9 Essential Linux Command‑Line Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

TOP-1: Cursor‑movement shortcuts

Recommendation: ★★★★★

Scenario: Editing long commands where you need to modify specific parts.

Ctrl + a   # Move cursor to the beginning of the line</code>
<code>Ctrl + e   # Move cursor to the end of the line</code>
<code>Ctrl + w   # Delete the word before the cursor</code>
<code>Esc + b   # Move left by one word</code>
<code>Esc + f   # Move right by one word

TOP-2: Vim quick operations

Recommendation: ★★★★★

Scenario: Modifying configuration files efficiently.

All commands are executed in Vim’s command mode (press Esc first if unsure).

:set nu                # Show line numbers</code>
<code>:20                   # Jump to line 20</code>
<code>:%s/aaa/bbb/g         # Replace all occurrences of "aaa" with "bbb"</code>
<code>ddp                    # Delete current line and paste it after the next line</code>
<code>ci"                    # Delete everything inside double quotes (use ci' for single quotes)

TOP-3: Return to the previous directory

Recommendation: ★★★★★

Scenario: Quickly toggle between two directories.

Command: cd - Running the command again swaps back to the earlier directory.

TOP-4: Cross‑server file copy without passwords

Recommendation: ★★★☆☆

Scenario: Copy files between servers when you cannot use scp because the remote password is unknown.

Method 1 – using nc:

# On the source machine</code>
<code>nc -l 10017 < abc.sh</code>
<code># On the destination machine</code>
<code>nc 1.1.1.1 10017 > abc.sh

Method 2 – using Python’s simple HTTP server:

# On the source machine</code>
<code>python -m SimpleHTTPServer 10010</code>
<code># On the destination machine</code>
<code>wget http://1.1.1.1:10010/abc.sh

TOP-5: Simplify command‑line output redirection

Recommendation: ★★★★★

To empty a file or create a new empty file: > a.log If a.log exists, its contents are cleared; if it does not exist, an empty file is created (similar to touch).

TOP-6: Insert the last argument of the previous command

Recommendation: ★★★★☆

Scenario: After running mkdir -p /file/abc, quickly change to that directory.

Press Esc then . after typing cd to insert /file/abc.

TOP-7: Query the local IP address

Recommendation: ★★★★☆

Scenario: Retrieve the machine’s internal IP. hostname -i Note: This works only on machines with DNS resolution; host queries DNS records, while hostname changes the host name.

TOP-8: Connect to Redis without a client

Recommendation: ★★★★☆

Scenario: When a Redis client is unavailable. telnet 127.0.0.1 6379 Use telnet <redis‑host> <port> for quick testing, but for production use a proper Redis client such as redis-cli.

TOP-9: Send the current job to the background

Recommendation: ★★★★★

Scenario: While editing a file in Vim, you need to run a command without leaving the editor.

Steps:

In Vim, after saving with :w, press Ctrl+z to suspend Vim and return to the shell.

Run the desired command (e.g., python aaa.py).

Return to Vim with fg.

TOP-10: Locate the directory of a running process

Recommendation: ★★★★★

Scenario: Find where the executable file of a process resides.

Replace pid with the actual process ID: pwdx pid Useful for tracing scripts like python test.py that are consuming CPU but whose file location is unknown.

TOP-11: Save command output to a file while still seeing it

Recommendation: ★★★★★

Scenario: Run a script, keep a log, and watch live output.

Use tee:

# Direct logging</code>
<code>python test.py > a.log</code>
<code># In another terminal</code>
<code>tail -f a.log</code>

<code># One‑liner with live view</code>
<code>python test.py | tee a.log

This streams the script’s output to the terminal and simultaneously writes it to a.log.