Command Line

Introduction

While I do have a strong preference for single a.out binaries without large dependency trees that do not require additional runtimes, I’m also a strong believer of using the right technology for the right job. Hence, I obviously prefer C/C++ and Rust programs, but I also don’t mind using Python-, Node.js-, Ruby- or Elixir/Erlang-based helpers to get a job done. For an example, I would definitely want a C/C++ or Rust alternative to ls – glad you’re asking, have exa please and thank you – over a Node.js version, simply because I want it to be instantly available and chew up as little CPU and memory as possible. Especially CPU usage is an important metric to me, as I’m heavily reliant on my MacBook’s battery life. That’s also one of the reasons I try to stay at least 6 feet apart from everything Electron-based and why I consistently keep anything that requires the JVM out of my life.

The Environment

As for the overall environment, I’m using Alacritty with a
minimalist config, the Z shell with Oh My Zsh and a rather large .zshrc. I sometimes use tmux and my terminal font is the Nerd Fonts patched Fira Code.

My color schemes change from time to time, but you can check my dotfiles to see what I’m currently using.

The Collection

arduino-makefile

Makefile for Arduino sketches. It defines the workflows for compiling code, flashing it to Arduino and even communicating through Serial.

Installation

brew install arduino-mk

asciinema

asciinema [as-kee-nuh-muh] is a free and open source solution for recording terminal sessions and sharing them on the web.

Installation

brew install asciinema

bandwhich

Terminal bandwidth utilization tool.

Installation

brew install bandwhich

bat

A cat(1) clone with wings.

Installation

brew install bat

battop

battop is an interactive viewer, similar to top, htop and other top utilities, but about the batteries installed in your notebook.

Installation

cargo install battop

bettercap

The Swiss Army knife for 802.11, BLE and Ethernet networks reconnaissance and MITM attacks.

Installation

brew install bettercap

bingrep

Universal Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services.

Installation

cargo install bingrep

bottom

A cross-platform graphical process/system monitor with a customizable interface and a multitude of features. Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Installation

brew install clementtsang/bottom/bottom

browsh

A fully-modern text-based browser, rendering to TTY and browsers.

Installation

brew tap browsh-org/homebrew-browsh && brew install browsh

caddy

Fast, multi-platform web server with automatic HTTPS.

I found Caddy to be perfect for local development setups and test-purposes.

Installation

brew install caddy

caffeinate

Caffeinate prevents the system from sleeping on behalf of a utility.

Installation

Pre-installed on every macOS Mountain Lion or newer.

chafa

Chafa is a command-line utility that converts all kinds of images, including animated GIFs, into sixel or ANSI/Unicode character output that can be displayed in a terminal.

Installation

Gentoo

emerge media-gfx/chafa

OpenBSD

pkg_add chafa

macOS

brew install chafa

code-minimap

This tool is for generating text minimaps at speed.

Installation

cargo install --locked code-minimap

conclusive

Conclusive. A command line client for Plausible Analytics.

Installation

Manually from https://github.com/mrusme/conclusive/releases/latest

csview

A high performance csv viewer with cjk/emoji support.

Installation

cargo install --locked csview

ctop

Top-like interface for container metrics

Installation

brew install ctop

dark-mode

Control the macOS dark mode from the command-line.

Installation

brew install dark-mode

delta

A viewer for git and diff output.

Installation

cargo install git-delta

dijo

dijo is a habit tracker. It is curses-based, it runs in your terminal.

Installation

cargo install dijo

dust

du + rust = dust. Like du but more intuitive.

Installation

cargo install du-dust

endlessh

SSH tarpit that slowly sends an endless banner.

Installation

Gentoo

emerge net-misc/endlessh

eva

A calculator REPL, similar to bc(1).

Installation

cargo install eva

exa

A modern version of ‘ls’.

Installation

brew install exa

fd

A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to ‘find’.

Installation

brew install fd

fzf

A command-line fuzzy finder.

Installation

brew install fzf

geld

Geld, zählen. A command line tool for tracking money and budgets.

Installation

Manually from https://github.com/mrusme/geld/releases/latest

gfold

gfold is a CLI-driven application that helps you keep track of multiple Git repositories.

Installation

cargo install gfold
cargo install gfld

ghcal

See the GitHub contributions calendar of a user in the command line.

Installation

npm install -g ghcal

gifgen

Simple high quality GIF encoding.

Installation

brew install lukechilds/tap/gifgen

git-crypt

Transparent file encryption in git.

Installation

brew install git-crypt

git-flow

Git extensions to provide high-level repository operations for Vincent Driessen’s branching model.

Installation

brew install git-flow

git-journal

The Git Commit Message and Changelog Generation Framework.

Installation

cargo install git-journal

git-lfs

Git extension for versioning large files.

Installation

brew install git-lfs

gitui

Blazing fast terminal-ui for Git written in Rust.

Installation

brew install extrawurst/tap/gitui

glow

Render markdown on the CLI, with pizzazz!

Installation

brew install glow

gomphotherium

Gomphotherium (/ˌɡɒmfəˈθɪəriəm/; “welded beast”), a command line Mastodon client.

Installation

Manually from https://github.com/mrusme/gomphotherium/releases/latest

gotty

Share your terminal as a web application.

Installation

brew install yudai/gotty/gotty

gpg-tui

Manage your GnuPG keys with ease!

Installation

cargo install gpg-tui

gping

Ping, but with a graph.

Installation

brew install gping

gron

Make JSON greppable!

Installation

brew install gron

hexyl

A command-line hex viewer.

Installation

brew install hexyl

httpie

Modern command line HTTP client – user-friendly curl alternative with intuitive UI, JSON support, syntax highlighting, wget-like downloads, extensions, etc.

Installation

brew install httpie

hugo

Hugo is a static HTML and CSS website generator written in Go.

Installation

brew install hugo

hyperfine

A command-line benchmarking tool.

Installation

brew install hyperfine

icdiff

Improved coloured diff.

Installation

brew install icdiff

imager

Automated image compression for efficiently distributing images on the web.

Installation

cargo install imager

irssi

The client of the future.

I use this IRC client in combination with ZNC.

Installation

brew install irssi

kmon

Create beautiful image of your source code.

Installation

cargo install --locked kmon

lnav

Log file navigator.

Installation

brew install lnav

matterhorn

Matterhorn is a terminal client for the Mattermost chat system.

Installation

brew cask install matterhorn

mc

GNU Midnight Commander (also referred to as MC) is a user shell with text-mode full-screen interface.

Installation

brew install midnight-commander

mdcat

cat for markdown.

Installation

brew install mdcat

mosh

Mobile Shell.

Here is a good post on why Mosh makes sense.

Installation

brew install mosh

ncdu

Ncdu is a disk usage analyzer with an ncurses interface.

Installation

brew install ncdu

neomutt

NeoMutt was created when Richard Russon took all the old Mutt patches, sorted through them, fixed them up and documented them.

Installation

brew install neomutt

neovim

Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability.

Installation

brew install neovim

pastel

pastel is a command-line tool to generate, analyze, convert and manipulate colors.

Installation

cargo install pastel

picocom

Minimal dumb-terminal emulation program.

Installation

brew install picocom

pipe-rename

pipe-rename takes a list of files as input, opens your $EDITOR of choice, then renames those files accordingly.

Installation

cargo install pipe-rename

procs

A modern replacement for ps written in Rust.

Installation

brew install procs

rates

Rates is a scriptable CLI tool that brings currency exchange rates right into your terminal and supports 30+ fiat and 10K+ crypto currencies.

Installation

cargo install rates

restic

Fast, secure, efficient backup program.

Installation

brew install restic

ripgrep

ripgrep recursively searches directories for a regex pattern.

Installation

brew install ripgrep

rsnapshot

A tool for backing up your data using rsync.

Installation

brew install rsnapshot

rustscan

The Modern Port Scanner.

Installation

cargo install --locked rustscan

shellcaster

Shellcaster is a terminal-based podcast manager, built in Rust.

Installation

cargo install shellcaster

silicon

Create beautiful image of your source code.

Installation

cargo install --locked silicon

so

A terminal interface for StackOverflow written in Rust.

Installation

brew install so

socat

“netcat++” (extended design, new implementation).

Installation

brew install socat

speed-test

Test your internet connection speed and ping using speedtest.net from the CLI.

Installation

npm install -g speed-test

syncthing

Open Source Continuous File Synchronization.

I use this as an open source alternative to Resilio Sync in cases in which I only require system-to-system sync and hence don’t need mobile (iOS) support.

Installation

brew install syncthing

taskwarrior-ui

A Terminal User Interface for Taskwarrior.

Installation

brew install taskwarrior-ui

tealdeer

A very fast implementation of tldr in Rust.

Installation

brew install tealdeer

terminalizer

Record your terminal and generate animated gif images or share a web player.

Installation

npm install -g terminalizer

terraform

Terraform enables you to safely and predictably create, change, and improve infrastructure. It is an open source tool that codifies APIs into declarative configuration files that can be shared amongst team members, treated as code, edited, reviewed, and versioned.

Installation

brew install terraform

tickrs

Realtime ticker data in your terminal.

Installation

cargo install tickrs

tig

Text-mode interface for git.

Installation

brew install tig

tor

Defend yourself against tracking and surveillance. Circumvent censorship.

Installation

brew install tor

transmission-cli

A Fast, Easy and Free BitTorrent Client.

Installation

brew install transmission-cli

tre

Tree command, improved.

Installation

cargo install --locked tre-command

tuir

Browse Reddit from your terminal.

Installation

pip3 install tuir

viu

A small command-line application to view images from the terminal written in Rust.

Installation

cargo install viu

vocage

Vocage is a minimalistic terminal-based vocabulary-learning tool.

Installation

cargo install vocage

websocat

Netcat, curl and socat for WebSockets.

Installation

cargo install --features=ssl websocat

wikit

Wikipedia summaries from the command line.

Installation

npm install -g wikit

xplr

Create beautiful image of your source code.

Installation

cargo install --locked xplr

ytop

Another TUI based system monitor, this time in Rust.

Installation

brew tap cjbassi/ytop && brew install ytop

zeit

Zeit, erfassen. A command line tool for tracking time spent on activities.

Installation

Manually from https://github.com/mrusme/zeit/releases/latest

zenith

Sort of like top or htop but with zoom-able charts, network, and disk usage.

Installation

brew tap bvaisvil/zenith && brew install zenith

zola

A fast static site generator in a single binary with everything built-in.

Installation

brew install zola

Snippets

This is a list of command snippets that I regularly need/use. I’m putting them here in order to persist them in case my zsh history should be gone one day.

• gphoto2 --stdout --capture-movie | ffmpeg -i - -vcodec rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p -threads 0 -f v4l2 /dev/video1
• gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme "$GTK_THEME" && gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences theme "$GTK_THEME"
• youtube-dl -f bestaudio --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 --yes-playlist --add-metadata $URL
• arduino-cli compile --fqbn esp32:esp32:esp32s2 --clean -e ./ && arduino-cli upload -p /dev/ttyUSB0 --fqbn esp32:esp32:esp32s2 -i ./build/esp32.esp32.esp32s2/*.ino.elf
• fc-list | rg $FONT
• make modules_prepare && make -j16 && make modules_install && make install && emerge --ask @module-rebuild && genkernel initramfs --firmware --kernel-config=/usr/src/linux/.config --keymap --makeopts=-j16 --mountboot --no-clean --zfs
• grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg && grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=Gentoo --recheck --no-floppy
• mount /dev/nvme1n1p2 /mnt/mirror && rsync -avH /boot/* /mnt/mirror/. && ls -la /mnt/mirror && umount /mnt/mirror