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.

copy a file

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE 👎

Copy readme.txt to the documents folder

cp readme.txt documents/

duplicate a file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DUPLICATE A FILE 👎

cp readme.txt readme.bak.txt

copy a folder

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FOLDER, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FOLDER 👎

Copy myMusic folder to the myMedia folder

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

duplicate a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DUPLICATE A FOLDER 👎

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

move a file

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FILE, OR CTRL + X, CTRL + V A FILE 👎

mv readme.txt documents/

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

rename a file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND RENAME A FILE 👎

mv readme.txt README.md

move a folder

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FOLDER, OR CTRL + X, CTRL + V A FOLDER 👎

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

rename a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND RENAME A FOLDER 👎

mv myMedia/ myMusic/

merge folders

STOP DRAG AND DROP TO MERGE FOLDERS 👎

rsync -a /images/ /images2/

create a new file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND CREATE A NEW FILE 👎

touch 'new file'
# or
> 'new file'

create a new folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND CREATE A NEW FOLDER 👎

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

show file/folder size

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND SHOW FILE/FOLDER INFO 👎

stat -x readme.md
# or
du -sh readme.md

open a file with the default program

STOP DOUBLE CLICKING A FILE 👎

xdg-open file   # on Linux
open file       # on MacOS

zip a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND COMPRESS FOLDER 👎

zip -r archive_name.zip folder_to_compress

unzip a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND UNCOMPRESS FOLDER 👎

unzip archive_name.zip

remove a file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DELETE A FILE PERMANENTLY 👎

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.

remove a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DELETE A FOLDER PERMANENTLY 👎

rm -r my_useless_folder

list folder contents

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎

ls -la my_folder

tree view a folder and its subfolders

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎

tree                                                       # on Linux
find . -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'     # on MacOS

find a stale file

STOP USING YOUR FILE EXPLORER TO FIND A FILE 👎

Find all files modified more than 5 days ago

find my_folder -mtime +5

show a calendar

STOP LOOKING UP WHAT THIS MONTH LOOKS LIKE BY CALENDAR WIDGETS 👎

Display a text calendar

cal

Display selected month and year calendar

cal 11 2018

find a future date

STOP USING WEBAPPS TO CALCULATE FUTURE DATES 👎

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

use a calculator

STOP USING CALCULATOR WIDGET 👎

Want to use a calculator?

bc

force quit a program

STOP FORCE QUIT A PROGRAM USING GUI 👎

killall program_name

check server response

CHECK THE RESPONSE OF A DOMAIN OR IP ADDRESS 👎

ping url_or_ip

Example : ping umair.surge.sh

view content of a file

VIEW THE CONTENT OF ANY FILE 👎

cat file_full_path

Example : cat apps/settings.py

search for a text

SEARCH FOR A PATTERN IN FILES 👎

grep [options] pattern [files]

Example : grep -ir "Query" file.txt

Options Description
-c : This prints only a count of the lines that match a pattern
-h : Display the matched lines, but do not display the filenames.
-i : Ignores, case for matching
-l : Displays list of a filenames only.
-n : Display the matched lines and their line numbers.
-v : This prints out all the lines that do not matches the pattern
-e exp : Specifies expression with this option. Can use multiple times.
-f file : Takes patterns from file, one per line.
-E : Treats pattern as an extended regular expression (ERE)
-w : Match whole word
-o : Print only the matched parts of a matching line, with each such part on a separate output line.
-r : Search repetitively/iteratively

Quick tips

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  Let’s 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
Esc + T   Swap the last two words before the cursor
Alt + F   Move cursor forward one word on the current line
Alt + B   Move cursor backward one word on the current line
Tab       Auto-complete files and folder names

Remember, you can always google or man the commands you are not familiar with.

readme.md Unescape Escape

You Don't Need GUI

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