Some helpful command line programs

This page lists some command-line tools that can significantly enhance your productivity and make working in the terminal easier and more efficient.

Tmux

Tmux (Terminal Multiplexer)¹ allows you to create and control multiple terminal sessions within a single window.

Can be installed by running:

sudo apt-get install tmux

Tmux has a comprehensive cheat sheet for all of its commands. It’s a great resource to keep handy.

Basic Usage:

To start a new Tmux session:

tmux

To detach from a session (leaving it running in the background): Press Ctrl+b followed by d.

To list existing sessions:

tmux list-sessions

To reattach to the most recent session:

tmux attach

To reattach to a specific session (replace 0 with the session number):

tmux attach -t 0

TLDR

Shows simplified examples for command-line tools.

TLDR provides simplified, community-maintained examples for command-line programs. It cuts through lengthy man pages to give you just the common use cases.

Basic Usage:

To see examples for the tar command:

tldr tar

To see examples for the ls command with macOS options:

tldr ls --platform osx

htop

htop is an interactive process viewer for Unix-like systems. It provides a dynamic real-time view of processes running on the system, showing CPU usage, memory usage, swap usage, and tasks.²

Can be installed by running:

sudo apt-get install htop

Basic Usage:

Simply run htop to launch the interactive viewer:

htop

Inside htop, you can use arrow keys to navigate and function keys (like F1 for Help, F3 for Search, F9 for Kill, F10 to Quit) for various actions.