You Don't Need GUI

It's for noobs :)

Graphical user interfaces are super friendly to computer users. They were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs).

However, they often require more resources, are less powerful and hard to automate via scripting.

As a computer expert, we want to be more efficient and do our jobs better. We know that command words may not be easily discoverable or mnemonic, so we try to list some common tasks that you might tempt to do in GUI.

Quick links

1. copy a file
2. duplicate a file
3. copy a folder
4. duplicate a folder
5. move a file
6. rename a file
7. move a folder
8. create a new file
9. create a new folder
10. show file/folder size
11. open a file with the default program
12. zip a folder
13. unzip a folder
14. remove a file
15. remove a folder
16. list folder contents
17. tree view a folder and its subfolders
18. find a stale file
19. show a calendar
20. find a future date

copy a file

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE

Copy readme.txt to the documents folder

cp readme.txt documents

duplicate a file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DUPLICATE A FILE

If readme.bak.txt file doesn't exist

cp readme.txt readme.bak.txt

copy a folder

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FOLDER, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FOLDER

Copy myMusic folder under myMedia folder

cp -a myMusic myMedia

duplicate a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DUPLICATE A FOLDER

If myMedia folder doesn't exist

cp -a myMusic myMedia

move a file

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FILE, OR CTRL + X, CTRL + V A FILE

mv readme.txt documents/

Always use a trailing slash when moving files, for this reason.

rename a file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND RENAME A FILE

mv readme.txt README.md

move a folder

STOP DRAG AND DROP A FOLDER, OR CTRL + X, CTRL + V A FOLDER

mv myMedia myMusic

create a new file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND CREATE A NEW FILE

touch 'new file'

or

> 'new file'

create a new folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND CREATE A NEW FOLDER

mkdir 'untitled folder'

or

mkdir -p 'path/may/not/exist/untitled folder'

show file/folder size

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND SHOW FILE/FOLDER INFO

stat -x readme.md

or

du -sh readme.md

open a file with the default program

STOP DOUBLE CLICKING A FILE

open file       # on macOS
xdg-open file   # on Linux

zip a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND COMPRESS FOLDER

zip -r archive_name.zip folder_to_compress

unzip a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND UNCOMPRESS FOLDER

unzip archive_name.zip

remove a file

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DELETE A FILE PERMANENTLY

rm my_useless_file

IMPORTANT: The rm command deletes my_useless_file permanently, which is equivalent to move my_useless_file to Recycle Bin and hit Empty Recycle Bin.

remove a folder

STOP RIGHT CLICK AND DELETE A FOLDER PERMANENTLY

rm -r my_useless_folder

list folder contents

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER

ls -la my_folder

tree view a folder and its subfolders

STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER

tree                                                       # on Linux
find . -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'     # on macOS

find a stale file

STOP USING YOUR FILE EXPLORER TO FIND A FILE

Find all files modified more than 5 days ago

find my_folder -mtime +5

show a calendar

STOP LOOKING UP WHAT THIS MONTH LOOKS LIKE BY CALENDAR WIDGETS

Display a text calendar

cal

find a future date

STOP USING WEBAPPS TO CALCULATE FUTURE DATES

What is todays date?

date +%m/%d/%Y

What about a week from now?

date -d "+7 days"                                          # On Linux
date -j -v+7d                                              # On MacOS

=== Remember, you can always google or man the commands you are not familiar with.