Larvitz  

New post: shell tricks that aren't exactly secret, but aren't always taught either.

Split into two sections: what works on any POSIX sh (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Alpine...) and what's Bash/Zsh-specific. Because not everyone is on Linux with bash as their login shell.

Things like CTRL+W, $_, pushd/popd, fc, set -euo pipefail caveats, and more.

https://blog.hofstede.it/shell-tricks-that-actually-make-life-easier-and-save-your-sanity/

#unix #bash #shell #sysadmin #freebsd #linux #cli

Shell Tricks That Actually Make Life Easier (And Save Your Sanity)

Watch someone backspace 40 characters instead of pressing CTRL+W, and you’ll understand why this list exists. A collection of shell tricks-grouped by what works everywhere and what’s Bash/Zsh-speci...

Larvitz Blog
Mar 25 at 10:28pmWeb
Show threadHarri Varpanen3d ago

@Larvitz I recently learned a funny trick from Kirils Solovjovs in a bash workshop. He had in his path a script called `\#` that he used to comment out pipe elements like `mycmd1 | \# mycmd2 | mycmd3`. This was how the script was written:

```
#!/bin/sh
cat
```

Show threadLutz Hühnken3d ago
@Larvitz I often use "Meta+." (in your config: ALT+. I guess) to get the last argument of the last executed command.
Show thread𝙹𝚘𝚎𝚕 𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚝 ♑ 🤪3d ago

@Larvitz side note, I don’t think OpenBSD has POSIX sh. Quoting the man page

This version of sh is actually ksh in disguise. As such, it also supports the features described in ksh(1). This manual page describes only the parts relevant to a POSIX compliant sh.

Just saying as I got caught thinking my scripts were POSIX compliant on OpenBSD and failed when running them using FreeBSD sh 🤦‍♂️

Show threadLarvitz  3d ago
@joel thanks for the hint. I actually wasn’t aware of that! Always thought it’s defaulting to a korn shell.
Show threadarrakeen_urbanite3d ago
@Larvitz I learned so much from this. It’s going in my bookmarks.
Show threadMichael K Johnson3d ago
@Larvitz I wish I'd known about C-x C-e years ago, and also yesterday it would have been convenient. But now I know it for the future. Thank you!
Show threadsven2223d ago
@Larvitz THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! A lot of things I did not know up to now. That helps a lot.
Show threadbbₜᵤₓᵢ3d ago

@Larvitz

Ah, you don’t really need that anymore these days 🫣 — Gemini CLI and Codex are faster anyway 😉

Show threadFuzzy Reginald Wombat III3d ago
@Larvitz Extra bonus fact, this works on anything that uses readline. Python REPL, password prompt, etc. And for even more fun, in your shells, (most shells afaik) you can switch the mode, and use vi style navigation instead of the default emacs style: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Readline-vi-Mode.html
Readline vi Mode (Bash Reference Manual)

Readline vi Mode (Bash Reference Manual)

Show threadTim Chase3d ago

@Larvitz

I find that I tend not to use the `sudo !!` since it's about as easy to type control+p (recall previous command from history), control+a (beginning of the line) and type my "sudo " there which works in most shells (not all support "!!").

One other one that I use regularly is control+x,control+e (use my $EDITOR/$VISUAL to edit the command I'm currently typing) and its sibling `fc` (use my $EDITOR/$VISUAL to edit the previous command I just issued). Support varies, but they work in bash & zsh; and OpenBSD's ksh supports `fc` (though it uses ed(1) not your $EDITOR/$VISUAL).

Show threadJakub Narębski2d ago

@Larvitz About the `pushd` / `popd` trick: you can use it to switch between set of directories with `dirs -v` to get list of directories on stack and `pushd +<n>` (e.g. `pushd +1`) to switch to n-th directory on the stack.

About `tee`: I have recently found a nice trick to make the `tee` command useful in presence of progress bars and colors, namely `| tee >(grep -v $'\r' | sed 's/\x1B\[[0-9;]\{1,\}[A-Za-z]//g' >command.out)` - which probably could be simplified.

Show threadi55131d ago

@Larvitz You must tell in your article about Alt-[0-9] (really Alt-n where n is a number) feature when you talk about ALT-F, ALT-B and ALT-. , CTRL-W and maybe more ...

It allow you to modify the target. Move n words before / after o select the n th argument, removing n words ...

Great post!!