Which Linux command or utility is simple, powerful, and surprisingly unknown to many people or used less often?

This could be a command or a piece of software or an application.

For example I’m surprised to find that many people are unaware of Caddy, a very simple web server that can make setting up a reverse proxy incredibly easy.

Another example is fzf. Many people overlook this, a fast command-line fuzzy finder. It’s versatile for searching files, directories, or even shell history with minimal effort.

  • deathbird@mander.xyz
    0·
    2 years ago

    Underrated? I’d say lftp is the best FTP command line client there is. And Midnight Commander is a very very good file browser. I don’t see either praised enough.

    • marty_relaxes@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      2 years ago

      The terminal-based file browser space is so filled today but for my part I love what vifm has done for the dual-pane midnight commander concept - it’s the same basic idea, uses (somewhat) vim-like bindings by default and is super extensible.

    • friend_of_satan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Great call out! I first used ftp about 30 years ago, and lftp has been my go to for about the last decade. I rarely need it anymore, but I still use it for quickly transferring files with my homebrew switch.

      • oldfart@lemm.ee
        0·
        2 years ago

        Did you know it can connect to HTTP directory listings and do the same things it does over S/FTP?

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    2 years ago

    losetup

    it’s useful for dealing with virtual disk images. like a real physical hard disk, but it’s a file on the computer. you can mount it, format it, and write it to a real physical disk.

    it’s sometimes used with virtual machines, with iso images, or when preparing a bootable disk.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    2 years ago

    socat - connect anything to anything

    for example

    socat - tcp-connect:remote-server:12345

    socat tcp-listen:12345 -

    socat tcp-listen:12345 tcp-connect:remote-server:12345

    • CAVOK@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      Very true. I used to do magic with xargs when working as a sysadm. Also a good way to mess up on a grand scale. Ask me how I know.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    2 years ago

    nmap *your_local_ip_address*

    for example

    nmap 192.168.1.43/24 will show you what devices are connected to the local network, and what ports are open there. really useful, for example, when you forgot the address of your printer or raspi yet again.

    you can also use it to understand what ports on your computer are open from an attacker’s perspective, or simply to figure out what services are running (ssh service).

  • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’m not sure how underrated it is but the exec feature in find is so useful, there are so many bulk tasks that would just be incredibly difficult otherwise but instead are just one line

    • communism@lemmy.ml
      0·
      2 years ago

      Very useful for shell scripts that need to do maths as well. I use it to make percentages when stdout has values between 0.0 and 1.0

  • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    vd (VisiData) is a wonderful TUI spreadsheet program. It can read lots of formats, like csv, sqlite, and even nested formats like json. It supports Python expressions and replayable commands.

    I find it most useful for large CSV files from various sources. Logs and reports from a lot of the tools I use can easily be tens of thousands of rows, and it can take many minutes just to open them in GUI apps like Excel or LibreOffice.

    I frequently need to re-export fresh data, so I find myself needing to re-process and re-arrange it every time, which visidata makes easy (well, easier) with its replayable command files. So e.g. I can write a script to open a raw csv, add a formula column, resize all columns to fit their content, set the column types as appropriate, and sort it the way I need it. So I can do direct from exporting the data to reading it with no preprocessing in between.

  • killabeezio@lemm.eedeleted by creator
    0·
    2 years ago

    paste. I don’t think a lot of people know this command, but it can be handy at times

      • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Came here to say both of these things. (Awk and “> simple”.)

        To be totally honest, I don’t think awk is any more complicated than something like grep, it’s just that regular expressions get used more often so they’re typically more familiar. In the same way that programming languages with c-like syntax (like Java and C#) often feel easier than ones that don’t (like Haskell and Clojure).