Paula

Posted on Nov 30, 2017

Lazy habits in linux terminal

#linux #discuss #funny #shame

We all look like hackers when using the terminal (specially if we have green over black theme) but the truth is we tend to be amazingly lazy, and start using poor techniques.

I'm very untidy on my life, and I'm used to save the git clones in brand new directories so for example, in order to enter in my cloned repo, I have to...

# cd random_named_dir
# cd cloned_repo_dir

or even worse:

#cd random_nam*
#cd *

When updating my git, (I'm sorry, probably my virtual infrastructures' teacher will read this) in hurry I might write:

    git add .

I sometimes save stuff in $HOME but later I don't remember where did I put 'em, or complain and sigh when I have to write my password in sudo because a long time passed since the last time I wrote it.

What are your most dark lazy secrets on the terminal? Do you want to change that and start using the terminal properly even in hurry? :p

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Top comments (44)

Valentin Baca • Nov 30 '17

These don't sound lazy at all, but just properly following the path of least resistance.

Though it sounds like some of these (like the cd example) could be simplified with Tab-completion.

I really hated copying and pasting or typing out individual filenames with git, so I started using github.com/holygeek/git-number which gives the ease of a git gui to the git cli.

My motto for shortcuts and aliases is that "I just hate typing" even though I really don't, but it forces me to think "how many times do I do this?" what if I cut the command in half?

Juan Julián Merelo Guervós • Nov 30 '17

I never get to write aliases for git * which I use every single day. I should do it now.

Sylvain Marty • Nov 30 '17 • Edited

I hate using rmdir and I always write rm -rf because it happens that I need to remove multiple files and directories at once and I'm to lazy to write multiple commands :(

Thanks for sharing, I love this kind of content! :)

Saurabh Sharma • Dec 1 '17

I like to use trash, It's a lot better tool. check it out! npmjs.com/package/trash-cli

Sylvain Marty • Dec 1 '17

Thanks, I'll give it a try ! :)

Saurabh Sharma • Dec 2 '17

but don't forget to make alias, so you get trash when typing rm

jD91mZM2 • Dec 3 '17

That's a bad idea, scripts might use rm and it starts adding up to your trash. Also, if you keep the habit of using rm you might be less careful when using it on a machine that doesn't have trash installed.

Solution: For now, make rm print something like "no, use trash", and get a habit of using trash over rm.

Sylvain Marty • Dec 4 '17

Good observation!

In fact, I don't think I'll continue to use trash because it's relatively slow compared to rm. Finally, it's a part of my job to think before acting ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

jD91mZM2 • Dec 4 '17

No no no that's not what I meant! Even if I barely ever need to restore from trash, it's really nice to not feel worried you're destroying your system. Also, shouldn't moving directories be faster than deleting each file?

Sylvain Marty • Dec 5 '17

I'm guessing NodeJS fs is not as fast as the linux filesystem ? ^{^}

jD91mZM2 • Dec 5 '17

You were using a NodeJS version of trash-cli? Try github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli.

Sylvain Marty • Dec 5 '17

I tried the version mentioned earlier:
github.com/sindresorhus/trash-cli

I'll give a try to yours :)

jD91mZM2 • Dec 6 '17

Always choose the first result on Google ;)

Paula • Nov 30 '17

I do the same!! Oh my..

K • Nov 30 '17

Hm... I guess mine would be stuff like git amend after git push, also git push --force :D

Michael Vezie • Dec 1 '17

For me, it's stopped jobs. It's rare that, in a window where I'm actively working, I don't have less than 6 stopped jobs (at least 2-3 ipython shells, lessing some file, maybe a man page or two). In some cases, I've had over 20.

I had the same tmux session on this one machine for at least two years, then recently it just died (of old age, I presume). I was devastated.

Jean Michel Functional Programming • Dec 1 '17

Aliases for lazy people :

# - Alias
# ls
alias ls='exa'
alias ll='exa -l'
alias lll='exa -l | less'
alias lla='exa -la'
alias llt='exa -T'
alias llfu='exa -bghHliS --git'

# cp
alias cp='cp -R'

# scp
alias scp='scp -r'
alias grep='grep --color=auto'

# ça pipe
alias -g G='| grep'
alias -g L='| less'
alias -g M='| most'
alias -g NE='2> /dev/null'
alias -g NUL='> /dev/null 2>&1'
alias -g S='| sort'
alias -g T='tail -f'
alias -g W='| wc -l'

# cd
alias ..='cd ..'
alias s='cd ..'
alias d='cd -'

# mkdir
alias mkdir='mkdir -p'

# df
alias df='df -kTh'

# vi
alias vi='nvim'
alias vim='nvim'

# Compression
alias jtetar='tar -cvf'
alias jtedtar='tar -xvf'

# git
alias g='git'

# pacman
alias pacsy='sudo pacman -Sy'
alias pacsyu='sudo pacman -Syu'
alias pacsu='sudo pacman -Su'
alias pacr='sudo pacman -Rcs'

# ping
alias ping='ping -c 3'

# task
alias t='task'

# sudo
alias s='sudo '
alias se='sudoedit'

# systemd
alias sctl='systemctl'
alias jctl='journalctl'

# docker
alias dm='docker-machine'
alias d='docker'
alias dc='docker-compose'

# ansible
alias ap='ansible-playbook'

Git aliases for super lazy people :

[alias]
    lg = log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit --
    ac =  !git add . && git commit -am
    a = add
    ap = add -p
    co = checkout
    cob = checkout -b
    d = diff
    pr = pull --rebase
    dc = diff --cached
    cv = commit --verbose
    ci = commit
    cam = commit -am
    s = status -s
    br = branch
    hist = log --pretty=format:\"%Cred%h%Creset - %C(blue)%ad%Creset %Cgreen→%Creset %s%C(yellow)%d%Creset %C(magenta)[%an]%Creset\" --graph --date=short
    unst = reset HEAD
    la = "!git config -l | grep alias | cut -c 7-"

With a lazy alias to show other lazy aliases (la)

Ayman Nedjmeddine • Dec 3 '17

Sometimes I need to just type something into the clipboard (sometimes to avoid memorizing it!), so this one comes handy for me often

alias writeinclipboard='[[ -x `which xclip 2>/dev/null` ]] && cat << EOF | xclip -selection clipboard '

Andy Zhao (he/him) • Nov 30 '17

I constantly git stash and completely forget what I stashed, then just end up running git stash clear anyway and rewrite whatever I was doing.

Definitely have had times where I had more than 7 stashes saved though...

Kalpesh Mange • Dec 1 '17 • Edited

git stash

is bae <3 ;)

Bernardo • Nov 30 '17

Some .bash_aliases that I forget to use all the time haha. Plus, I have a folder named github to git clone all the things, and a folder repos for my projects that I leave halfway (that's sad now that I think about it :'().

wips • Dec 2 '17

I made a script for committing to GitHub because I am too lazy to commit normally.

Dian Fay • Dec 1 '17 • Edited

I only have a few aliases I use with any regularity and most of them are less laziness and more not wanting to remember byzantine argument and switch combinations for specific tasks:

listening='netstat -plnt'
vpn='cd /etc/openvpn && sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/vpn.conf'
rot13='tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M'
gunm='echo -e "$(git ls-files --modified)\n$(git ls-files)" | sort | uniq -u'
gtree='git log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --date=relative --format=format:'\''%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset) %C(white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset)'\'' --all'