Terminal Extras

Last updated: 2024, Wed Jun 5th at 15:07 CDT

This is a collection of software to improve and expand the functionality of your terminal. Some maybe installed by default. If you are unsure, you can use the which command:

which sudo

will output something like

/usr/bin/sudo

this shows where it is installed, if there is no output or its blank then its not installed.

wl-clipboard #

Wayland copy and paste command line utilities

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard

sudo apt install wl-clipboard

sudo dnf install wl-clipboard

sudo zypper in wl-clipboard

Essentials #

See the wl-clipboard(1) man page for more details or view it online.

fzf #

Fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S fzf

sudo apt install fzf

sudo dnf install fzf

sudo zypper in fzf

Essentials #

See the fzf wiki page for more details or use the fzf man page.

ripgrep-all #

Rga, ripgrep-all, is a line-oriented search tool that allows you to look for a regex in a multitude of file types.  Ripgrep recursively searches directories for a regex pattern, rga does this and enables it to search in pdf, docx, sqlite, jpg, movie subtitles (mkv, mp4), etc.

To Install: #

Preferred method

Setting up Rust and installing it with cargo is the easiest way.

sudo pacman -S ripgrep-all

Additional install options

There is compiling it from crates.io

cargo install ripgrep_all

Essentials #

You can add your own custom adapters or use community ones, if needed.

bat #

A cat like program with syntax highlighting and git integration, and more.

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S bat

sudo apt install bat

sudo dnf install bat

sudo zypper in bat

Additional install options

There is compiling it from crates.io

cargo install --locked bat

Essentials #

There are a lot of different ways to use bat, be sure to read about the key features, How to Use, and the customization sections.

fastfetch #

Fastfetch is a cross-platform tool for fetching system information and displaying them in a pretty way. It is written mainly in C, with performance and customizability in mind.

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S fastfetch

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch/releases | grep browser_download_url | grep 'amd64[.]deb' | head -n 1 | cut -d '"' -f 4 | wget -i -
sudo dpkg -i fastfetch-linux-amd64.deb

sudo dnf install fastfetch

sudo zypper in fastfetch

Essentials #

The base configuration should be good enough for most. There is a lot of customizable options and supported status, all can be found on the wiki.

7zip #

7zip is an open-source file archiver and compressor tool with a high compression ratio, making it a popular choice for many Linux users. It supports various file formats, such as 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, and WIM.

Official Site Souceforge

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S p7zip

sudo apt install 7zip

sudo dnf install p7zip p7zip-plugins

sudo zypper in 7zip

Essentials #

Preferred Settings

• Archive format: 7z
• Compression level: 9 - Ultra
• Compression Method: LZMA 2
• Dictionary size: 256 MB
• Word size: 256
• Solid Block size: 32 GB
• # of CPU threads: As many as you can
• Memory for Compression: 80%
• Encryption method: AES-256

Example of Preferred settings in CLI

7z a -t7z -mx9 -m0=lzma2 -md256m -mfb256 -ms64g -mmt8 <archive> <target>

yt-dlp #

A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for  thousands of sites.

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S yt-dlp

sudo apt install yt-dlp

sudo dnf install yt-dlp

sudo zypper in yt-dlp

Essentials #

You can use inline options or use a configuration file.

streamlink #

Streamlink is a command-line utility which pipes video streams from various services into a video player. The main purpose of Streamlink is to avoid resource-heavy and unoptimized websites, while still allowing the user to enjoy various streamed content.

Official Site GitHub

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S streamlink

sudo apt install streamlink

sudo dnf install streamlink

sudo zypper in streamlink

Essentials #

A list of the currently built-in plugins and what URLs and features they support can be found on the Plugin page. Instead of write the command options every time, you can create a Configuration file.

nala #

Nala is a command-line APT frontend that aims to provide a tidier alternative to the standard apt user interface.

To Install: #

sudo apt install nala

zoxide #

Zoxide is a smarter cd command, it remembers which directories you use most frequently, so you can “jump” to them.

To Install: #

sudo pacman -S zoxide

sudo apt install zoxide

sudo dnf install zoxide

sudo zypper in zoxide

Essentials #

Once install you will have to configure your shell to initialize zoxide. Common shells:

Bash

add to the end of ~/.bashrc

eval "$(zoxide init bash)"

Fish

add to the end of ~/.config/fish/config.fish

zoxide init fish | source

zsh

add to the end of ~/.zshrc

eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"