A list of command line tools that are somewhat useful to most people

If you have a tool to recommend, send me an e-mail

Name Why
pdfgrep grep for pdf files
pdftk toolkit for pdf files
entr do something when a file changes
fd faster than find and easier interface
fzf quickly fuzzy search files
tree tree list directories
tmux screen but better
xsel better than xclip
festival better than espeak
hyperfine benchmarking tool
ImageMagick for images
ffmpeg for audio/video
sox for sound
rsync sync files between hosts
wget easy to use CLI downloader
curlie curl but interface is better for REST
httpie like curl with easier interface
tcpdump analyze network traffic from the CLI
torsocks use TOR from the CLI
sqlite easy to use SQL
ts add a timestamp to your output
parallel why do things in parallel (also remember to cite)
miller query csv/json files
jq process json files
jo create json objects
jc converts command output into json
gron makes json easier to grep

Fun Tools