Command line tools

A mixture of my favourite CLI tools and things that I usually forget

Posted: 7 Sept 2019

Update: the latest version of this content can be found at https://notes.zander.wtf/command-line-tools

Disclaimer: If you don’t use fish-shell, some of the packages might not work. There will be alternatives for each of them for your own shell.

Keyboard shortcuts

ctrl-r - Search previously used commands
ctrl-t - Invoke FZF fuzzy file finder (see below)
ctrl-l - Clear the terminal screen
ctrl-k - Clears the terminal screen but no-scroll back. Basically wipes the
ctrl-w - Cut one word backwards using white space as delimiter
esc-t - Swap the last two words before the cursor

Commands

cal

Show a calendar

❯ cal
   February 2020
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                   1
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29

date

Show the date

❯ date
Sat  7 Sep 2019 09:22:28 BST

tree

Show directory contents as a tree

❯ tree -L 1
.
├── README.md
├── example
├── gatsby-theme-code-notes
├── node_modules
├── package.json
└── yarn.lock

List global packages

# with yarn
❯ yarn global list

# with npm
❯ npm -g ls --depth=0

Flush DNS cache

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Custom packages

Autojump

https://github.com/wting/autojump

autojump is a faster way to navigate your filesystem. It works by maintaining a database of the directories you use the most from the command line.

❯ j {your search term}

exa

https://github.com/ogham/exa

A modern version of ls

❯ exa -l
❯ exa -T -L 2 # like tree

FZF

https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

Fuzzy find files. Use ctrl+t to access it

serve

https://github.com/zeit/serve

Static file serving and directory listing

emma

https://github.com/maticzav/emma-cli

Search for npm packages. Run emma to initialise the search, then enter your search criteria

ibrew

https://github.com/mischah/ibrew

Interactive search CLI for Homebrew

Run ibrew to initialise the search, then enter your search criteria

yalc

https://github.com/whitecolor/yalc

Work with yarn/npm packages locally like a boss.

hub

https://hub.github.com/

# clone one of your GitHub repos
❯ hub clone dotfiles
# Same as → git clone git://github.com/YOUR_USER/dotfiles.git

# clone another project's repo
❯ hub clone github/hub
# → git clone git://github.com/github/hub.git

# open the current project's issues page
❯ hub browse -- issues
# → open https://github.com/github/hub/issues

# open another project's wiki
❯ hub browse mojombo/jekyll wiki

List the current repo’s PRs

# this is an alias
alias prs 'hub pr list -L 20 -b develop --format="%t%n - Branch: [%H]%n - %U%n - %l%n%n"'
# e.g.
❯ prs

Create a branch and switch to it

# FYI This is a fish shell function
function branch
  git branch {$argv} && git checkout {$argv}
end
# e.g.
❯ branch feature/WL-88-hello

standup

https://github.com/kamranahmedse/git-standup

Shows a list of commits for the past 24 hours

❯ standup
/Users/zander/code/fairfx/fx-holiday-money-app
5315f033 - build(multi): HM-925 Improve perf for a couple of pages (16 hours ago) <Zander Martineau>
4b41c048 - index on feature/HM-925-improve-performance:
1b854d84 fix(ci): AWS-99 Remove builds/deployments associated (#845) (17 hours ago) <Zander Martineau>

cross-port-killer

https://github.com/milewski/cross-port-killer

Kill a process running on a particular port

❯ kill-port 9001

doctoc

https://github.com/thlorenz/doctoc

Generated markdown table of contents

❯ doctoc README.md --github

fx

https://github.com/antonmedv/fx

Command-line JSON processing tool

❯ fx package.json

jq

https://stedolan.github.io/jq/

jq is like sed for JSON data - you can use it to slice and filter and map and transform structured data with the same ease that sed, awk, grep and friends let you play with text.

# use jq to extract just the first commit from a repos list
❯ curl 'https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits?per_page=5' | jq '.[0]'

npq

https://github.com/lirantal/npq

Safely* install packages with npm or yarn by auditing them as part of your install process

# with yarn, set an alias like so:
alias npq="NPQ_PKG_MGR=yarn npq-hero"
# then
❯ npq add express

# with npm 
❯ npq install express

youtube-dl

https://youtube-dl.org

❯ youtube-dl d2qfa3tlgH8

https://blog.balthazar-rouberol.com/text-processing-in-the-shell