Awesome Terminal Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

Jul 6, 2020 · 2 mins read

If you are glued to the terminal, you may want to use the following tricks to improve your productivity. These have been a life saver to me. If you’re not a terminal user, these tricks will make you love the terminal again.

Useful aliases

Copy the lines starting with alias to your ~/.bashrc file to enable them.

1. Open a file in GUI mode

alias open='xdg-open &>/dev/null'
$ open home/        # opens home directory

2. Copy output of a command

# Install xclip (apt-get install xclip)
alias c="xclip -selection clipboard"
$ ls | c            # copies output of ls (now you can paste)

3. Show your public ip

alias myip='curl ifconfig.me'
$ myip              # outputs your ip

4. Go back in directories

alias ..='cd ../'
alias ...='cd ../../'
alias ....='cd ../../../'
alias .....='cd ../../../../'

5. Use bat instead of cat

alias cat=bat       # make sure bat is installed
$ cat myfile.txt    # apt-get install bat

6. No need to type sudo everytime now when installing

alias apt-get='sudo apt-get'

7. Start a http server

alias www='python3 -m http.server'
$ www               # starts server in the current directory

Command editing hacks

Ctrl + x + e      Edit big cmds in editor  
Ctrl + a          Go to beginning of cmd
Ctrl + e          Go to end of cmd  
Ctrl + w          Erase entire word  
Ctrl + ←/→        Move faster within the cmd

Running past commands

1. Run the previously executed command

$ !!
$ sudo !! # previously executed command with sudo

2. Run the last command starting with xxx

$ !xxx

3. Reverse-i-search

# shows recent command based on the typed characters
$ Ctrl + r [now type chars]

4. Search by filtering entire search history

$ history | grep "xxx"        # searches for commands including xxx

Useful commands

1. Know when internet connection is up

$ ping 8.8.8.8 -a     # Makes periodic beeps when there is connectivity

2. Show open ports

$ sudo lsof -ni

3. Live read log files

tail -f /var/log/my-app/my-app.log | grep ERROR

4. Simple image editing

# Must have imagemagick installed (apt-get install imagemagick)

# Append multiple images horizontally
convert +append input1.jpg input2.jpg output.jpg

# Append multiple images vertically
convert -append input1.jpg input2.jpg output.jpg

# Reize image
convert -resize 50% input.png output.png

# Add border to image
convert input.gif -shave 1x1 -bordercolor black -border 1 output.gif

5. Easily go to last directory

# Takes you to the previous directory you were in
cd -

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