Unlocking Linux: Lesser-Known Commands That Can Save You Hours

When you think of Linux commands, you probably jump to the usual suspects: ls, cd, grep, maybe top. But Linux has a deep bench of powerful tools that often go unnoticed — and they can seriously boost your productivity.

This week, we're unlocking a handful of lesser-known Linux commands that can save you hours of repetitive work, help you automate tasks, and give you new ways to troubleshoot like a pro.

Commands You Should Know

xargs: If you have a list of items and want to apply a command to each of them, xargs is your friend. It reads items from standard input and executes a command on them.

Example:

cat list.txt | xargs rm

This command deletes all files listed in list.txt.

tldr: Ever wish man pages were shorter and easier to read? tldr gives you simplified, practical examples for hundreds of Linux commands.

Example:

tldr tar

It will show you concise examples of how to use tar, without scrolling through walls of text.

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