You Don't Need GUI

It's for noobs :)

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 tempt to do in GUI.

Quick links

1. copy a file
2. duplicate a file
3. copy a folder
4. duplicate a folder
5. move a file
6. move a folder
7. new file
8. new folder
9. file/folder size
10. open a file with default program
11. zip a folder
12. unzip
13. remove a file
14. remove a folder
15. list folder contents

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 FILE

If readme.bak.txt file doesn't exist

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 under myMedia folder

cp -R myMusic myMedia

duplicate a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DUPLICATE FOLDER

If myMedia folder doesn't exist

cp -R myMusic myMedia

move a file

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

mv readme.txt documents

move a folder

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

mv myMedia myMusic

new file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND CREATE A NEW FILE

touch 'new file'

new folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND CREATE A NEW FOLDER

mkdir 'untitled folder'

or

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

file/folder size

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND SHOW FILE/FOLDER INFO

stat -x readme.md

open a file with default program

STOP DOUBLE CLICKING A FILE

open file

zip a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND COMPRESS FOLDER

zip -r archive_name.zip folder_to_compress

unzip

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND UNCOMPRESS FOLDER

unzip archive_name.zip

remove a file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DELETE FILE OR DRAG IT TO RECYCLE

rm my_useless_file

remove a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DELETE FOLDER OR DRAG IT TO RECYCLE

rm -rf my_useless_folder

list folder contents

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER

ls -la my_folder

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