For most people, a command-line interface is a product of a bygone era of computing. Computer users up through the 1990s had to be comfortable with a command-line in either DOS or Unix forms, but since then, graphical interfaces have been how most people interact with a computer. This is emphasized in many modern devices like smartphones and tablets where a command-line interface would be difficult to use due to the onscreen keyboard.
Despite the power of modern graphical interfaces, command-line tools are still worth exploring. Many programming tools are primarily used through a command-line, and tying multiple tools together using a shell script provides customizability that most graphical tools can not recreate.
I remain a huge fan of command-lines. Most of my desktops on macOS have a terminal present, and I have one desktop dedicated to a full-screen instance of Alacritty that I use for writing and other various uses. Below are some of my favorite tools to use, along with basic some of my most commonly used commands.
bat
Site: https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
Summary: Clone of cat with syntax highlighting and Git integration
- Display contents of a single file
- bat file
- Specify language for syntax highlighting
- bat file -l language
dtrx
Site: https://brettcsmith.org/2007/dtrx/
Summary: Intelligent archive extraction
- Extract all files:
- dtrx file
- Extra all files to current directory:
- dtrx -f
fd
Site: https://github.com/sharkdp/fd
Summary: A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find'
- Find files under current directory that match a pattern:
- fd pattern
- Find files with a specific extension:
- fd -e .ext pattern
- Find files and execute on the results:
- fd pattern -x command
ffmpeg
Site: https://ffmpeg.org/
Summary: Play, record, convert, and stream audio and video
- Extract the sound from a video and save it as MP3:
- ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn sound.mp3
- Convert frames from a video or GIF into individual numbered images:
- ffmpeg -i video.mpg|video.gif frame_%d.png
- Combine numbered images (frame1.jpg, frame2.jpg, etc) into a video or GIF:
- ffmpeg -i frame_%d.jpg -f image2 video.mpg|video.gif
- Quickly extract a single frame from a video at time mm:ss and save it as a 128x128 resolution image:
- ffmpeg -ss mm:ss -i video.mp4 -frames 1 -s 128x128 -f image2 image.png
- Convert AVI video to MP4. AAC Audio @ 128kbit, h264 Video @ CRF 23:
- ffmpeg -i inputvideo.avi -codec:audio aac -b:audio 128k -codec:video libx264 -crf 23 outputvideo.mp4
- Remux MKV video to MP4 without re-encoding audio or video streams:
- ffmpeg -i inputvideo.mkv -codec copy outputvideo.mp4
- Convert MP4 video to VP9 codec. For the best quality, use a CRF value (recommended range 15-35) and -b:video MUST be 0:
- ffmpeg -i inputvideo.mp4 -codec:video libvpx-vp9 -crf 30 -b:video 0 -codec:audio libopus -vbr on -threads numberofthreads outputvideo.webm
git-sizer
Site: https://github.com/github/git-sizer
Summary: Compute various size metrics for a Git repository, flagging those that might cause problems
- Report basic statistics and problems with Git repository:
- git-sizer
- Report all statistics:
- git-sizer -v
lynx
Site: http://lynx.invisible-island.net
Summary: Text-based web browser that supports http, gopher, ftp, and telnet
mas
Site: https://github.com/mas-cli/mas
Summary: Mac App Store command-line interface
- List pending updates from the Mac App Store:
- mas outdated
- Upgrade outdated apps:
- mas upgrade
neofetch
Site: https://github.com/dylanaraps/neofetch
Summary: Fast, highly customisable system info script
neovim
Site: https://neovim.io
Summary: Ambitious Vim-fork focused on extensibility and agility
pandoc
Site: https://pandoc.org
Summary: Swiss-army knife of markup format conversion
- Convert file to pdf (the output format is automatically determined from the output file's extension):
- pandoc input.md -o output.pdf
- Convert a file to a specific output format (useful for when the extension alone is ambiguous):
- pandoc input.docx --to markdown_github -o output.md
- List all supported input formats:
- pandoc --list-input-formats
- List all supported output formats:
- pandoc --list-output-formats
ripgrep
Site: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
Summary: Search tool like grep and The Silver Searcher
- Recursively search the current directory for a regex pattern:
- rg pattern
- Search for pattern including all .gitignored and hidden files:
- rg -uu pattern
- Search for a pattern only in a certain filetype (e.g., html, css, etc.):
- rg -t filetype pattern
- Search for a pattern only in a subset of directories:
- rg pattern setofsubdirs
- Search for a pattern in files matching a glob (e.g.,
README.*):- rg pattern -g glob
sass
Site: https://github.com/sass/dart-sass
Summary: Sass makes CSS fun again.
- Compile Sass file to CSS:
- sass input output
- Compile Sass to compact CSS:
- sass -t compact input output
swiftlint
Site: https://github.com/realm/SwiftLint
Summary: Tool to enforce Swift style and conventions
- Lint Swift files in current directory:
- swiftlint
- Lint Swift files and automatically correct errors and warnings:
- swiftlint autocorrect
tldr
Site: https://tldr.sh/
Summary: Simplified and community-driven man pages
- Get typical usages of a command (hint: this is how you got here!):
- tldr command
- Update the local cache of tldr pages:
- tldr --update
tmux
Site: https://tmux.github.io/
Summary: Terminal multiplexer
- Start a new tmux session:
- tmux
- Start a new named tmux session:
- tmux new -s name
- List sessions:
- tmux ls
- Attach to a named session:
- tmux a -t name
- Detach from session:
- Ctrl + B, D
- Kill session:
- tmux kill-session -t name
tokei
Site: https://github.com/XAMPPRocky/tokei
Summary: A program that allows you to count your code, quickly
- Get a report on the code in a directory and all subdirectories:
- tokei /path/to/directory
- Get a report for a directory excluding a specific file:
- tokei /path/to/directory -e file
- Print out statistics for individual files in a directory:
- tokei /path/to/directory --files
tree
Site: http://mama.indstate.edu/users/ice/tree/
Summary: Display directories as trees
- Show files and directories up to a certain number of levels:
- tree -L number
- Show directories only:
- tree -d
- Show hidden files:
- tree -a
webkit2png
Site: http://www.paulhammond.org/webkit2png/
Summary: Create screenshots of webpages from the terminal
- Render a screenshot of a webpage:
- webkit2png https://website
- Render a screenshot with the desired dimensions:
- webkit2png -W width -H height https://website
- Render a screenshot at a higher DPI:
- webkit2-png -z 2 https://website
wget
Site: https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/
Summary: Internet file retriever
- Download the contents of an URL to a file (named "foo" in this case):
- wget https://example.com/foo
- Download the contents of an URL to a file (named "bar" in this case):
- wget -O bar https://example.com/foo
- Download a single web page and all its resources (scripts, stylesheets, images, etc.):
- wget --page-requisites --convert-links https://example.com/somepage.html
- Download a full website, with 3-second intervals between requests:
- wget --mirror --page-requisites --convert-links --wait=3 https://example.com
- Download all listed files within a directory and its sub-directories (does not download embedded page elements):
- wget --mirror --no-parent https://example.com/somepath/
- Download the contents of an URL via authenticated FTP:
- wget --ftp-user=username --ftp-password=password ftp://example.com
- Limit download speed to 200 kB/s:
- wget --limit-rate=200k https://example.com
- Continue an incomplete download:
- wget -c https://example.com
- Retry a given number of times if the download doesn't succeed at first:
- wget -t numberofretries https://example.com
youtube-dl
Site: https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/
Summary: Download Youtube videos from the command-line
- Download a video or playlist:
- youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
- Download the audio from a video and convert it to an MP3:
- youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 url