Hard to pick an absolute favorite, but these are my top tools I use almost everyday
- jq
- jless
- k9s
- tmux
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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As a video editor (not professionally...just a hobbyist) anything to do with ffmpeg. Fast and easy to batch convert codecs, etc... Pretty much every function of most FOSS editors are built around ffmpeg, and nearly every function has a CLI equivalent. I mean, yeah, of course for a lot of those you have to have the GUI to see what you're doing. But there's plenty that can be done without even needing to open up your editor.
sl
Just try it.
lazygit - git client
jq is a really good one.
Outside of the coreutils and builtins, I use git a lot for work, school, and otherwise. I prefer the simplicity and speed over a graphical client.
btop is probably one of my favourites, really easy and nice way to visualize the system status.
fzf
Thank me later.
So a quick look at the man page says its a fuzzy search. How do YOU use it? So I can get a point of reference to figure things out myself.
The killer features for me are fuzzy command history match for bash (or zsh, or even powershell) and respectively interactive grep. Lots of other examples here: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/wiki/Examples#searching-file-contents
Good one, although I only use it as ctrl+t or ctrl+r or within scripts
ssh, screen, vim, git, grep, find, less
In that order.
I do love me some ssh, it initially blew my mind how simple it was to set up.
I have no idea what screen does, even after glancing at the man page, can you enlighten me on your use case for it?
I'm still learning (quite slowly) vim keybinds, but I've gotten to the point where I can "use" it and not get trapped.
I've never used git personally, what's your use case if you don't mind?
Thanks!
screen keeps the current state of your console if your connection is lost or if you switch devices. You could also use tabs for multiple console windows. Customize it by a ~/.screenrc file (scrollback amount, no welcome screen, nicer colors, a status bar ...)
About vim: I enjoy it most with an eye-friendly theme and some plugins like nerdtree (file explorer) and ctrlp (fuzzy file search). More plugins here: https://vimawesome.com/ You can (and should) use your own ~/.vimrc config file, where you could setup your own keybindings, plugins and themes.
About git: It's a version control tool to keep track of your file changes. Properly configured, you could also use your vim for git file differences (git difftool). Professionally used for code changes and collaboration with other developers. Privately it could be used to track changes in your local markdown documentation, your diary or your tex thesis for example.
I really appreciate the write up. I'll play around with those tools! Thanks!
I ditched screen for tmux ~10 years ago and never looked back
Why the switch? What features drew you in and kept you in? I haven't dove into multiplexing yet so no need to get too in the weeds, I wanna do some research then make a separate post about that later.
Better configurability and scripting iirc
ls
Not quite the answer I was expecting, but I still appreciate the participation.
Most used (estimated, excluding base utilities and package managers):
- micro
- git
- ssh
- tree
- (un)zip
- curl
- mpv
- fzf
- tar
- fastfetch
Favourite:
- fastfetch
- micro
- curl
- btop
- w3m
- scp
- wormhole
- mc (Midnight Commander)
- aerc
- 7z
Edir. Renaming files in the text editor.
Ripgrep my beloved
What's your use case for ripgrep, or rather, what sets it apart from other tools for your uses?
It’s a replacement for grep, which searches the content of text files for a regular expression.
Ripgrep is very fast. If you use grep, it’s an easy drop-in.
rg is lovely.
Most used? Probably...
- ls
- cd
- nano
- cat
- ssh
- ping
- grep
Favourite? Probably one of...
- yt-dlp_linux (for getting... stuff...)
- ffmpeg (for modifying a/v files)
- rsync (for pushing files to my media server)
You're still using cd? Zoxide is great!
I prefer vifm to ranger.
Other than that it's a tough question to answer because use the command line for everyday productivity, but
- neovim
- neomutt
- khal
- khard
- castget
rsync seems really low-level though, so let me also mention
- btm
- git
- ag
- find
Oh wow, there's a command line email and calendar client. Thanks for bringing these to my attention. I'm still, slowly, learning vim keybinds so vifm is out for me.
What's the difference between btm and top/btop? What does ag do for you differently than grep?
btm is one of many alternatives to top. It works very well for me because it is fast and has nice usability.
I found ag more intuitive to use, and it's lightning fast. Here's a detailed comparison of features: https://beyondgrep.com/feature-comparison/
Awesome, I'll check the link out. Thanks for your time.
man
My use case is i’m a forgetful dipshit.
sl
nyancat
Not useful, but fun.
Mine are flac and ffmpeg
I'm familiar with the flac format, but not so much with the program. What do you use it for?
I've never heard of ffmpeg, but a quick glance at the man page says it can rip from data streams with sounds awesome! What's your main use case if you don't mind sharing?
Thanks, btw
I use flac to encode wav/aiff files to flac and to read flac fingerprints (md5) from flac files. I mainly use ffmpeg for ripping subtitles from mp4 files, but it's a pretty versatile tool.
ncdu and nano
pianobar