Most Used Linux Apps

Here are some more modern tools for linux cli. Most of them replace command you already know. Use aliases to use the old command so it doesn’t get annoying. I use these on Debian and Arch based distros but these should also work with others.

Portal, CLI file transfer

Commands needed for setup:

curl -sL portal.spatiumportae.com | sudo bash

Install on linux with the command above. Documentation

SSHS, ssh manager

Commands needed for setup:

cargo install --git https://github.com/quantumsheep/sshs

Install on linux with the command above. You will need to setup a .ssh/config file for this to work. Documentation

Yazi, CLI file explorer

Commands needed for setup:

cargo install --locked yazi-fm yazi-cli

Install on linux with the command above. Documentation

Zoxide for a better cd

For faster and fuzzy cd usage:

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide/main/install.sh | sh

Install on linux with the command above. You then need to add it to your shell config which you can find on the github page.

Atuin for better command history

Super helpful command history with timestamps and search:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://setup.atuin.sh | sh

Install with the command above and add to your shell similar to how we did with zoxide. Details here

Eza for a better ls

This ls tool gives outputs that are a bit more useful:

To install/setup follow this link to the install instructions. It can be installed in a variety of ways.

Tl:dr better man pages

This tool is if you want to get the main info from a man page without reading the whole thing:

pip3 install tldr

To install/setup follow this link to the install instructions. It can be installed in a variety of ways.

Fzf/zi for better find/search

Super powerful fuzzy search tool:

To install/setup follow this link to the install instructions. It can be installed on a bunch of different OSes.

sudo pacman -S fzf #For Arch based systems
sudo apt install fzf #for debian based systems

Fzf.fish fzf for fish

Name says it all:

Install docs are here. Some quick Keycommands:

Search Directory - Ctrl+Alt+f (F for file)
Search Git Status - Ctrl+Alt+s (S for status)
Search Git Log - Ctrl+Alt+l (L for Log)
Search History -  Ctrl+r (R for reverse-i-search)
Search Processes - Ctrl+Alt+p (P for process)
Search Variables - Ctrl+Alt+v (V for Variable)

Bat for a better cat command

More useful output than the normal cat command:

sudo apt install bat #For debian based systems
or
pacman -S bat #For Arch based systems

Bat preview

This works along side fzf.fish to give you a preview of files while you search for the correct one

Follow the fzf.fish install above

Screen for more terminal sessions

Allows for multiple sessions in 1 terminal window:

sudo apt install screen
or
sudo pacman -S screen

Here is my script for installing most of this stuff on a Debian based distro…I used this on Kali Linux

Localsend for local file sharing

Very similar to airdrop but available on all OSes:

flatpak install flathub org.localsend.localsend_app #For flatpak package manager
or
sudo snap install localsend #For snap package manager
or
yay -S localsend-bin #For Arch based systems

Fish, my favorite shell

Commands needed for setup:

echo /usr/local/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

chsh -s /usr/local/bin/fish

Firacode Nerd font Mono for nice terminal icons

This font has a bunch of symbols that are nice to have.

Chezmoi .dotfile backup to github

A cli app for keep track of your .dotfiles changes and uploading to github. The install for this can be very involved and requires a bit of git knowledge. Install docs are here.

Here is my script for installing most of this stuff on a Debian based distro…I used this on Kali Linux