find what graphics device OpenGL is using

Explanation: Shows the OpenGL vendor, renderer, and version in a short summary.


show which GPU Vulkan is using
see Vulkan driver info
check Vulkan renderer
find Vulkan device information

Explanation: Shows a concise summary of Vulkan devices and drivers.


list disks and partitions
show block devices
see drives and partitions
inspect storage devices

Explanation: Lists block devices such as disks, partitions, and mount points.


show disk free space
check filesystem usage
see disk usage by filesystem
how full are my disks

Explanation: Shows filesystem size, used space, and available space in human-readable units.


show size of current directory
check folder size
how large is this directory
measure directory disk usage

Explanation: Shows total size of the current directory.


show biggest files under current directory

Explanation: Finds files larger than a given size.


find a file by name ignoring case
search for filename case insensitive
locate file by partial name
find matching filename

Explanation: Searches recursively for files whose names match a case-insensitive pattern.


search text recursively in files
grep through a project
find text in source tree
search contents of files fast

Explanation: Searches recursively for text, usually faster and cleaner than grep -R.


show open listening ports
list listening sockets
see what ports are open locally
check listening network services

Explanation: Shows listening TCP sockets and associated processes when permitted.


find process using port 8080
see what is listening on a port
which program owns port 3000
identify service bound to port

Explanation: Filters listening sockets to the requested port.


show IP addresses
list network interfaces and addresses
see local IPs
inspect interface addresses

Explanation: Shows network interfaces and assigned IP addresses.


show routing table
see default route
inspect routes
what route is this host using

Explanation: Displays the kernel routing table, including the default route.


test network reachability
ping a host
check if a machine is reachable
see if DNS and network work

Explanation: Sends a few ICMP echo requests to test reachability and latency.


show HTTP headers
inspect response headers from a URL
check server response headers
see HTTP status and headers

Explanation: Fetches only the response headers from a URL.


download a file from a URL
save URL to local file
fetch a file with curl
download file without browser

Explanation: Downloads a file and saves it with the remote name.


show boot errors
inspect errors from current boot
check systemd errors since boot
look at boot logs

Explanation: Shows error-priority messages from the current boot.


follow logs for a systemd service
tail service logs
watch logs from sshd
stream unit logs

Explanation: Follows logs for a specific systemd unit in real time.


find a running process by name
check if process is running
search process list
locate process from command name

Explanation: Searches the process list while avoiding matching the grep process itself.


find process by name with pid
show pid for matching process
lookup running process and command line
find process quickly

Explanation: Prints matching PIDs along with their command lines.


show memory usage
check RAM usage
how much memory is free
inspect memory consumption summary

Explanation: Shows total, used, and available memory in human-readable units.


show top processes
inspect CPU usage live
watch system activity
interactive process viewer

Explanation: Shows a live interactive overview of processes and resource usage.


make a script executable
add execute permission to file
chmod script so it can run directly
set executable bit

Explanation: Adds execute permission so the file can be run directly.


extract a tar.gz archive
unpack tgz file
untar compressed archive
open tarball

Explanation: Extracts files from a tar archive; some users prefer -z explicitly for gzip.


create a tar.gz archive
compress a directory into tar.gz
make a tarball
archive files into gzip tar

Explanation: Creates a gzip-compressed tar archive from a directory.


check status of a service
see if systemd service is running
inspect service health
show systemctl status

Explanation: Shows service state, recent logs, and unit metadata.


restart a service
bounce systemd unit
restart sshd
reload service by restarting it

Explanation: Restarts a systemd service; usually requires root privileges.


find which package owns a file
what rpm provides this path
determine package for installed file
lookup file owner package

Explanation: Shows which installed package owns a given file; dnf provides can search repos too.


search for a package in dnf
find package by name or description
lookup package in repositories
search repo packages

Explanation: Searches package metadata in enabled repositories.


show git status briefly
check repo state
see changed files in git
short git status

Explanation: Shows tracked and untracked file changes in a compact format.


show concise git history
see commit graph briefly
inspect recent commits compactly
git log one line graph

git log --oneline --graph --decorate -n 20

Explanation: Shows a compact decorated commit graph for recent history.


show files changed in last commit
list files changed by commit
see modified files from HEAD
inspect changed paths in commit

Explanation: Shows the last commit summary and the files it changed.


show failed systemd units
systemctl failed units
view systemd failed services

sudo systemctl list-units --state failed

Explanation: Show all units systemd has in memory, filtering the failed ones.


clear failed systemd units
reset failed units in systemd
remove failed state from services
clear systemctl failed list

sudo systemctl reset-failed myservice.service

Explanation: Clears the remembered failed state for units so they disappear from the failed list after the underlying problem is fixed.


show full systemd unit file
inspect systemd service definition
print merged unit contents
see drop-ins for a unit

Explanation: Prints the unit file along with any drop-in configuration fragments.


find the unit file backing a systemd service

systemctl show sshd | grep '^FragmentPath='

Explanation: Shows the path to the primary unit file systemd loaded for the service.


show all systemd timers
list timers and next runs
inspect timer schedule
see timer units

Explanation: Lists active and inactive timers along with their next and last run times.


show slow boot services
find what delayed boot
systemd boot time breakdown
blame boot units

Explanation: Lists units ordered by how long they took to initialize during boot.


show boot critical path
inspect boot dependency chain
find which boot units blocked startup
systemd critical chain

Explanation: Shows the dependency chain that determined the boot completion path.


show logs for service from current boot
limit service logs to this boot
inspect unit logs since reboot
journalctl unit this boot

Explanation: Shows logs for a specific systemd unit only from the current boot.


show logs since an hour ago
filter journal by time range
inspect recent system logs
journalctl since time

Explanation: Filters the journal to entries newer than the specified time expression.


show kernel messages from current boot
inspect dmesg in journal for this boot
kernel logs since reboot
journalctl kernel current boot

Explanation: Shows kernel log messages for the current boot using the journal.


list logged in user sessions
show active logind sessions
inspect local seats and sessions
see who has sessions

Explanation: Lists sessions known to systemd-logind, including remote and local logins.


find which installed package owns a file on arch

determine package for local file on arch

Explanation: Queries the local package database to find which installed package owns the given file path.


list files installed by a package on arch

Explanation: Lists every file installed by a package from the local package database.


find which package provides a file in pacman repos

Explanation: Searches the synced package file database for packages containing a matching file name or path fragment.


search arch repositories for an exact file path

find exact file path in pacman file database

Explanation: Uses the exact-match file database search, which is easy to forget but useful for full paths.


refresh pacman file database
update pacman file lists
make pacman -F work after sync
sync arch file database

Explanation: Refreshes the package file database used by pacman -F and pacman -Fx searches.


search installed packages on arch
find package by name in local pacman db
lookup installed pacman packages
search local package list

Explanation: Searches the local installed package database by package name and description.


list explicitly installed packages on arch

Explanation: Lists packages explicitly installed by the user rather than pulled in as dependencies.


list orphan packages on arch
show unneeded dependencies in pacman
find orphaned packages
pacman orphan query

Explanation: Shows dependency packages no longer required by any explicitly installed package.


discard unstaged changes in a file
restore file from HEAD
undo working tree edits in git
revert file changes not staged

Explanation: Restores the working tree copy of a file from the index or HEAD, discarding local unstaged edits.


remove file from index without losing edits

Explanation: Removes changes from the index while keeping the working tree edits intact.


create and switch to a new git branch
make branch and move to it
git checkout -b replacement
start new branch

Explanation: Creates a new branch and switches to it using the modern git switch command.


remove deleted remote branches locally
fetch and prune remotes
clean stale remote tracking branches
git fetch prune

Explanation: Fetches updates and prunes remote-tracking branches that no longer exist upstream.


show merged branches
find branches already merged
list safe-to-delete local branches
git merged branches

Explanation: Lists branches whose tips are already reachable from the current HEAD.


show git diff by changed words
inspect inline word changes
review textual edits compactly
git word diff

Explanation: Highlights additions and deletions at word granularity instead of full lines.


show git history for one file
inspect commits touching a file
trace file changes over time
git log path only

Explanation: Limits git history output to commits that touched the specified path.


blame only certain lines in a file
find who changed a code region
git blame line range
inspect authorship for selected lines

Explanation: Shows authorship information only for the requested line range.


see recent HEAD movements
recover lost git commit by reflog
inspect branch tip history
git reflog shortcut

Explanation: Shows recent updates to HEAD and branch references, useful for recovering lost work.


show a file from another branch without checkout

Explanation: Prints a file as it exists at a given commit, tag, or branch.


compare unique commits between branches
see what commits are not upstream
git cherry output
check branch divergence by patch id

Explanation: Shows commits in the current branch that are not yet represented upstream by patch equivalence.


print top level of git repo
find repository root path
where is this git worktree rooted
git project root

Explanation: Prints the absolute path to the top-level directory of the current repository.


see what build artifacts git clean would remove

Explanation: Dry-runs cleanup of ignored files only, which is safer than deleting them immediately.


show staged files only
list files currently staged in git
see index file names
git diff cached names

Explanation: Lists file paths that are currently staged for commit.


find empty files
locate zero byte files
search for blank files recursively
find files of size zero

Explanation: Searches recursively for regular files with no content.


find broken symlinks
locate dangling symbolic links
search for dead symlinks
find invalid links

Explanation: Finds symbolic links whose targets no longer exist.


find files modified in last day
search recent files
locate files changed recently
find by mtime

Explanation: Finds files modified within the last day or other chosen time window.


search for executable scripts and binaries

Explanation: Finds regular files where any execute bit is set.


list files containing text
show file names matching ripgrep search
find which files contain pattern
ripgrep files only

Explanation: Prints only the file names that contain at least one match.


list files that do not contain text
find files missing pattern
ripgrep inverse file list
show names of non-matching files

Explanation: Prints file names searched by ripgrep that did not contain a match.


search hidden files with ripgrep
include ignored files in rg search
ripgrep everything including binaries
search dotfiles too

Explanation: Disables ignore rules and hidden-file filtering; the extra u also searches binary files.


handle filenames with spaces through xargs

avoid breaking on whitespace in file names

Explanation: Uses NUL delimiters so file names with spaces, quotes, or newlines are handled safely.


sort sizes like 2K 10M 1G
human readable numeric sort
sort du output correctly
sort with size suffixes

Explanation: Sorts numbers that include human-readable suffixes such as K, M, and G.


sort version numbers naturally
order semantic versions
sort dotted numeric strings correctly
sort -V example

Explanation: Sorts version-like strings in natural version order rather than plain lexical order.


count duplicate lines
summarize repeated values in text
show line frequencies
uniq with counts

Explanation: Counts repeated adjacent lines, usually after sorting to group identical values together.


print first colon separated field
extract usernames from passwd file
cut field by delimiter
show first column from delimited text

Explanation: Extracts a chosen field from delimiter-separated text.


print first whitespace field with awk
extract first column using awk
awk column example
show first word per line

Explanation: Uses awk to print a selected field from each input line.


print only selected lines with sed
show lines 10 through 20
sed line range output
inspect subset of file

Explanation: Suppresses normal output and prints only the requested line range.


remove carriage returns from text
convert windows line endings in stream
strip CR characters
fix ^M in output

Explanation: Deletes carriage return characters, which is useful for CRLF-normalizing streamed text.


collapse newline separated values into csv style string

Explanation: Joins lines together using a chosen delimiter instead of keeping one per line.


compare two sorted files by line
show lines unique to either file
set difference between sorted lists
comm side by side comparison

Explanation: Compares two sorted files line by line and shows lines unique to either one.


format text into aligned columns
pretty print table output in shell
align whitespace separated output
columnize text

Explanation: Arranges input into aligned columns for easier reading.


rerun a command every second
monitor command output live
refresh command periodically
watch shell command

Explanation: Runs a command repeatedly and displays updated output on a schedule.


stop a command after 5 seconds
put time limit on shell command
kill hung command after timeout
run command with timeout

Explanation: Runs a command with a maximum duration and terminates it if it exceeds the limit.


save output to file while still printing it

write command output to file and terminal

Explanation: Copies standard output to both the terminal and a file.


show file permissions as octal
inspect mode bits numerically
get chmod-style permission number
stat file mode

Explanation: Prints the permission bits in octal form along with the file name.


resolve full real path of symlink
canonicalize file path
follow symlinks to final path
show absolute target path

Explanation: Prints the canonical absolute path after resolving symlinks.


compute sha256 checksum
hash a file for verification
generate sha256 digest
verify file integrity hash

Explanation: Computes a SHA-256 digest for a file, commonly used for integrity checks.


check if two files are identical quickly

Explanation: Compares two files byte-for-byte and stays quiet unless you check the exit status.


list files inside tar archive
inspect tarball without extracting
show tar contents
view archive members

Explanation: Lists files stored in a tar archive without extracting them.


list files inside zip archive
inspect zip without extracting
show zip contents
view archive entries

Explanation: Shows the contents of a ZIP archive without unpacking it.


find process using tcp port
see what owns port 8080
identify listener by port with lsof
which program has this port open

Explanation: Lists open files and network sockets associated with the requested port.


identify process using tcp port with fuser

Explanation: Shows which processes are currently accessing a file, directory, mount point, or port.


show established tcp connections with processes

list connected sockets and owning programs

Explanation: Lists established TCP connections and, when permitted, the associated processes.


resolve a hostname quickly
show only dns answer value
dig concise output
lookup ip without headers

Explanation: Performs a DNS lookup and prints only the answer records in a compact format.


download url quietly but fail on errors
curl for scripts with redirects
silent curl with http failure exit
common curl script flags

Explanation: Combines common scripting flags: fail on HTTP errors, stay quiet, show errors, and follow redirects.


test if tcp port is reachable
probe remote port quickly
netcat connection test
check open port on host

Explanation: Attempts a TCP connection and reports whether the port is reachable.


show network links briefly
list interfaces with short status
compact link state output
ip brief link

Explanation: Shows network interfaces and their state in a concise tabular format.


check outbound interface for destination

Explanation: Asks the kernel which route, source address, and interface it would use for a destination.


query dns through systemd resolved
inspect resolver answer with resolvectl
resolve hostname using local resolver
systemd dns lookup

Explanation: Queries the systemd-resolved service directly and shows the returned DNS records.


show environment variables sorted
inspect env in stable order
list shell environment alphabetically
printenv with sort

Explanation: Prints environment variables in sorted order, which is easier to scan and diff.


keep command running after terminal closes

Explanation: Starts a background process detached from the current terminal and captures its output.


list shell background jobs with pids
inspect current shell jobs
show job table in detail
jobs with process ids

Explanation: Lists background jobs for the current shell, including process IDs.


remove job from shell job table
let background job survive shell exit
disown current background process
detach shell job

Explanation: Removes a job from shell job control so the shell stops managing or warning about it.


show sizes of top level entries sorted
find largest directories here
summarize child disk usage and sort
du current dir sorted

Explanation: Shows human-readable sizes for top-level entries and sorts them from smallest to largest.


show mounted filesystems in aligned columns

Explanation: Formats the mount list into readable aligned columns.


list loaded kernel modules
show active kernel modules
inspect module list
see loaded drivers

Explanation: Lists currently loaded kernel modules and their dependency counts.


show information about kernel module
inspect module parameters and file path
modinfo example
see kernel driver metadata

Explanation: Shows metadata such as filename, description, parameters, and aliases for a kernel module.


show warning and error kernel messages
filter dmesg to serious messages
inspect kernel warnings only
dmesg levels

Explanation: Filters kernel ring buffer output to warning and error severity messages.


show current sysctl value
read kernel tunable
inspect runtime kernel setting
sysctl get key

Explanation: Reads the current value of a kernel tunable exposed through sysctl.


list Linux namespaces
inspect container or process namespaces
show mount pid net namespaces
lsns overview

Explanation: Lists namespaces currently present on the system and representative processes in them.


show current shell resource limits
inspect open files and process limits
see ulimit settings
print all resource limits

Explanation: Displays the current shell's resource limits such as open files, stack size, and process counts.


inspect path permissions segment by segment

debug missing execute bit in parent dirs

Explanation: Breaks a path into components and shows ownership and permissions for each segment.


show acl on file or directory
inspect extended permissions
see POSIX ACL entries
getfacl example

Explanation: Displays POSIX ACL entries when standard mode bits are not the whole story.


terminate process using regex over cmdline

Explanation: Matches against the full command line instead of just the process name.


show each card command and intents from cards.jsonl

list cards.jsonl commands with joined intents

jq -r '.command + ": " + (.intent | join(", "))' cards.jsonl

Explanation: Reads each JSON object in the JSONL file and prints the command followed by its intents on one line.


pretty print json with jq
format json nicely
indent json output
make json readable

Explanation: Parses JSON input and prints it in a readable, pretty-formatted layout.


extract one field from json with jq
print property value from json
show name field from json object
jq select field

Explanation: Extracts a single field from a JSON object, with -r for raw string output.


filter json array objects by field
select objects matching property in jq
find active items in json array
jq map select example

jq '.[] | select(.enabled == true)' file.json

jq '.items[] | select(.status == "ok")' file.json

Explanation: Iterates over array elements and prints only the objects that match the filter expression.


print json in one line with jq
compact json output
minify json using jq
emit compact json objects

Explanation: Outputs compact JSON without extra whitespace, which is useful for pipes and JSONL-style streams.


show keys in json object
list property names with jq
inspect available top level fields
jq keys example

Explanation: Prints the key names present in a JSON object so you can see its available fields.


convert jsonl to a json array with jq
slurp newline json into array
wrap jsonl records in array
jq slurp multiple json objects

Explanation: Reads multiple JSON values from a JSONL file and returns them as a single JSON array.


construct a new json object with jq
pick only selected fields from json
reshape json into smaller object
jq object literal example

jq '{name: .metadata.name, version: .metadata.version}' file.json

Explanation: Builds a new object containing only the fields you want, optionally with renamed keys or nested lookups.


sort json array by field with jq
order objects by property value
jq sort objects by name
sort array entries in json

jq 'sort_by(.created_at) | reverse' file.json

Explanation: Sorts an array of objects by the chosen field before printing the result.


count array items with jq
get length of json array
how many objects are in this json list
jq length example

Explanation: Returns the number of elements in an array, or the number of keys in an object.


sort version strings naturally
order versions like 1.9 1.10 correctly
version sort lines
sort semantic-ish version text

Explanation: Sorts text using version-aware ordering so dotted numbers come out in the order humans expect.


resolve simple dependency chain from pairs

printf 'build test
test deploy
' | tsort

Explanation: Reads whitespace-separated dependency pairs and prints a topological order, which is easy to forget exists.


number every line in a file
show line numbers including blank lines
annotate text with line numbers
nl all lines example

Explanation: Numbers all lines, including blank ones, which is handy when exact line references matter.


display a file in two columns
split text into side by side columns
pretty print file as columns
pr multi column example

Explanation: Formats text into multiple columns without headers, a useful but often-forgotten pager-style trick.


pass null delimited input to another command

find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 basename

Explanation: Consumes NUL-delimited input so paths with spaces, quotes, and newlines are handled safely.


split a large file into chunks
break file into 100MB pieces
chunk big file by size
split archive or log into parts

Explanation: Splits a file into smaller pieces by size or line count using a chosen output prefix.


convert tabs to spaces
replace tab characters with spaces
normalize indentation from tabs
expand tabs in text file

Explanation: Replaces tab characters with the corresponding number of spaces at the chosen tab stop width.


convert spaces to tabs
compress indentation back into tabs
replace leading spaces with tabs
unexpand text example

Explanation: Turns runs of spaces into tabs where possible, which is useful when matching tab-based formatting.


capture output exactly as shown in terminal

record command output through a pseudo tty

run command under script to preserve tty behavior

Explanation: Runs a command under a pseudo-terminal, which helps with programs that behave differently when stdout is not a TTY.


prevent two copies of a command from running

Explanation: Uses a lock file to ensure only one instance runs at a time, which is easy to overlook when scripting.


start command with empty environment
debug issue caused by env vars
run shell without inherited environment
test command in clean env

Explanation: Starts a command with an empty environment so you can isolate problems caused by inherited variables or shell startup files.


view current kernel commandline
show current kernel command line
inspect boot kernel arguments
read running kernel cmdline

Explanation: Prints the kernel command line that the currently running system was booted with.


view current kernel parameters
show all current kernel parameters
list all sysctl settings
inspect all runtime kernel tunables

Explanation: Lists all currently readable sysctl-exposed kernel parameters and their values.