Inspired by [a similar post by Ben Boyter][boyter] this a list of useful
command line tools that I use. It's not a list of every tool I use. These are
tools that are new or typically not part of a standard POSIX command line
environment.
This post is a living document and will be updated over time. It should be
obvious that I have a **strong** preference for fast tools without a large
runtime dependency like Python or node.js. Most of these tools are portable
to \*BSD, Linux, macOS. Many also work on Windows. For OSes that ship up
to date software many are available via the system package repository.
**About my CLI environment:** I use the [zsh] shell, [Pragmata Pro] font, and
[base16 default dark][base16] color scheme. My prompt is generated by
[promptline].
## Table of Contents
* [Alacritty](#alacritty)
* [alt](#alt)
* [bat](#bat)
* [chars](#chars)
* [dot](#dot)
* [dust](#dust)
* [eva](#eva)
* [exa](#exa)
* [fd](#fd)
* [hexyl](#hexyl)
* [hyperfine](#hyperfine)
* [jq](#jq)
* [mdcat](#mdcat)
* [pass](#pass)
* [Podman](#podman)
* [Restic](#restic)
* [ripgrep](#ripgrep)
* [shotgun](#shotgun)
* [skim](#skim)
* [slop](#slop)
* [Syncthing](#syncthing)
* [tig](#tig)
* [titlecase](#titlecase)
* [Universal Ctags](#ctags)
* [watchexec](#watchexec)
* [z](#z)
* [zola](#zola)
### Alacritty 
Alacritty is fast terminal emulator. Whilst not strictly a command line tool, it
does host everything I do in the command line. It is the terminal emulator in use
in all the screenshots on this page.
Homepage
### alt 
`alt` is a tool for finding the alternate to a file. E.g. the header for an
implementation or the test for an implementation. [I use it paired with Neovim][nvim-alt]
to easily toggle between tests and implementation.
$ alt app/models/page.rb
spec/models/page_spec.rb
Homepage
### bat 
`bat` is an alternative to the common (mis)use of `cat` to print a file to the
terminal. It supports syntax highlighting and git integration.
Homepage
### chars 
`chars` shows information about Unicode characters matching a search term.
Homepage
### dot 
`dot` is a dotfiles manager. It maintains a set of symlinks according to a mappings file.
I use it to manage [my dotfiles][dotfiles].
Homepage
### dust 
`dust` is an alternative `du -sh`. It calculates the size of a directory tree, printing
a summary of the largest items.
Homepage
### exa 
`exa` is a replacement for `ls` with sensible defaults and added features like a
tree view, git integration, and optional icons. I have `ls` aliased to `exa` in
my shell.
Homepage
### eva 
`eva` is a command line calculator similar to `bc`, with syntax highlighting
and persistent history.
Homepage
### fd 
`fd` is an alternative to `find` and has a more user friendly command line interface
and respects ignore files, like `.gitignore`. The combination of its speed and ignore
file support make it excellent for searching for files in git repositories.
Homepage
### hexyl 
`hexyl` is a hex viewer that uses Unicode characters and colour to make the output more
readable.
Homepage
### hyperfine 
`hyperfine` command line benchmarking tool. It allows you to benchmark commands
with warmup and statistical analysis.
Homepage
### jq 
`jq` is kind of like `awk` for JSON. It lets you transform and extract information from JSON
documents.
Homepage
### mdcat 
`mdcat` renders Markdown files in the terminal. In supported terminals (not
Alacritty) links are clickable (without the url being visible like in a web
browser) and images are rendered.
Homepage
### pass 
`pass` is a password manager that uses GPG to store the passwords. I use it with the
[passff] Firefox extension and [Pass for iOS] on my phone.
Homepage
### Podman 
`podman` is an alternative to Docker that does not require a daemon. Containers are run as
the user running Podman so files written into the host don't end up owned by root. The CLI
is largely compatible with the `docker` CLI.
Homepage
### Restic 
`restic` is a backup tool that performs client side encryption, de-duplication and
supports a variety of local and remote storage backends.
Homepage
### ripgrep 
ripgrep (`rg`) recursively searches file trees for content in files matching a
regular expression. It's extremely fast, and respects ignore files and binary
files by default.
Homepage
### shotgun 
`shotgun` is a tool for taking screenshots on X.org based environments.
All the screenshots in this post were taken with it. It pairs well with
`slop`.
$ shotgun $(slop -c 0,0,0,0.75 -l -f "-i %i -g %g") eva.png
Homepage
### skim 
`skim` is a fuzzy finder. It can be used to fuzzy match input fed to it. I use it
with [Neovim] and zsh for fuzzy matching file names.
Homepage
### slop 
`slop` (Select Operation) presents a UI to select a region of the screen or a
window and prints the region to stdout. Works well with `shotgun`.
$ slop -c 0,0,0,0.75 -l -f "-i %i -g %g"
-i 8389044 -g 1464x1008+291+818
Homepage
### Syncthing 
Syncthing is a decentralised file synchronisation tool. Like Dropbox but self
hosted and without the need for a central third-party file store.
Homepage
### tig 
`tig` is a ncurses TUI for git. It's great for reviewing and staging changes, viewing
history and diffs.
Homepage
### titlecase 
`titlecase` is a little tool I wrote to format text using a [title case format
described by John Gruber][df-titlecase]. It correctly handles punctuation, and words like
iPhone. I use it to obtain consistent titles on all my blog posts.
$ echo 'an illustrated guide to useful command line tools' | titlecase
An Illustrated Guide to Useful Command Line Tools
I typically use it from within [Neovim] where selected text is piped through it in-place.
This is done by creating a visual selection and then typing: `:!titlecase`.
Homepage
### Universal Ctags 
Universal Ctags is a fork of exuberant ctags that is actively maintained.
`ctags` is used to generate a `tags` file that `vim` and other tools can use to
navigate to the definition of symbols in files.
$ ctags --recurse src
Homepage
### watchexec 
`watchexec` is a file and directory watcher that can run commands in response to
file-system changes. Handy for auto running tests or restarting a development
web server when source files change.
# run command on file change
$ watchexec -w content cobalt build
# kill and restart server on file change
$ watchexec -w src -s SIGINT -r 'cargo run'
Homepage
### z 
`z` tracks your most used directories and allows you to jump to them with a
partial name.
Homepage
### zola 
`zola` is a full-featured very fast static site compiler.
Homepage
[Discuss on Lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/pven1z/illustrated_guide_some_useful_command)
[Discuss on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21363121)
✦
Previous Post: [What I Learnt Building a Lobsters TUI in Rust](/technical/2019/04/lobsters-tui/)
[boyter]: https://boyter.org/posts/my-list-of-useful-command-line-tools/
[dotfiles]: https://github.com/wezm/dotfiles
[df-titlecase]: https://daringfireball.net/2008/05/title_case
[base16]: https://github.com/chriskempson/base16
[Pragmata Pro]: https://www.fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/
[promptline]: https://github.com/edkolev/promptline.vim
[zsh]: https://www.zsh.org/
[passff]: https://github.com/passff/passff
[Pass for iOS]: https://github.com/mssun/passforios
[nvim-alt]: https://github.com/wezm/dotfiles/blob/ad7863bcf10873c386d9ff97e4a9edaa725a15f0/vimrc#L525-L536
[Neovim]: https://neovim.io/