Cool Tools
A collection of useful Linux tools. Originally compiled from kkovacs.eu.
Terminal / Shell
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
tmux |
Terminal multiplexer — split panes, persistent sessions |
screen |
Classic terminal multiplexer |
zsh |
Z Shell — powerful interactive shell |
fish |
Friendly interactive shell with autosuggestions |
mosh |
Mobile shell — SSH replacement for unreliable connections |
File Management
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
ranger |
Vi-style terminal file manager |
mc |
Midnight Commander — two-pane file manager |
nnn |
Fast, tiny terminal file manager |
fzf |
Fuzzy finder for files, history, and more |
fd |
Fast alternative to find |
bat |
cat with syntax highlighting and line numbers |
exa / eza |
Modern replacement for ls |
Networking
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
mtr |
Combines ping and traceroute |
nmap |
Network scanner and security auditor |
netcat (nc) |
TCP/UDP Swiss army knife |
socat |
Advanced relay for bidirectional data streams |
tcpdump |
Network packet capture |
wireshark |
GUI packet analyzer |
iftop |
Real-time bandwidth per connection |
nethogs |
Net bandwidth per process |
httpie |
Modern HTTP client (better than curl for APIs) |
System Monitoring
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
htop |
Interactive process viewer |
btop |
Modern resource monitor with beautiful UI |
glances |
All-in-one system monitor |
dstat |
Versatile resource statistics |
iotop |
I/O monitor per process |
lsof |
List open files and network connections |
strace |
Trace system calls |
Text Processing
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
jq |
JSON processor |
yq |
YAML processor (jq for YAML) |
ripgrep (rg) |
Extremely fast grep replacement |
ag |
Silver Searcher — fast code search |
pv |
Monitor pipe progress |
Disk & Files
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
ncdu |
Interactive disk usage (curses) |
duf |
Disk usage/free with color |
rsync |
Fast incremental file sync |
rclone |
Cloud storage sync (S3, GDrive, etc.) |
restic |
Fast, encrypted backups |
borgbackup |
Deduplicated backup tool |
Security
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
pass |
Unix password manager using GPG |
age |
Simple file encryption |
gpg |
GNU Privacy Guard |
fail2ban |
Ban IPs with too many failed logins |
lynis |
Security audit tool |
rkhunter |
Rootkit hunter |
Miscellaneous
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
tldr |
Simplified man pages with examples |
entr |
Run commands when files change |
parallel |
GNU parallel — run jobs in parallel |
watch |
Execute a command repeatedly |