One of the aspects of being a power user is to do even the simplest GUI-based tasks from the terminal. While this may seem like an unnecessary complication for some tasks, it is actually good practice to do even the simplest things from the terminal. This allows you to become more familiar with the command line interface and can help you troubleshoot issues more effectively. In addition, many power users find that they can work more efficiently from the terminal, since they can customize their workflow to suit their needs.
1. Replace Ping And Traceroute With MTR
MTR, or My Trace Route, is a network diagnostic tool that investigates the connection between a host and a target by sending packets with low TTLs. This allows each node in the route to be examined, and any problems with the connection can be identified and addressed. MTR is a valuable tool for troubleshooting network issues, and can be used to improve the performance of a network.
mtr google.com
2. Checking Battery Status From The Terminal
Checking your battery might be something menial but you might need it while writing scripts or while configuring your system.
acpi -V
3. Recursively List Files And Folders Tree
The tree command is a recursive directory listing program that produces a depth indented listing of files. It is very useful for project management, as it allows you to see all the files and sub-folders in a directory in a clear and concise way. This can be extremely helpful when you have a large number of files and doing ls every time would be too time-consuming.
tree
┌──(ankit㉿hackreveal)-[~]
└─$ tree
.
├── complete
│ ├── 8 Most Common Hacking Techniques You Must Know
│ ├── adobe alter
│ ├── arch
│ ├── Debian
│ ├── enc
│ ├── Fedora
│ ├── free bsd
│ ├── Garuda Linux
│ ├── graphene
│ ├── kali
│ ├── Librem 5
│ ├── linux
│ ├── linux bootable
│ ├── Manjaro
│ ├── mint
│ ├── nmap
│ ├── password hacking
│ ├── PinePhone
│ ├── Raspberry Pi
│ ├── Red Hat
│ ├── Tails
│ ├── termux
│ ├── ubuntu
│ ├── Wifi pineapple
│ └── zero days
├── Desktop
├── Documents
├── Downloads
│ ├── 2886078.jpg
│ ├── ankit.jpg
│ ├── Hydra1.ovpn
│ ├── libsdl1.2debian_1.2.15+dfsg1-4+deb9u1_amd64.deb
│ ├── libvpx6_1.9.0-1_amd64.deb
│ ├── ms.png
│ ├── nmap.txt
│ ├── sign.jpg
│ ├── TMvQ1yiw
│ ├── twrp.img
│ ├── utserver.tar.gz
│ ├── ventoy-1.0.75-linux
│ │ └── ventoy-1.0.75
│ │ ├── boot
│ │ │ ├── boot.img
│ │ │ └── core.img.xz
│ │ ├── CreatePersistentImg.sh
│ │ ├── ExtendPersistentImg.sh
│ │ ├── log.txt
│ │ ├── plugin
│ │ │ └── ventoy
│ │ │ ├── theme
│ │ │ │ ├── background.png
│ │ │ │ ├── icons
│ │ │ │ │ ├── deepin.png
│ │ │ │ │ ├── red-hat.png
│ │ │ │ │ ├── ubuntu.png
│ │ │ │ │ └── vtoyiso.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_c.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_e.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_ne.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_n.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_nw.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_se.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_s.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_sw.png
│ │ │ │ ├── menu_w.png
│ │ │ │ ├── select_c.png
│ │ │ │ ├── slider_c.png
│ │ │ │ ├── slider_n.png
│ │ │ │ ├── slider_s.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_c.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_e.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_ne.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_n.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_nw.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_se.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_s.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_sw.png
│ │ │ │ ├── terminal_box_w.png
│ │ │ │ └── theme.txt
│ │ │ ├── ventoy_grub.cfg
│ │ │ └── ventoy.json
4. Process Monitoring With Pstree
Process management has always been a cumbersome task for Linux users. The tracking of processes and their child process can be quite the task for the user. This is where pstree comes into play. pstree shows running processes as a tree which let’s you view the child threads of a process which can be found under the parent process. pstree is a very useful tool for managing processes and can be a great help for users who are not very familiar with the Linux operating system.
pstree
┌──(ankit㉿hackreveal)-[~]
└─$ pstree
systemd─┬─ModemManager───2[{ModemManager}] ├─NetworkManager───2[{NetworkManager}]
├─accounts-daemon───2[{accounts-daemon}] ├─colord───2[{colord}]
├─cron
├─dbus-daemon
├─fwupd───4[{fwupd}] ├─gdm3─┬─gdm-session-wor─┬─gdm-x-session─┬─Xorg───4[{Xorg}]
│ │ │ ├─gnome-session-b─┬─ssh-agent
│ │ │ │ └─3[{gnome-session-b}] │ │ │ └─2[{gdm-x-session}]
│ │ └─2[{gdm-session-wor}] │ └─2[{gdm3}]
├─haveged
├─packagekitd───2[{packagekitd}] ├─polkitd───2[{polkitd}]
├─power-profiles-───2[{power-profiles-}] ├─rsyslogd───3[{rsyslogd}]
├─rtkit-daemon───2[{rtkit-daemon}] ├─smartd ├─systemd─┬─(sd-pam) │ ├─at-spi-bus-laun─┬─dbus-daemon │ │ └─3[{at-spi-bus-laun}]
│ ├─at-spi2-registr───2[{at-spi2-registr}] │ ├─dbus-daemon │ ├─dconf-service───2[{dconf-service}]
│ ├─evolution-addre───5[{evolution-addre}] │ ├─evolution-calen───8[{evolution-calen}]
│ ├─evolution-sourc───3[{evolution-sourc}] │ ├─gcr-ssh-agent───{gcr-ssh-agent} │ ├─gedit───3[{gedit}]
│ ├─2[gjs───4[{gjs}]]
│ ├─gnome-keyring-d───3[{gnome-keyring-d}] │ ├─gnome-session-b─┬─blueman-applet───3[{blueman-applet}]
│ │ ├─evolution-alarm───5[{evolution-alarm}] │ │ ├─gnome-software───8[{gnome-software}]
│ │ ├─gsd-disk-utilit───2[{gsd-disk-utilit}] │ │ └─3[{gnome-session-b}]
│ ├─gnome-session-c───{gnome-session-c}
│ ├─gnome-shell─┬─firefox-esr─┬─Privileged Cont───15[{Privileged Cont}] │ │ │ ├─RDD Process───2[{RDD Process}]
│ │ │ ├─Web Content───18[{Web Content}] │ │ │ ├─Web Content───16[{Web Content}]
│ │ │ ├─Web Content───22[{Web Content}] │ │ │ ├─Web Content───15[{Web Content}]
│ │ │ ├─Web Content───12[{Web Content}] │ │ │ ├─WebExtensions───16[{WebExtensions}]
│ │ │ └─126*[{firefox-esr}]
5. Find Files in Linux using the File name
The locate command is an essential utility when speed is a priority. It allows you to search for a file using a database of file paths. This makes it much faster than searching through the entire file system manually. Additionally, locate can be used to find files that have been recently created or modified, which can be very useful when trying to track down a specific file.
locate file
┌──(ankit㉿hackreveal)-[~]
└─$ locate .pdf
/home/ankit/san backup/Advanced Penetration Testing. Hacking the World’s Most Secure Networks ( PDFDrive ).pdf
/home/ankit/san backup/Advanced penetration testing ( PDFDrive ).pdf
/home/ankit/san backup/Black Hat Python ( PDFDrive ).pdf
/home/ankit/san backup/CTS COPA 2017.pdf
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/PyInstaller/hooks/hook-reportlab.pdfbase._fontdata.py
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/PyInstaller/hooks/__pycache__/hook-reportlab.pdfbase._fontdata.cpython-310.pyc
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/PyInstaller/hooks/__pycache__/hook-reportlab.pdfbase._fontdata.cpython-39.pyc
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/3.0.0/gems/typeprof-0.15.2/doc/ppl2019.pdf
/usr/share/doc/afl++-doc/afl/testcases/others/pdf/small.pdf
10 Linux Commands That Will Save You Time and Increase Your Productivity