modern linux cli tools

Patrick Drechsler

modern linux cli tools

Patrick Drechsler

"modern" is relative…

Douglas Adams

I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

Target audience

linux desktop CLI users
linux admins
docker users
devops/cloud users
…

  __________________________________________
 / This is the year of linux on the desktop \
|                                            |
|          ...Windows10 has WSL ;-)          |
 \                                          /
  ------------------------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

Linux tooling philosophy

do one thing (and only one thing!) well
chaining
sound familiar? (hint: functional programming…)

Why? Improvements to…

productivity
- one cli command is better than multiple clicks in a GUI
optics
- "unix porn" (PS1, ls, …)

Learn the basics

VS Code is cool, but it is not a CLI tool

Emacs and Vim:
- navigation within file
- cut, copy & paste
- navigation between files
- and how to exit
- pick one and become fluent
Learn basic cli commands: cd, ls, cat, less, find, grep, sed, tail, awk, dd, rsync, …
Combine using pipes and redirection

Disclaimer

terminal and shell: what’s the difference?

+--------------------+
|     "terminal"     |
+--------------------+
|                    |
|  +--------------+  |
|  |              |  |
|  |    "shell"   |  |
|  |              |  |
|  +--------------+  |
|                    |
+--------------------+

terminal

colors (16 or more),
fonts (utf8, ligatures, emojis, …)
interactions
- keyboard shortcuts
- mouse interaction (copy & paste, scrolling, selection, …)

shell

everything else (f.ex. PS1, scripting language)

terminal

What is the best terminal?

start by using your default terminal

but think about enriching your output!

Emojis: € ★
Unicode, Emojis, Fonts, Image support (!)

terminal - Retro style

cool-retro-term: 18k stars https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term

Popular shells

bash
zsh
fish
dash (embedded)

bash

https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/
package manager
- bash-it: 13k stars https://github.com/Bash-it/bash-it
- oh-my-bash: 4k stars https://ohmybash.github.io

zsh

https://www.zsh.org/
package manager
- oh-my-zsh: 157k stars https://ohmyz.sh

fish: The new kid on the block

https://fishshell.com
package manager
- fisher: 6k stars https://github.com/jorgebucaran/fisher
- oh-my-fish: 9k stars https://github.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish

PS1

PS1: alias for "prompt"

default: username@machinename:~/some/location $
$PWD present working directory

Extra, nice-to-have information

only show relevant parts (hide user/machine name on local machine)
compact location ($PWD)
git status
environment infos (node / .NET / Java / Python / etc version)

PS1: Powerline

started as fancy statusline for vim…

13k stars https://github.com/powerline/powerline
good-looking default settings
- shortens $PWD
- adds git status
- stable & customizable
available for zsh, bash, etc
category: unix-porn

PS1: liquidprompt

simple prompt

4k stars https://github.com/nojhan/liquidprompt
simpler default compared to Powerline
- shortens $PWD
- adds git status
- can be combined with Powerline
available for zsh, bash, etc
category: unix-porn

PS1: Starship

the new kid on the block

33k stars https://github.com/starship/starship
cross-plattform, cross-shell
stylish
great defaults for many environments
easy to configure
category: unix-porn

tmux

terminal-independent shell UI

28k stars https://github.com/tmux/tmux
terminal multiplexer
"tabs" and "split screen" features: terminal independent
detachable sessions
plugin system & package manager (of course)
customizable
scriptable: f. ex. tmuxinator

byobu

tmux-wrapper for non-vim users

(mirrored repo: ~500 stars) https://www.byobu.org/
Keybindings F1 - F12
Sensible defaults (layout, info line)
category: productivity

mob

Smooth git handover

1k stars https://mob.sh/
remote ensemble or pair programming using screen sharing

## first user
mob start 5
mob next

## second user
mob start 5
mob next

## any user, wanting to make a normal commit
mob done

ranger

file explorer / manager

13k stars https://ranger.github.io
2 layout options
- miller columns ("mac" style)
- multipane (similar to Midnight commander)
powerful preview mode and program launcher (word, music, …)
- with image support for certain terminals (iterms2, urxvt, kitty) not gnome-terminal (!)
key bindings: see ~/.config/ranger/rc.conf starting at line ~300…
category: navigation, file system

clifm

another terminal file manager

Most terminal file managers out there (if not all) are built using the TUI design principles, much like the superb Midnight Commander and Ranger. But clifm is built rather having the CLI design principles in mind: do not navigate through a big menu of files, just type it!, exactly as you do in your regular shell, but easier and> faster.
For this reason, clifm does not need to be better: it’s just different!

ranger alternative
category: navigation, file system

nnn

another terminal file manager

nnn (n³) is a full-featured terminal file manager. It’s tiny, nearly 0-config and incredibly fast.

ranger alternative
category: navigation, file system

Emacs: wdired-mode

for Emacs users
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Wdired.html
emacs -nw . emacs in current directory in terminal (-nw: non-window mode)
M-x wdired-change-to-wdired-mode
edit (using all emacs features)
finish: C-c C-c
exit

tldr

man pages can be difficult

44k stars https://tldr.sh/
clients implemented in many languages
- js, ruby, python, perl, haskell, etc.
shared user-contributed knowledge-base

McFly

an upgraded Ctrl R where history results make sense for what you’re working on right now

5k stars https://github.com/cantino/mcfly
category: history search

McFly replaces your default Ctrl R shell history search with an intelligent search engine that takes into account your working directory and the context of recently executed commands. McFly’s suggestions are prioritized in real time with a small neural network.

bat

cat & less with syntax highlighting

40k stars https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
hint: can be used as preview by ranger…
category: file preview

ripgrep

very fast grep replacement

37k stars https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
ripgrep recursively searches directories for a regex pattern
sensible defaults: respect .gitignore, ignores hidden files & folders
command: rg
category: search
use rg --hidden -g '!.git' "your search" to search all hidden folder except .git
- create an alias (maybe rgh?)…

ripgrep-all

ripgrep, but also search in PDFs, E-Books, Office documents, zip, tar.gz, sqlite (!), etc

5k stars https://github.com/phiresky/ripgrep-all
command: rga
faster than pdfgrep (see website for a benchmark)
category: search
Demo: search in Manning books folder

fzf

interactive fuzzy search

51k stars https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
pipe any line based input to fzf: Example find * -type f | fzf
good integration with other tools
Alt+c: quick cd navigation
nice helper methods for
- files & directories cd **<TAB>
- kill kill -9 <TAB>
- host names ssh **<TAB>
- environment variables & aliases unset **<TAB>, export **<TAB>, unalias **<TAB>
category: search

fd

simple alternative to find

27k stars https://github.com/sharkdp/fd
"The command name is 50% shorter than find"
Convenient syntax fd PATTERN (instead of find -iname '*PATTERN*')
Sensible defaults: .gitignore, ignore hidden files/folders
fast
category: search

jq & Co

jq

lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor
25k stars https://github.com/jqlang/jq

jqp

TUI for jq
1.8k stars https://github.com/noahgorstein/jqp

miller

similar to jq, but also for CSV, TSV, JSON, XML, etc.
7k stars https://github.com/johnkerl/miller

fq

jq, but for binary data
8k stars https://github.com/wader/fq

hyperfine

benchmarking tool

15k stars https://github.com/sharkdp/hyperfine

# comparing `fd` with `find`
hyperfine --warmup 3 \
    'fd -e jpg -uu' \
    'find -iname "*.jpg"'

category: benchmarking

progress

monitor any kind of "copy"

6k stars https://github.com/Xfennec/progress
attach to any kind of copy, even after the fact (!)
category: monitoring

No command currently running: cp, mv, dd, tar, cat, rsync, grep, fgrep, egrep, cut, sort, md5sum,
sha1sum, sha224sum, sha256sum, sha384sum, sha512sum, adb, gzip, gunzip, bzip2, bunzip2, xz,
unxz, lzma, unlzma, 7z, 7za, zcat, bzcat, lzcat, split, gpg, or wrong permissions.

Ultimate Plumber (up)

interactive REPL for shell piping

8k stars https://github.com/akavel/up
interactive piping
instant live preview
category: search, file manipulation, interactive

lolcat

Rainbows and unicorns

5k stars https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat
category: fun, unix porn

no-more-secrets

when the tv team comes in your office

5k stars https://github.com/bartobri/no-more-secrets
pipe something to nms or just run sneakers
category: fun, unix porn

sl

3k stars https://github.com/mtoyoda/sl
typo sl (instead of ls) -> show steam locomotive
can we pipe it to lolcat? of course
category: fun, unix porn

gh

GitHub CLI

32k stars https://github.com/cli/cli
Example: push current git folder to new private github repo:
- gh repo create --source . --push --private
create PRs
view issues