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Pixel Mosaic
Pixel Mosaic

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Top 50 Command Line Tricks for Developers

#cli #bash #productivity #developers

Navigation & File Management

  1. Go back to previous directory 
   cd -
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  1. Create and enter directory 
   mkdir myapp && cd $_
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  1. List files with sizes (human readable) 
   ls -lh
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  1. Show hidden files 
   ls -a
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  1. Find files by name 
   find . -name "*.js"
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  1. Delete files interactively 
   rm -i file.txt
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  1. Show directory size 
   du -sh folder/
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Search & Text Processing

  1. Search text in files (recursive) 
   grep -R "TODO" .
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  1. Case‑insensitive search 
   grep -i "error" log.txt
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  1. Count lines, words, characters

    wc file.txt

  2. View file with paging

    less file.txt

  3. Print first 10 lines

    head file.txt

  4. Print last 10 lines (live logs)

    tail -f app.log

  5. Replace text in files

    sed -i 's/old/new/g' file.txt

  6. Sort file contents

    sort names.txt

Git Power Tricks

  1. Undo last commit (keep changes)

    git reset --soft HEAD~1

  2. Discard all local changes

    git reset --hard

  3. Show commit graph

    git log --oneline --graph --all

  4. Stash with message

    git stash push -m "WIP"

  5. List changed files only

    git diff --name-only

  6. Fix last commit message

    git commit --amend

Productivity & Shortcuts

  1. Repeat last command

    !!

  2. Run last command as sudo

    sudo !!

  3. Search command history

    Ctrl + R

  4. Clear terminal

    clear

  5. Exit terminal fast

    exit

  6. Open current folder in file manager

    xdg-open .

Networking & System

  1. Check open ports

    lsof -i -P -n

  2. Test HTTP endpoint

    curl https://api.example.com

  3. Download file

    wget https://example.com/file.zip

  4. Check disk usage

    df -h

  5. Show running processes

    ps aux

  6. Kill process by name

    pkill node

Docker & DevOps

  1. List Docker containers

    docker ps -a

  2. Stop all containers

    docker stop $(docker ps -q)

  3. Remove unused Docker data

    docker system prune

  4. Build Docker image

    docker build -t myapp .

  5. Exec into running container

    docker exec -it container_name bash

Bash & Scripting

  1. Make script executable

    chmod +x script.sh

  2. Run script in background

    ./script.sh &

  3. Redirect output to file

    command > output.txt

  4. Pipe output to another command

    ps aux | grep node

  5. Set environment variable

    export NODE_ENV=production

Advanced & Fun

  1. Watch command output live

    watch -n 1 ls

  2. Measure command time

    time npm run build

  3. Generate random password

    openssl rand -base64 16

  4. Create alias

    alias gs="git status"

  5. List aliases

    alias

  6. Quick HTTP server

    python3 -m http.server

  7. One‑liner system info

    uname -a

Final Tip

Mastering the command line saves hours every week. Start with 5 tricks and build from there.

If you enjoyed this, share it on dev.to & help other developers level up!

Top comments (1)

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leob profile image
leob •

Aready knew (and use) most of these - but, this is a great list, contains quite a few nuggets of gold!