• fhsm
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  • From: New Hampshire, USA
  • Registered: 2009-01-05
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Topic: Favorite CLI command and tool?

I was trying to come up with a quick demo today of why the command line is so great (assuming you know what you are doing).  The demo I used got me wonder what everyones favorite commands and CLI tools are.

When unpacking archives I often end up with an extra directory.  The demo I used for the power of the command line was cd into the inner directory then: 

mv * ..

doing that in the GUI is a pain, while it takes just a second on the command line.

For command line tool, obviously vim and ssh get huge honorable mentions, but the tool that always amazes me is 

netcat

So what's your favorite command and/or CLI tool?

FHSM: avoid vowels and exotic consonants and you'll get your handle every time.  identi.ca
  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

apt-get. Installing or removing packages using the command lines is much faster than having to use Synaptic to find and (un)check each individual package. I save the command in a text file and copy and paste when I need it.

And with aliases, I dont even need to type the full "sudo apt-get install".

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  • Registered: 2008-11-25
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

anonymous wrote:

And with aliases, I dont even need to type the full "sudo apt-get install".

Yep, a few handy aliases in .bashrc and life is pretty sweet smile

  • jnb
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  • Registered: 2009-01-12
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

alias and nano has been my favorite in saving me time (my whole gtd workflow is based on aliases, nano and a conky display) but elinks, finch and mocp are used pretty much 24/7.

Last edited by jnb (2009-06-05 11:03:06)

  • pitje
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

screen

'man screen' tells you all about it's goodness

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  • fhsm
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  • From: New Hampshire, USA
  • Registered: 2009-01-05
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

pitje wrote:

screen

Yeah screen should really go in with vim in my obvious honorable mentions.

FHSM: avoid vowels and exotic consonants and you'll get your handle every time.  identi.ca
  • Registered: 2009-03-02
  • Posts: 56

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

I've found subscribing to the RSS feed at http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse to be interesting.

fnord

  • Digit
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

at the moment, its probably htop. handy for hunting down hogs to kill.

ftp is loadsa fun in cli too.

second honorable mention to dd.  take care.  wink

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  • IgorP
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  • Registered: 2009-07-10
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

My favorite are:

[1.] ls
[2.] mv
[3.] calendar

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  • From: Florida
  • Registered: 2009-07-17
  • Posts: 85

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

my favorite:

1.) whereis - (ex. whereis firefox) shows where firefox is installed to.

2.) mv

3.) cd - where would we be without thee

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  • Registered: 2008-12-13
  • Posts: 1,480

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

lately I've been using nawk at work, since I'm on solaris and they won't let me install python it's really helpful big_smile
on my linux machines at home probably ssh is the most handy

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  • From: London, UK
  • Registered: 2009-08-08
  • Posts: 29

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

DHCP world..........

host 192.168.2.54

Make finding out which machine on the network has that IP. Midnight Commander is fairly high up there and who can forget VIM?? big_smile

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  • craigh
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • From: UK
  • Registered: 2009-08-02
  • Posts: 209

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

Nano is one of my favourite cli applications but apt-get I use quite a lot as well.

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  • Registered: 2009-03-02
  • Posts: 56

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

After being asked by my boss what the command to display free disk space was, as he couldn't remember, I introduced him to the apropos command.  it is ironic that it originally took me a few months before I could remember what the apropos command was called, but it has to rate in my book as one of the most useful if you can remember its name.

I also like ddate (in bsdgames package) but have to admit that it is entirely useless, although I did once here of a database that used the discordian calendar that had its new maintainer completely baffled.

fnord

Last edited by fnordianslip (2009-08-11 20:50:45)

  • From: Texas
  • Registered: 2009-07-27
  • Posts: 87

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

I just found http://bsflite.sourceforge.net/ last week.  It's an awesome aim client, I couldn't stand naim.

Screen and nano are great too.

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  • From: Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-25
  • Posts: 128

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

I'd have to go for ssh, screen, and vim for my favourite tools.  My favourite full blown terminal applications would be moc, irssi, alpine, and rtorrent.

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  • Registered: 2009-02-18
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

sensors wink

18 Reply by aim

  • aim
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • From: Christchurch, New Zealand
  • Registered: 2009-07-26
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

well I have an alias 'inst' for 'sudo apt-get install' that I use all the time, so I guess that.

  • From: Texas
  • Registered: 2009-07-27
  • Posts: 87

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

fnordianslip wrote:

After being asked by my boss what the command to display free disk space was, as he couldn't remember, I introduced him to the apropos command.  it is ironic that it originally took me a few months before I could remember what the apropos command was called, but it has to rate in my book as one of the most useful if you can remember its name.

WOW!  apropos is cool.  I wish i'd known about that years ago.  Thanks fnordianslip!

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  • From: Gurnee, IL
  • Registered: 2009-07-19
  • Posts: 194

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

Currently my fav cli apps are:

todo.txt (google it)
mutt (a classic mail client but all kinds of useful)
nano text editor
and of course...
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  • Registered: 2009-05-28
  • Posts: 241

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

netcat

  • Awebb
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  • Registered: 2009-07-23
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Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

I think the cool stuff has allready been mentioned...

I make heavy use of:

locate
dd
htop
df -h
grep
apt-get
slimrat (a CLI rapidshare/megaupload/.../youtube fetcher)
nano (for almost every change in systemfiles)
podget (CLI podcast fetcher)

I know, half of that are no tools but build in shell commands. Cool either way big_smile

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  • From: Melbourne
  • Registered: 2009-03-26
  • Posts: 86

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

My friends always seem impressed by

df -h
apt-get install

before they start asking me why I am still using DOS  : (

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  • Registered: 2009-08-11
  • Posts: 9

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

sudo tongue

  • Registered: 2009-03-02
  • Posts: 56

Re: Favorite CLI command and tool?

I'd like to correct my earlier post. It seems that I was confused about ddate being in bsdgames -  it isn't.  The interesting app that's in  bsdgames is somewhat related to apropos: wtf

So, install bsdgames, then try out wtf like so:

$ wtf is wtf

It is actually useul, but above all, funny.