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.

  • mfatOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    4 days ago

    awk and sed have always been intimidating for me with that cryptic syntax.

    • stembolts@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      4 days ago

      I agree with your sentiment regarding confusing syntax, however I think that confusion simply requires a calculated approach to dispell it.

      It’s a prime example of why I use scripts as reminders as much as I use them functionally. I work out the syntax once… save it to an example script, then save myself 20 minutes of remembering by just $ cat ./path/to/script.sh and copying said syntax.

      So if you can change your workflow such that learned things stay around as examples, I feel that you will pick it up much more quickly :)