You Don't Need GUI

• Linux

Graphical 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.

  1. copy a file
  2. duplicate a file
  3. copy a directory
  4. duplicate a directory
  5. move a file
  6. rename a file
  7. move a directory
  8. rename a directory
  9. merge directories
  10. create a new file
  11. create a new directory
  12. show file/directory size
  13. show file/directory info
  14. open a file with the default program
  15. open a file in any application
  16. zip a directory
  17. unzip a directory
  18. peek files in a zip file
  19. remove a file
  20. remove a directory
  21. remove all files of certain criteria
  22. list directory contents
  23. tree view a directory and its subdirectories
  24. find a stale file
  25. show a calendar
  26. find a future date
  27. use a calculator
  28. force quit a program
  29. check server response
  30. view content of a file
  31. search for a text in a file
  32. search in all files in current working directory, quickly (entire disk in less than 15 minutes)
  33. view an image
  34. show disk size
  35. check performance of your computer
  36. know whether your computer is under load, and whether it’s due to memory or CPU
  37. poweroff or reboot your computer
  38. locate USB drives
  39. unmount USB drives
  40. format USB drives
  41. check USB format
  42. run command on all files of a directory
  43. Quick tips
  44. Hotkeys
  45. I can’t remember these cryptic commands

copy a file #

STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE :-1:

Copy readme.txt to the documents directory

$ cp readme.txt documents/

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duplicate a file #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A FILE :-1:

$ 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.

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copy a directory #

STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A DIRECTORY, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A DIRECTORY :-1:

Copy myMusic directory to the myMedia directory

$ cp -a myMusic myMedia/
# or
$ cp -a myMusic/ myMedia/myMusic/

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duplicate a directory #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A DIRECTORY :-1:

$ cp -a myMusic/ myMedia/
# or if `myMedia` folder doesn't exist
$ cp -a myMusic myMedia/

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move a file #

STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE :-1:

$ mv readme.txt documents/

Always use a trailing slash when moving files, for this reason .

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rename a file #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A FILE :-1:

$ mv readme.txt README.md

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move a directory #

STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A DIRECTORY, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A DIRECTORY :-1:

$ mv myMedia myMusic/
# or
$ mv myMedia/ myMusic/myMedia

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rename a directory #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A DIRECTORY :-1:

$ mv myMedia/ myMusic/

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merge directories #

STOP DRAG AND DROPPING TO MERGE DIRECTORIES :-1:

$ rsync -a /images/ /images2/	# note: may over-write files with the same name, so be careful!

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create a new file #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW FILE :-1:

$ 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

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create a new directory #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW DIRECTORY :-1:

$ mkdir 'untitled folder'
# or
$ mkdir -p 'path/may/not/exist/untitled folder'

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show file/directory size #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND SHOW FILE/directory INFO :-1:

$ du -sh node_modules/

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show file/directory info #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND SHOW FILE/DIRECTORY INFO :-1:

$ stat -x readme.md   # on macOS
$ stat readme.md      # on Linux

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open a file with the default program #

STOP DOUBLE CLICKING ON A FILE :-1:

$ xdg-open file   # on Linux
$ open file       # on MacOS
$ start file      # on Windows

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open a file in any application #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND OPEN WITH :-1:

$ open -a appName file

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zip a directory #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND COMPRESS DIRECTORY :-1:

$ zip -r archive_name.zip folder_to_compress

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unzip a directory #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND UNCOMPRESS DIRECTORY :-1:

$ unzip archive_name.zip

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decompress files of any format #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND UNCOMPRESS DIRECTORY :-1:

$ unar archive_name.zip
$ unar archive_name.7z
$ unar archive_name.rar
$ unar archive_name.ISO
$ unar archive_name.tar.gz

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peek files in a zip file #

STOP USING WinRAR :-1:

$ zipinfo archive_name.zip
# or
$ unzip -l archive_name.zip

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peek files in a compress file of any format #

STOP USING WinRAR :-1:

$ 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

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remove a file #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A FILE PERMANENTLY :-1:

$ 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.

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remove a directory #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A DIRECTORY PERMANENTLY :-1:

$ rm -r my_useless_folder

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remove all files of certain criteria #

$ find . -name "*.bak" -type f -delete

IMPORTANT: run find . -name "*.bak" -type f first to see exactly which files you will remove.

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list directory contents #

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER :-1:

$ 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.

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tree view a directory and its subdirectories #

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER :-1:

$ 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

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find a stale file #

STOP USING YOUR FILE EXPLORER TO FIND A FILE :-1:

Find all files modified more than 5 days ago

$ find my_folder -mtime +5

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show a calendar #

STOP LOOKING UP WHAT THIS MONTH LOOKS LIKE BY CALENDAR WIDGETS :-1:

Display a text calendar

$ cal

Display selected month and year calendar

$ cal 11 2018

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find a future date #

STOP USING WEBAPPS TO CALCULATE FUTURE DATES :-1:

What is todays date?

$ date +%m/%d/%Y

What about a week from now?

$ date -d "+7 days"                                           # on Linux
$ date -j -v+7d                                               # on MacOS

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use a calculator #

STOP USING CALCULATOR WIDGET :-1:

$ bc -l

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force quit a program #

STOP CTRL + ALT + DELETE and choose the program to kill :-1:

$ killall -9 program_name

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check server response #

STOP OPENING A BROWSER :-1:

$ curl -i umair.surge.sh
# curl's -i (--include) option includes HTTP response headers in its output.

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view content of a file #

STOP DOUBLE CLICKING A FILE :-1:

$ 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.py

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search for a text in a file #

STOP CMD/CTRL + F IN A FILE :-1:

$ grep -i "Query" file.txt

grep

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search in all files in current working directory, quickly (entire disk in less than 15 minutes) #

STOP CMD/CTRL + F IN A DIRECTORY :-1:

$ ripgrep -i "Query"
# brew install ripgrep

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view an image #

STOP USING PREVIEW :-1:

$ imgcat image.png
# Note: requires iTerm2 terminal.

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show disk size #

STOP RIGHT CLICKING DISK ICON OR OPENING DISK UTILITY :-1:

$ df -h

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check performance of your computer #

STOP OPENING YOUR ACTIVITY MONITOR OR TASK MANAGER :-1:

$ top

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know whether your computer is under load, and whether it’s due to memory or CPU #

$ glances
# brew install glances

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poweroff or reboot your computer #

This can be useful when you’re patching a server that is acessed via SSH and you don’t have a GUI.

# poweroff
$ sudo shutdown -h now
# reboot
$ sudo shutdown -r now

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locate USB drives #

$ df

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unmount USB drives #

$ sudo umount /dev/sdb1

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format USB drives #

# FAT32
$ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1
# NTFS
$ sudo mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdb1
# exFAT
$ sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sdb1

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check USB format #

$ sudo fsck /dev/sdb1

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run command on all files of a directory #

STOP CLICKING THE FILES ONE BY ONE :-1:

$ for FILE in *; do echo $FILE; done

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Quick tips #

CLI tips

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Hotkeys #

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

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I can’t remember these cryptic commands #

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.

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