Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Yet another linux CLI tips & tricks list (updated)

Yet another linux CLI tips & tricks list

(update: 2017-12-15 added few magic mc commands at bottom)

When I started my jurney with *nix like systems, the environment was hostile to me. But after a few years it become obvious that the CLI is a superior way of dealing with Linux OS. You can see a lot of similiar articles in the web like here or here but this list is stripped to what I find useful on the one hand, eliminating obvious on the other (eg. I'm assuming that you know you can browse hostory with arrow key or use tab for apt-get install completion).
So here is my list.
Reverse search is one of the most important key shortcuts when using CLI, because usually you don't remember what exact arguments were used in in your beloved tricky_and_very_long_command you've commited in the past. You will find out that in the real life there is a limited number of commands (with minor modifications) your are using frequently.

ctrl+d leave or exit from console/ssh session etc

current line navigation commands

  • ctrl+e go to end of line
  • ctrl+a go to begining of line
  • ctrl+u delete till begining of line
  • ctrl+k delete till end of line
  • ctrl+w delete word before cursor
NOTE you can change default bash editor to vi like editor with: set -o vi command

tmux

Allows executing commands on a detached console (useful when doing something via ssh and can't/won't have open session) - this should be a separate blog post but here is my cheat sheet
  • tmux start a new tmux session
  • tmux a or tmux attach attach to an existing tmux session
while in tmux session
  • ctrl+b+d leave (d for detach) tmux session not killing it
  • ctrl+b+c create a new pane
  • ctrl+b+n next pane
  • ctrl+b+p previous pane
  • ctrl+b+" split pane horizontally
  • ctrl+b+% split pane vertically
  • ctrl+b+arrow go to: up right down left panel
  • ctrl+b holding ctrl key and pressing one of arrow keys - allow change panel size!
NOTE: nice thing about tmux is...you can use tmux in tmux by doing double ctrl+b

mc - Midnight Commander

If you are old enough (like I am) you do remember famous Norton Commander or Total Commander. Midnight Commander is a similar tool - superior when it comes to copy files over ssh or ftp.
NOTE: if an escape key esc is not present int your keyboard - like in many bluetooth keyboards - you can use ctrl+[ instead.
  • ctrl+\ - open favorite location list (then add current, edit, delete)
  • esc+9 - open right pane menu
  • esc+0 - exit
  • esc+h - in any entry field (like 'open ftp/ssh' dialog window) wherever ^ character is present - opens current entry field history dialog
  • alt + o - display dir under cursor on other pane
  • alt + i - display current dir on other pane
  • alt + . - display/hide hidden files
  • alt + h - display history
  • alt + y/u -  change dir to previous/next dir

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