Miscellaneous cli tools

touch

by

Updated: 21 May 2023

Change file timestamps.

View access, modify, change and birth timestamps

stat filename

Change only the access time

touch -a filename

Change only the modification time

touch -m filename

column

by

Updated: 23 April 2023

Search through a directory of csv files and display the results in a table:

grep --color=always -h -r "70\.00" my-csv-files | sed "s/^[ \t]*//" | column -t -s,
  • --color=always preserve match colour, even after piping.
  • -h do not show filenames.
  • -r search through all files in directories.
  • sed "s/^[ \t]*//" remove leading whitespace from lines.
  • -t create a table.
  • -s, specify the separator to use.

xclip

by

Updated: 28 February 2025

Install xclip

sudo apt install xclip

Pipe command to primary (middle mouse button) clipboard

cmd | xclip

Pipe command to ‘clipboard’ clipboard, for pasting into another application

cmd | xclip -sel clip

Copy contents of file to clipboard, for pasting into another application

xclip -sel clip file.txt

ncal

by

Updated: 14 March 2025

Displays a calendar and the date of Easter

Install ncal

sudo apt install ncal

Show a calendar in the terminal 

ncal -Cy

Show the calendar for year 1956 

ncal -Cy 1956

cat

by

Updated: 21 May 2023

Append contents of all matching files to sum.log

cat *.log >> sum.log

Overwrite sum.log with contents of all matching files

cat *.log > sum.log