Tell me your favorite CLI apps

[-]

Matilde_di_Canossa@reddit

neomutt is still the best email client.

[-]

4xlsd@reddit

btop, w3m, and ranger . if I had 4gb of ram that stack would be all I need

[-]

ghostnation66@reddit

False. Just use neovim as your myltiplexer

[-]

skhds@reddit

but isn't neovim basically a GUI editor? though, I've never used one yet

[-]

Another cool trick for tmux (and possibly other multiplexers) is you can attach the exact same console session with multiple devices. For example I have done my phone and laptop both to my server so I can peek at a long running task while on the go, but not have to type long commands on touchscreen. Also it's just cool!

[-]

punkwalrus@reddit

Man, tmux saved my bacon in a project I had all last week. Basically, I had to set up a script and a conf file for 100 servers, each unique in its own way, to run a service. Then I had a test run, which depending on the system, took anywhere from 20 to 400 minutes. The VPN to connection to this client was flaky as hell, and disconnected up many times during the day, either because of "lack of input," or just randomly.

I was able to roll out the tests on several sessions, several windows each, and my only limit was the ssh connection limits of the admin server. Disconnected? Reconnected to the VPN, reconnected to each tmux session, and I was back in business. I would have tore my hair out if I had to redo the tests because of disconnections.

[-]

nandru@reddit

tmux sucks!

this post was made by the screen gang

[-]

libra00@reddit

screen gang!

I used to have a linux box that pretty much only existed to run screen with tinyfugue so I could stay connected to MUSHes for weeks or months at a time. I used putty to ssh in and then screen -d -R to resume. Before I had my own linux box I had a variety of, ah, ill-gotten accounts on university computers around the internet that I'd telnet into to use screen/tinyfugue.

[-]

zylad@reddit

None of that is impossible with tmux. As a person who used screen to keep SSH sessions opened to all the servers in the fleet (which required recompiling screen because of its low limit on number of windows) I can attest that. Switched to tmux years ago and never looked back. My daily workflow utilises it heavily.

[-]

libra00@reddit

Oh I don't doubt it, I just don't have a use for that kind of operation anymore so I've never had a reason to look at tmux. Screen is just what I used to use. Like, why tmux when I can just have like 12 terminal windows open at once? Or even better, 12 tabs in Konsole?

[-]

alexklaus80@reddit

I'm starting to think that a lot lot lately. Many terminal emulators allows for tiling within one window as well, and then more and more cool features. And I'm starting to get annoyed when I want to use tmux in place of screen on another host, creating another tmux on tmux situation which is troublesome if you're not careful with configs.

It still has a use when I want to use tmux session running on another server, but certainly tmux is not nearly as important as it once was. It's so much so that my colleagues may know how to use screen but not tmux (and I learned how to use screen just recently).

[-]

zylad@reddit

Yeah, the modern terminal emulators are pretty good in that regard. For me it’s just a muscle memory with tmux (which I set to have many of screen’s key bindings) is just muscle memory but if I had to start using Linux again now, I’d probably ended up just relying on one of the terminal emulators :)

[-]

alexklaus80@reddit

It’s in by muscle memory too, and literally none of any shell seasons started without tmux on local terminal for years and years. So no reason to leave from tmux, but something tells me that maybe try something else at least for once. Maybe I’ll be back anyways, but yeah modern ones has quite a lot to offer that I have to wonder if I would like it more.

[-]

libra00@reddit

Yeah I was gonna say, tiling is also absurdly popular. I mean I guess it's nice to be able to switch sessions with a hotkey, but I'm pretty sure konsole uses standard browser tab controls, so..

Oh yeah running remote that totally makes sense, that's fair.

[-]

majesticmerc@reddit

You damn screen punks!

[-]

TuxTool@reddit

Tmux4life!

[-]

Junior_Common_9644@reddit

I converted from GNU Screen to tmux years ago. Never went back.

[-]

D7x8@reddit (OP)

I’ve looked into the tmux/screen tools but I tend to use multiple tabs in kitty. Is there use cases for it which beat just using kitty tabs?

[-]

killchopdeluxe666@reddit

Splitting a single terminal, such as a terminal over serial line. Comes up with embedded stuff sometimes.

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skhds@reddit

Mostly for remote ssh stuff. I personally use it for nested tabs, outer tabs being kitty tabs and tmux for internal tabs per server.

[-]

nandru@reddit

IIRC, you can reconnect to a interrupted remote session

Also, mutiple windows/sessions with one ssh connection, even if kitty already does something similar

[-]

GhostVlvin@reddit

Sry bro, I detach nvim and use kitty as splitter. I don't like that for escape sequences to work properly they need to be supported by both VT and tmux and tmux must pass them to VT. It's much simpler for VT to support split panes and detach capability

[-]

skhds@reddit

Don't need to be sorry, everyone has their preferences. I had to use Windows for a long time, so kitty just wasn't available to me and I have been adjusted to using tmux as a result. Nowadays, on my desktop, I use kitty terminal and nest each different sessions with tmux (because I have to run all my work on a remote server).

[-]

neckyo@reddit

zellij is the eay

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ready_or_not_3434@reddit

Definetly. Once you get used to detaching sessions and keeping your environment running over ssh its impossible to go back to a normal terminal window.

[-]

Rimadandan@reddit

Show me your magic, wizard !

[-]

SinglePanic@reddit

Double this. Also zellij since recently.

[-]

alexklaus80@reddit

Wowww panes are draggable?! This is wild!

[-]

global-gauge-field@reddit

Zellij was having some issues with codex. Do you know if it is resolved by now ?

[-]

SinglePanic@reddit

No idea actually, sorry. Only been using it on a couple of my servers, I still prefer tmux since I'm too used to it.

[-]

diegotbn@reddit

Obligatory recommendation for zellij which has completely replaced tmux for me. I have it automatically start every time I open a new terminal window.

[-]

knue82@reddit

I used it for quite some time but now I'm using Kitty which reders tmux superfluous for me. Those rare times I need to detach a terminal session, I'm going with screen.

[-]

ChocolateDonut36@reddit

tmust

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unu_p_aici_3@reddit

Tmux

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rcentros@reddit

Mutt for email. slrn for newsgroups. JOE (Joe's Own Editor) Jstar "flavor" for writing. Fountain-Mode in Emacs for screenplay writing (Afterwriting-cli for making PDF files from Fountain files). Calcurse for a Calendar and ToDo app. Dict for an offline dictionary. Links2 for a semi usable, non-GUI Internet browser.

[-]

Sanek3400@reddit

Vim, if you know how to use it efficiently

[-]

Online_Matter@reddit

Tell me your best trick

[-]

GhostVlvin@reddit

:g//norm! @q

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ghostnation66@reddit

What does this do

[-]

IanCrapReport@reddit

Once you learn the dot command and macros, there's no going back.

[-]

Punk-Floyd@reddit

git

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Lurksome-Lurker@reddit

Tintin++

Super niche, but if your into MUD games it’s the best client out there.

[-]

air_gopher@reddit

Late to the party, but did anyone mention jless ?

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tungnon@reddit

yt-dlp

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

[-]

boar-b-que@reddit

yt-dlp

I use the ever-loving tar out of yt-dlp.

I use an invidious instance as my YT frontend, but copy links to videos and music into my terminal and then download them straight from YT with yt-dlp.

My zsh helper aliases for yt-dlp look like so:

function transmogstring()
{
out=$1
#array of inv instances to mog
foreach tr (invidious.instances.go.here separated.by.spaces)
do out=${out/${~tr}/youtu.be}
done
echo $out
}
function yd()
{
tmtext=$(transmogstring $1)
yt-dlp --sub-langs all,-live_chat --embed-subs --embed-chapters --progress --no-mtime --paths home:~/Downloads $tmtext
}

function yd1080p()
{
tmtext=$(transmogstring $1)
yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=1080]+ba' --sub-langs all,-live_chat --embed-subs --embed-chapters --progress --no-mtime --paths home:~/Downloads $tmtext
}

[-]

mdleslie@reddit

Same, but I have this alias set up:

alias yt='yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox --js-runtimes bun --remote-components ejs:github'

[-]

korowal@reddit

Do you use it for YouTube?

[-]

directheated@reddit

This bad boy has filled up an entire 4 tb drive for me. No more with these hard drive prices 😭

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nablavct@reddit

I use this a lot Pretty damn good functionality

[-]

mdleslie@reddit

Ticker.

[-]

Important-Brief-3076@reddit

Nmtui and minicom, as a network junior they are my biggest helpers

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_l33ter_@reddit

this

[-]

miami-vice@reddit

"Made with lust."

[-]

micppp@reddit

Clicked it and my first thought was ‘of course this exists’ 😂

[-]

_l33ter_@reddit

xDD

[-]

Evantaur@reddit

Hijacking this for s second.

Was there at some point an image viewer named as pornview or have I been dreaming (I remember seeing that in Debian reposs)

[-]

mrandr01d@reddit

What the...

[-]

_l33ter_@reddit

...freaking way I've missed all the years? Did you mean to write? :)

[-]

D7x8@reddit (OP)

This is the most genius yet down bad solution I have ever seen

[-]

_l33ter_@reddit

in another cli-tab you can run some nmap and fast switching back :P

[-]

nablavct@reddit

Why would you do this

[-]

_l33ter_@reddit

I've combined the best thing

so I don't have to leave the cli ?!

[-]

Professional-Pen8246@reddit

cowsay

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Iceman042@reddit

Btop / bat / fzf

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DaylightAdmin@reddit

ncdu, I am a simple man.

[-]

tobeportable@reddit

https://github.com/byron/dua-cli

[-]

Nc0de@reddit

gdu

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0_8pzzzz@reddit

finally find gdu here, the app I would install for every system setup.

[-]

ColbieSterling@reddit

Thank you, I had no idea this tool existed. This solves a frustrating problem for me!

[-]

DaylightAdmin@reddit

just be careful with the delete!

also u/Nc0de recommended gdu, it looks like a rewrite with multi threading, maybe it is better.

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Scout339v2@reddit

dnf

lmao

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TrickEye6408@reddit

Mtr is pretty solid

[-]

Sirius707@reddit

NeoVim, btop and nmtui are the ones i use regularly (nmtui to switch networks on my laptop).

[-]

ben2talk@reddit

Fastfetch as a favourite? I don't think so - interesting fluff at best, completely useless bit of fun...

Zoxide and fzf are incredible partnered with yazi - I use them every time I open Dolphin.

If you want to look like a 'hackerman' then buy yourself a stupidly expensive gamer chair and hoodie and act like a petulant teenager.

[-]

durbich@reddit

Midnight Commander (mc)

[-]

soysopin@reddit

Confirm. Also, mc's internal editor, mcedit, can be used outside the file manager, has syntax highlighting and simpler key bindings that other editors.

[-]

aieidotch@reddit

and far2l

[-]

Teru-Noir@reddit

Ffmpeg

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Werzaz@reddit

chezmoi for syncing my dot files, supports templates so I can share most config between machines and still customize for small differences

[-]

stogie-bear@reddit

I recently got serious about my battery life and powertop was indispensable. And nano is usually a lot quicker for small things than firing up Kate and browsing folders in the gui.

[-]

BluFudge@reddit

how much of a difference does it make? how significant?

[-]

stogie-bear@reddit

I was able to get 2-3 hours more battery.

[-]

BluFudge@reddit

Oh that's nice. Might have to finally look into this.

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Optimal_Mastodon912@reddit

kew

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FalscherHase@reddit

https://www.visidata.org/ for tabular data

[-]

psadi_@reddit

Nvim, Lazygit, and Fzf are three things I rely on the most.

[-]

Remuz@reddit

cheat, navi, tldr, aerc email, todo.txt, borg backup, translate-shell

[-]

Sufficient-Dare-5270@reddit

fzf is easily my most used tool daily. it completely changes how you navigate history or find files when you pair it with ripgrep. honestly cannot imagine using a terminal without fuzzy finding anymore. standard cd feels so tedious after you get used to it lol. htop is another classic i always install immediately on any new machine just to quickly see what is eating up my ram

[-]

Redneckia@reddit

Gimme some if ur wisdom

[-]

chrillefkr@reddit

Btop, gdu

[-]

Raviexthegodremade@reddit

A bit specific, since it's a tool specifically for Nix users, but Nh and Nix-Alien are both extremely useful tools, nh streamlining the process of updating with different configurations other than the default channels setup, since usually with a setup like flakes updating takes 2 separate commands entirely, first using the new Nix CLI to update the lock file (how the package manager pins package versions) and another to rebuild, then using the nicos-rebuild command with --flake ${flake-path} passed. Instead Nh combines them both and makes the difference an extra flag on the command, along with giving a handy build graph so you can see what's building and why. Nix-Alien is used to decipher what libraries a given program needs, as Nix doesn't support dynamically linked executables by default, as a result of its sandboxed nature, so you need to manually configure what libraries are provided in the ld path.

[-]

Barafu@reddit

micro A text editor. Once I tried it, I kicked NeoVim out, along with nano.

atuin Replaces bash history. Press arrow up, and it shows a TUI with your past commands.

eza Better ls. You probably should alias ls='eza -al --color=always --group-directories-first --icons'

precomp An abandoned archiver that is specifically geared for office documents, ebooks, PDFs and CAD files. Compresses those 3 times more than 7zip on maximums.

pwgen Little app that generates passwords which are random, but easy to visually track. Happens a lot if you need passwords in situations where you can't copypaste and have to type them, like logging on the phone. You need to make passwords 30% longer to keep them as secure.

[-]

Lykoro_@reddit

I would add yazi, a nice tui file explorer to replace nautilus or whatever you're using and also replace ncdu with gdu because it is faster in my experience (I think it is because gdu is multithreaded). Anyway, good list, i'll definitely try some of those.

[-]

zinozAreNazis@reddit

Micro is a good replacement for nano. It’s not in the same category as neovim.

Also for your eza alias you forgot -h (coverts units to human readable eg. instead of bytes it would use MB)

[-]

Inevitable_Taro4191@reddit

Nice list. I recommend gdu instead of ncdu, it's orders of magnitude faster(threaded)? But equal functionality.

[-]

libra00@reddit

Oh lawd, they still iterating on pico are they? :P I'll have to check it out, tho nowadays I do most general text-editing in kate and then coding in zed, so I already have pretty good gui editors..

[-]

boar-b-que@reddit

Most of my coding and writing is done in kate (but standalone, not with Plasma as my DE simply because I don't care for Plasma.)

However, Micro is pretty damn good for a console text editor. It's completely replaced Pico/Nano for me. It's standalone, easy to configure, as easy to use as Pico, and can be installed anywhere Pico could be.

[-]

libra00@reddit

I used to use kate for coding. I switched to using zed because it has LLM coding agents built in and I wanted to play with them.

I use Scrivener for writing though. Couldn't find good linux-native novel-writing software with all the features I want, so I just run it in wine.

[-]

Barafu@reddit

So do I. but because micro is a single file without dependencies, I can install it in one command on any machine I SSH into, even if that machine has no Internet or package manager or root access.

VSCODE-ing over SSH is fun as long as it works.

[-]

libra00@reddit

Yeah, great little editor for portability, I'm just too used to GUI conveniences, even though I'm very much a keyboard warrior, I don't even like using nano anymore. :P

[-]

LBreda@reddit

LOL I wrote the same alias too.

[-]

OneTurnMore@reddit

Very similar, but I just call it d.

[-]

LBreda@reddit

Mine is `alias mkcd='() { mkdir -p "$1" && cd "$1"; }'`

[-]

NYIsles55@reddit

By any chance have you tried lsd as an ls replacement? How does that compare to eza?

Also, if you like ncdu, check out gdu.

[-]

beizhia@reddit

I found abcde when I was ripping my cd collection a few years back. I usually use k3b, but running from cli (and in scripts) was super convenient.

[-]

-RedFox-@reddit

Btop

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LxckyFox@reddit

Cmus

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Salt_Ostrich2705@reddit

i love ncdu at work for our headless servers.

[-]

pppjurac@reddit

 sudo apt install mc htop bmon mtr pigz

[-]

AENCR@reddit

Cowsay 😛😛

[-]

sfled@reddit

fortune | cowsay

[-]

crshbndct@reddit

Ponysay

[-]

mrandr01d@reddit

"sudo" lmao

[-]

sporeot@reddit

I'm a "doas" convert here.

[-]

BluFudge@reddit

same lol, though i don't even use openbsd

[-]

arthank-chroot@reddit

Truth I speak to you, I do not have sudo installed on my machine. I do use systemd for convenience. I just su when I need to do privileged stuff.

[-]

libra00@reddit

What's the difference between su and sudo? Also I'm not sure how systemd factors into this? I'm kinda new-old to linux; I used to administer linux servers in the 90s/2000s, but I haven't really messed with it since I switched over my daily driver about months ago, so I'm still learning all the differences.

[-]

arthank-chroot@reddit

Sudo is a systems thing, sort of. It's systemd's solution to privilege elevation, whereas su is just login as root. You don't "temporarily" become root to execute a command. You straight up change user in the shell. Sadly it too suffers from some exploits having to do with in place decryption on memory pages... making you root without a password. Sudo tends to have more exploits, but as of late, everything is on fire anyway.

[-]

libra00@reddit

Ohh, gotcha. I thought you were saying there was a command called 'su'.

[-]

arthank-chroot@reddit

There is a command called su. You can check this using the man pages. man su

[-]

libra00@reddit

Ahh, ok, so su just logs you into root as if you'd done that from the beginning? Interesting.

[-]

arthank-chroot@reddit

Just the shell/terminal session. It is scope restricted to the shell instance, it does not directly affect the rest of the system or even another tab in the terminal. Well, technically, that's how a login shell works anyway. Each shell instance is its own interface to the system. That's why when you have gui you actually have several shells you're logged into in the background via tty and pts. Note that when you open a terminal to check via the command who it will also list the current shell you're using to do that as a pts instance

[-]

libra00@reddit

Oh, that makes sense, ok. That sounds handy for if you need to do a ton of stuff all at once, saves you having to sudo/type passwords a bunch.

[-]

drunnells@reddit

Screen - Have multiple terminals in one. So ssh in, start screen, switch between screens or split them.

Lynx - Text based web browser.

[-]

Evantaur@reddit

Screen is quite ass compared to tmux

[-]

BluFudge@reddit

who cares man? no screen, no tmux

[-]

Lawnmover_Man@reddit

Screen is from 1987. Give it a break. It was very awesome for a lot of people for a very long time. Then a better solution came. No need to shit on screen.

[-]

BluFudge@reddit

lf and vd

[-]

askoma@reddit

broot

[-]

Sleisl@reddit

`broot -w` is fantastic

[-]

Miver_St@reddit

fresh-editor and musikcube

[-]

cornmonger_@reddit

helix, git, ssh, and rsync

it's a simple life

[-]

neckyo@reddit

musikcube has surprised me. having the music player on the terminal in a tab suits me well.

[-]

dontquestionmyaction@reddit

difft

[-]

viper233@reddit

bc

Bash calculator. Make sure you pass the "-l" option for long format.. vim, grep are a close second and third.

[-]

MrGOCE@reddit

YAZI

NEOVIM

NMTUI

BLUETUI

MUSIKCUBE OR KEW

[-]

Putrid_Guitar9437@reddit

ani-cli

[-]

Mortui75@reddit

Micro TUI text editor.

[-]

robkam@reddit

Ytree v3 file manager

[-]

geolaw@reddit

pianobar for Pandora, mpv for video/audio

[-]

yetanothersky@reddit

nvim, tmux, lsd, duf, ncdu, bat, yt-dlp, stow, chezmoi, fzf, ranger, btop, doas

[-]

yetanothersky@reddit

nvim, tmux, lsd, duf, ncdu, bat, yt-dlp, stow, chezmoi, fzf, ranger, btop, doas

[-]

Environmental_Mud624@reddit

tldr

[-]

TontaGelatina@reddit

yazi, I just cannot figure out how to make it so even when i upload a file to a website it would open yazi instead of dolphin

zoxide, fzf, rg, fd, btop

[-]

availableName4378@reddit

no love for ranger here?

[-]

TontaGelatina@reddit

yazi gang

[-]

imareddituserhooray@reddit

tree - great output format for viewing nested directories

ab (apache bench) - simple load test tool

nc (netcat) - fantastic network request tool

[-]

ganonfirehouse420@reddit

yt-dlp, nvim, btop, mc, yazi, fzf, gallery-dl, ncmpcpp, mpv, pipe-rename, numbat

[-]

Misicks0349@reddit

oh wow numbat looks really nice.

[-]

Sh1ner@reddit

I am new to CLI tooling, however I love atuin, zoxide. Delta for git is awesome but its still new to me.

Tier: S

atuin - nicer history + shared history across 2 devices zoxide - path history fuzzy match

Tier: (P)rettier than the default:

batcat - a nicer cat - syntax highlighting
eza - a nicer ls / tree, colours, icons if u want

Tier: (N)ew stuff:

delta - git
fzf
ripgrep

I got claude to build me a mini tool for interactive git visual checkout with preview commits on branch using the 3 above if I recall correctly.

[-]

gplusplus314@reddit

It should probably be stated that a CLI is not the same as a TUI. Chances are, if you’re looking to replace a GUI with a terminal experience, you’re likely looking for a TUI, not a CLI.

[-]

amroamroamro@reddit

https://awesometui.com/

https://github.com/rothgar/awesome-tuis

[-]

the_other_Scaevitas@reddit

firstly, btop is better than htop

Secondly, I use posting instead of postman. It works just like postman but it has a TUI instead of a GUI

[-]

sleepingonmoon@reddit

fish

[-]

ger042@reddit

nmon

[-]

IngwiePhoenix@reddit

cd

Most used, most needed, most essential.

[-]

OliMoli2137@reddit

zoxide

[-]

apex6666@reddit

Sl

[-]

corpse86@reddit

lowfi, youtube-tui, musikcube, cava, rclone

[-]

timmy_o_tool@reddit

Alien

[-]

libra00@reddit

I don't even know if there's a GUI version, but wavemon is excellent for diagnosing wifi issues, you can see your link quality adn signal level in big obvious graphs at the top, plus a ton of other useful information below.

[-]

5thAlaudae@reddit

aria2c

[-]

bongjutsu@reddit

I wrote a bash script that lets me launch any of my Steam installed games by typing their name so I can run them via dmenu and friends

[-]

West-468@reddit

Sorry, i only use programs.

[-]

OyiniPh8dau5eixu@reddit

r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/1r5hev2/everythingisappnow

[-]

philosophical_lens@reddit

Yazi

[-]

ColbieSterling@reddit

pandoc

[-]

ficskala@reddit

i think my most used ones are ssh, ping, fdisk, and iperf3, i never really looked into finding CLI alternatives for GUI apps since most gui apps i use have a reason to have a gui in the first place, it's just more convenient most of the time to have a gui, especially if it's not something you use often, if you use something very often, then yeah, a cli variant might make more sense

[-]

Unlikelycle@reddit

grep

[-]

HelixFluff@reddit

jq didn’t seem listed yet but I’ve done some beautiful yet heinous things with it.

[-]

hellotheremiss@reddit

nano

works perfectly as a 'no-distraction' writing program, being so basic.

I edited the config file so it opens with word-wrapping and uses as much screen space as possible.

[-]

KOM_Unchained@reddit

claude

[-]

ezoe@reddit

ffmpeg.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

This is the goat.

[-]

ardouronerous@reddit

yt-dlp.

Much more options than the GUI app built on top of it.

[-]

eN0Rm@reddit

ls

[-]

01111010t@reddit

You mean sl?

[-]

Dacio_Ultanca@reddit

Choo choo, mother fucker!

[-]

SaturnMoth@reddit

Surprised no-one's mentioned gum yet. It's completely changed the way I approach writing tools, I include way more interactivity now instead of front loading it all with arguments.

[-]