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Common Linux Commands

Stuff that's related to the linux terminal

Shells​

bash​

  • Default in 90% of linux distribution
  • Old
  • Reliable
  • POSIX compliant

fish​

  • More user friendly
  • New
  • Written in Rust
  • non-POSIX compliant
  • Fancy autocomplete
  • More built-in functions such as keybinds for prev and next dir

zsh​

  • Glorified bash
  • Not really POSIX compliant
  • Default in MacOS

nu​

  • Good data structuring
  • Makes output more human readable by formatting them as tables
  • non-POSIX compliant

Ricing/Themeing​

Starship, applicable to all shells​

  • Recommended for more details on what is happening to the terminal such as:
    • Current working directory
    • Current git status
    • Current programming language version
    • any many more

Common Shell Binds​

Ctrl+D​

  • Logout

Ctrl+C​

  • SIGKILL current process

Ctrl+R​

  • bash exclusive
  • Search for previously entered command

Up/Down Arrow Key​

  • Previous/Next command

Alt+S​

  • fish exclusive
  • Prepends sudo to current or previous command

Alt+Left/Right​

  • Prev/Next directory from current session

Alt+P​

  • fish exclusive
  • Pipes command to less for paginated output
  • Recommended for commands with long output such as logs

Terminal Emulators​

The thing used to interact with the terminal

Kitty ⭐​

  • Light and fast terminal emulator
  • GPU based
  • Built-in image rendering
  • Tabs and Splits support

alacritty​

  • Light and fast terminal emulator, simple bare minimum features
  • Requires multiplexers for tab and splits

Cheat Sheets​

tealdear​

  • provides tldr command that gives a more readable man page

man​

  • Default in linux distros
  • Provides complete documentation on a command

Multiplexers​

Make session detached from terminal instance, makes your terminal session persistent so even if your terminal session crashes or closes commands being run would still run in the background

GNU Screen​

  • Basic multiplexer
  • Runs a single command detached from terminal

tmux​

  • Steep learning curve
  • Default in most linux distros

ZelliJ ⭐​

  • More user friendly tmux
  • :ike fish with bash, focuses on more beginner friendly experience

CLIs and TUIs​

CLI​

  • Command Line Interface
  • Usually interacted in the form of
ENVVAR=value command --flag flagarg args

TUI ⭐​

File Manipulation​

cp​

  • Copies a file to a specified location
  • Creates new inode of a file to a location

mv​

  • Moves a file to a specified location

cat​

  • See bat for a modern alternative
  • Displays contents of a file

Directory Navigation​

cd​

  • Change directory
#move to parent dir
cd .. 
#move to a folder relative to current working directory
cd ./folder 
#move to a folder from one dir up
cd ../folder
#move to user home folder
cd

pwd​

  • Prints current working directory

ls​

  • See eza for a modern alternative
  • Lists files in current working directory

tree​

  • ls but in tree form

zoxide ⭐​

  • Not default, requires manual install
  • cd but better
  • Fuzzy directory search
  • Recommended for easier terminal directory navigation

Extra Resources​

Chris Titus Tech's Linux Book | CLI section​

Bazzite-CLI​

  • Lists modern alternative to GNU utils and useful terminal related applications