You Don't Need GUI

It's for noobs :)

Graphical user interfaces are super friendly to computer users. They were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs).

However, they often require more resources, are less powerful and hard to automate via scripting.

As a computer expert, we want to be more efficient and do our jobs better. We know that command words may not be easily discoverable or mnemonic, so we try to list some common tasks that you might be tempted to do in GUI.

Quick links

1. copy a file
2. duplicate a file
3. copy a folder
4. duplicate a folder
5. move a file
6. rename a file
7. move a folder
8. rename a folder
9. merge folders
10. create a new file
11. create a new folder
12. show file/folder size
13. open a file with the default program
14. zip a folder
15. unzip a folder
16. remove a file
17. remove a folder
18. list folder contents
19. tree view a folder and its subfolders
20. find a stale file
21. show a calendar
22. find a future date
23. use a calculator
24. force quit a program
25. check server response
26. view content of a file
27. search for a text
28. view an image
29. show disk size
30. check performance of your computer
31. Quick tips
32. Hotkeys

copy a file

STOP DRAG AND DROPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE 👎

Copy readme.txt to the documents folder

cp readme.txt documents/

duplicate a file

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A FILE 👎

cp readme.txt readme.bak.txt

copy a folder

STOP DRAG AND DROPING A FOLDER, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FOLDER 👎

Copy myMusic folder to the myMedia folder

cp -a myMusic myMedia/
# or
cp -a myMusic/ myMedia/myMusic/

duplicate a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A FOLDER 👎

cp -a myMusic/ myMedia/
# or if `myMedia` folder doesn't exist
cp -a myMusic myMedia/

move a file

STOP DRAG AND DROPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE 👎

mv readme.txt documents/

Always use a trailing slash when moving files, for this reason.

rename a file

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A FILE 👎

mv readme.txt README.md

move a folder

STOP DRAG AND DROPING A FOLDER, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A FOLDER 👎

mv myMedia myMusic/
# or
mv myMedia/ myMusic/myMedia

rename a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A FOLDER 👎

mv myMedia/ myMusic/

merge folders

STOP DRAG AND DROPING TO MERGE FOLDERS 👎

rsync -a /images/ /images2/

create a new file

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW FILE 👎

touch 'new file' # updates the file's access and modification timestamp if it already exists
# or
> 'new file' # erase the content if it already exists

create a new folder

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW FOLDER 👎

mkdir 'untitled folder'
# or
mkdir -p 'path/may/not/exist/untitled folder'

show file/folder size

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND SHOW FILE/FOLDER INFO 👎

stat -x readme.md
# or
du -sh readme.md

open a file with the default program

STOP DOUBLE CLICKING ON A FILE 👎

xdg-open file   # on Linux
open file       # on MacOS

zip a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND COMPRESS FOLDER 👎

zip -r archive_name.zip folder_to_compress

unzip a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND UNCOMPRESS FOLDER 👎

unzip archive_name.zip

remove a file

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A FILE PERMANENTLY 👎

rm my_useless_file

IMPORTANT: The rm command deletes my_useless_file permanently, which is equivalent to move my_useless_file to Recycle Bin and hit Empty Recycle Bin.

remove a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A FOLDER PERMANENTLY 👎

rm -r my_useless_folder

list folder contents

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎

ls -la my_folder

tree view a folder and its subfolders

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎

tree                                                       # on Linux
find . -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'     # on MacOS

find a stale file

STOP USING YOUR FILE EXPLORER TO FIND A FILE 👎

Find all files modified more than 5 days ago

find my_folder -mtime +5

show a calendar

STOP LOOKING UP WHAT THIS MONTH LOOKS LIKE BY CALENDAR WIDGETS 👎

Display a text calendar

cal

Display selected month and year calendar

cal 11 2018

find a future date

STOP USING WEBAPPS TO CALCULATE FUTURE DATES 👎

What is todays date?

date +%m/%d/%Y

What about a week from now?

date -d "+7 days"                                          # on Linux
date -j -v+7d                                              # on MacOS

use a calculator

STOP USING CALCULATOR WIDGET 👎

bc

force quit a program

STOP CTRL + ALT + DELETE and choose the program to kill 👎

killall program_name

check server response

STOP OPENING A BROWSER 👎

ping umair.surge.sh

view content of a file

STOP DOUBLE CLICKING A FILE 👎

cat apps/settings.py

search for a text

STOP CMD/CTRL + F IN A FOLDER 👎

grep -ir "Query" file.txt

view an image

STOP USING PREVIEW 👎

imgcat image.png

show disk size

STOP RIGHT CLICKING DISK ICON OR OPENING DISK UTILITY 👎

df -h

check performance of your computer

STOP OPENING YOUR ACTIVITY MONITOR OR TASK MANAGER 👎

top

Quick tips

Hotkeys

Ctrl + A  Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + E  Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + L  Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command
Ctrl + U  Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line.
Ctrl + H  Same as backspace
Ctrl + R  Let’s you search through previously used commands
Ctrl + C  Kill whatever you are running
Ctrl + D  Exit the current shell
Ctrl + Z  Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it.
Ctrl + W  Delete the word before the cursor
Ctrl + K  Clear the line after the cursor
Ctrl + T  Swap the last two characters before the cursor
Esc + T   Swap the last two words before the cursor
Alt + F   Move cursor forward one word on the current line
Alt + B   Move cursor backward one word on the current line
Tab       Auto-complete files and folder names

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Remember, you can always google or man the commands you are not familiar with.