON A FILE 👎
$ xdg-open file # on Linux $ open file # on MacOS $ start file # on Windows
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND OPEN WITH 👎
$ open -a appName file
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND COMPRESS DIRECTORY 👎
$ zip -r archive_name.zip folder_to_compress
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND UNCOMPRESS DIRECTORY 👎
$ unzip archive_name.zip
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND UNCOMPRESS DIRECTORY 👎
$ unar archive_name.zip $ unar archive_name.7z $ unar archive_name.rar $ unar archive_name.ISO $ unar archive_name.tar.gz
STOP USING WinRAR 👎
$ zipinfo archive_name.zip
# or
$ unzip -l archive_name.zipSTOP USING WinRAR 👎
$ lsar -l archive_name.zip $ lsar -l archive_name.7z $ lsar -l archive_name.ISO $ lsar -l archive_name.rar $ lsar -l archive_name.tar.gz
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A FILE PERMANENTLY 👎
$ rm my_useless_file
IMPORTANT: The rm command deletes my_useless_file permanently, which is equivalent to move my_useless_file to Recycle Bin and hit Empty Recycle Bin.
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A DIRECTORY PERMANENTLY 👎
$ rm -r my_useless_folder
$ find . -name "*.bak" -type f -delete
IMPORTANT: run find . -name "*.bak" -type f first to see exactly which files you will remove.
STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎
$ ls my_folder # Simple $ ls -la my_folder # -l: show in list format. -a: show all files, including hidden. -la combines those options. $ ls -alrth my_folder # -r: reverse output. -t: sort by time (modified). -h: output human-readable sizes.
STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎
$ tree # on Linux $ find . -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g' # on MacOS # Note: install homebrew (https://brew.sh) to be able to use (some) Linux utilities such as tree. # brew install tree
STOP USING YOUR FILE EXPLORER TO FIND A FILE 👎
Find all files modified more than 5 days ago
$ find my_folder -mtime +5
STOP LOOKING UP WHAT THIS MONTH LOOKS LIKE BY CALENDAR WIDGETS 👎
Display a text calendar
$ cal
Display selected month and year calendar
$ cal 11 2018
STOP USING WEBAPPS TO CALCULATE FUTURE DATES 👎
What is today's date?
$ date +%m/%d/%Y
What about a week from now?
$ date -d "+7 days" # on Linux $ date -j -v+7d # on MacOS
STOP USING CALCULATOR WIDGET 👎
$ bc -l
STOP CTRL + ALT + DELETE and choose the program to kill 👎
$ killall -9 program_name
STOP OPENING A BROWSER 👎
$ curl -i umair.surge.sh
# curl's -i (--include) option includes HTTP response headers in its output.STOP DOUBLE CLICKING A FILE 👎
$ cat apps/settings.py
# if the file is too big to fit on one page, you can use a 'pager' (less) which shows you one page at a time.
$ less apps/settings.pySTOP CMD/CTRL + F IN A FILE 👎
$ grep -i "Query" file.txt
STOP CMD/CTRL + F IN A DIRECTORY 👎
$ ripgrep -i "Query" # brew install ripgrep
STOP USING PREVIEW 👎
$ imgcat image.png
# Note: requires iTerm2 terminal.STOP RIGHT CLICKING DISK ICON OR OPENING DISK UTILITY 👎
$ df -h
STOP OPENING YOUR ACTIVITY MONITOR OR TASK MANAGER 👎
$ top
if you want some more details:
$ htop
$ glances
# brew install glancesThis can be useful when you're patching a server that is accessed via SSH and you don't have a GUI.
# poweroff $ sudo shutdown -h now # reboot $ sudo shutdown -r now
$ df
$ sudo umount /dev/sdb1
# FAT32 $ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1 # NTFS $ sudo mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdb1 # exFAT $ sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sdb1
$ sudo fsck /dev/sdb1
STOP CLICKING THE FILES ONE BY ONE 👎
$ for FILE in *; do echo $FILE; done
STOP USING NETWORK UTILITY
$ nc -vz www.google.com 443 $ nc -vz 1.1.1.1 53
STOP USING NETWORK UTILITY
$ dig www.google.com
STOP USING NETWORK UTILITY AND THE WEBSITE OF DOMAIN REGISTRATION PROVIDERS
$ whois www.google.com
| Hotkey | Description |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+A | Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on |
| Ctrl+E | Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on |
| Ctrl+L | Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command |
| Ctrl+U | Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line. |
| Ctrl+H | Same as backspace |
| Ctrl+R | Lets you search through previously used commands |
| Ctrl+C | Kill whatever you are running |
| Ctrl+D | Exit the current shell |
| Ctrl+Z | Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it. |
| Ctrl+W | Delete the word before the cursor |
| Ctrl+K | Clear the line after the cursor |
| Ctrl+T | Swap the last two characters before the cursor |
| Ctrl+F | Move cursor forward one character |
| Ctrl+B | Move cursor backward one character |
| Esc+T | Swap the last two words before the cursor |
| Alt+T | Same as Esc + T |
| Alt+F | Move cursor forward one word on the current line |
| Alt+B | Move cursor backward one word on the current line |
| Esc+F | Same as Alt + F |
| Esc+B | Same as Alt + B |
| Alt+. | Paste the last word of the most recently command |
| Tab | Auto-complete files and directory names |
| Go to table of contents 🔼 |
You can always google or man the commands you are not familiar with. Or, checkout tldr, a collection of simplified and community-driven man pages.