Modern Unix Tools

UNIX commands can feel quite ancient. Gladly there are aims at modernizing the UNIX stack, often in a compatible way.

Here’s an overview of some of my favorite modern UNIX commands and how I use them.

bat - A cat Clone with Pretty Syntax Highlighting

Repo: GitHub: sharkdp/bat

View code with syntax highlighting.

Here’s how I use it:

• I replaced cat with an alias: dot-files: shell/.config/aliasrc
• I preview files based on file type with preview.sh dot-files: scripts/.local/bin/preview.sh

exa - A Pretty ls Replacement

Repo: GitHub: ogham/exa

List files with a stylish and informative output. Here’s how I use it:

Here’s how I use it:

• I replaced ls with an alias: dot-files: shell/.config/aliasrc, which looks like this
• shell/.config/aliasrc

fzf - Fuzzy Find Files

Repos: GitHub: junegunn/fzf

Quickly find files with fuzzy search.

FZF is awesome. And it also has a neat Vim integration.

Try it out by piping command output into fzf like docker ps | fzf

Here’s how I use it:

• In scripts to let the user select an item from a list
• Alias select which yay packages to update dot-files: shell/.config/aliasrc
• A ranger command to fuzzy select files dot-files: ranger/.config/ranger/commands.py

My FZF Configuration

• search (hidden) files but ignore gitignored files using ripgrep
• preview file contents with my preview.sh script (which uses exa in the background)
• assigns hot keys
  • F1 to enable the file preview,
  • F2 to switch to show hidden/ignored files, and
  • F3 to fzf the parent directory My FZF config file dot-files: shell/.config/fzfrc

FZF and VIM

You can also use fzf directly in vim with this integration GitHub: junegunn/fzf.vim. It offers a lot of useful default commands. You can fuzzy find files with :Files.

My configuration includes some custom commands as well

• insert a command from the shell history dot-files: nvim/.vimrc
• open a markdown notes dot-files: nvim/.vimrc

Here’s my fzf.vim configfuration dot-files: nvim/.vimrc

ripgrep - A Modern grep -r Replacement

Repo: BurntSushi/ripgrep

Fast and efficient searching of file contents. Here’s how I use it:

Here’s how I use it:

• created an alias alias rg='rg --hidden' (dot-files: shell/.config/aliasrc, dot-files: zsh/.config/zsh/aliasrc)
• Vim command to fuzzy select Ripgrep output with :Rg dot-files: nvim/.vimrc

jq - Process JSON Output

Repo: GitHub: jqlang/jq

Master JSON data manipulation on the terminal.

Here’s how I use it:

• Playing with APIs instead of using Postman/Insomnia
• Parsing I3 command output in my I3-scripts
  • getting the current workspace dot-files: scripts/.local/bin/i3-profile.sh
  • or figuring out the ids of visible windows on the current workspace dot-files: scripts/.local/bin/i3-profile.sh

http - A Modern curl

Repo: GitHub: httpie/cli: 🥧 HTTPie CLI

Simplify HTTP requests.

• Easily write and read HTTP requests.
• Handle JSON responses effortlessly.
• Add query parameters and headers with ease.

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And here’s some I haven’t tried myself, since I only just found out about them.

• curlie - like HTTPie but with the power of curl GitHub: rs/curlie
• mcfly - Neural Network backed Shell History GitHub: cantino/mcfly
• sd - A sed replacement GitHub: chmln/sd
• fd - A find replacement GitHub: sharkdp/fd

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GitHub: ibraheemdev/modern-unix