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Ask HN: Share your top 10 linux commands

7 points by giis 13y ago

Today I came across interesting post which displays top 10 commands from history file. $ history | awk '{CMD[$2]++;count++;}END { for (a in CMD)print CMD[a] " " CMD[a]/count*100 "% " a;}' | grep -v "./" | column -c3 -s " " -t | sort -nr | nl | head -n10 Here is my results: 1 135 13.5% vim 2 133 13.3% gcc 3 122 12.2% ls 4 52 5.2% cd 5 47 4.7% less 6 43 4.3% grep 7 38 3.8% exit 8 35 3.5% cat 9 29 2.9% python 10 25 2.5% sudo

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
adampresley 13y ago
1 331 33.1% git 2 170 17% cd 3 76 7.6% exit 4 71 7.1% ll 5 53 5.3% make 6 49 4.9% ls 7 41 4.1% fab 8 32 3.2% find 9 30 3% sudo 10 16 1.6% rm
dllthomas 13y ago
My results vary pretty dramatically depending on which of my history files I point it at, as expected (I separate them by context). It seems like this'll be warped by a couple things, though. It only sees the first command in a pipeline (I don't see a good general solution to this...) and loops just see the loop, blocks just see the { or (, etc. It's also going to be missing hidden lines (HISTCONTROL=ignoredups, etc). Interesting, nonetheless.
gee_totes 13y ago
1 182 18.2% git 2 151 15.1% ls 3 125 12.5% cd 4 51 5.1% rake 5 46 4.6% cat 6 43 4.3% vi 7 36 3.6% tail 8 33 3.3% casperjs 9 32 3.2% rails 10 29 2.9% tubesio Lol, I use cat more than vim (not really, I just have one vim session open and navigate files with :e)
tluyben2 13y ago
1 237 23.7% ls 2 119 11.9% cd 3 91 9.1% vim 4 68 6.8% screen 5 45 4.5% exit 6 40 4% more 7 40 4% grep 8 31 3.1% top 9 25 2.5% ps 10 18 1.8% df Seems weird that these would be my most used commands. Although screen contains stuff which is not the history outside screen. And I spend by far the most time in screen. So let's see what the screens have: cross compiling for ARM screen: 1 160 26.9815% ls 2 102 17.2007% make 3 79 13.3221% cd 4 51 8.60034% find 5 47 7.9258% vim 6 39 6.57673% more 7 10 1.68634% git 8 9 1.51771% grep 9 4 0.674536% tar 10 4 0.674536% rm web dev screen: 1 46 20.8145% vim 2 31 14.0271% ls 3 21 9.50226% git 4 20 9.04977% supervisor 5 12 5.42986% more 6 6 2.71493% ssh 7 6 2.71493% cd 8 5 2.26244% nano 9 4 1.80995% ps 10 3 1.35747% sudo Haskell dev screen (painful day today fighting with cabal): 1 80 16% cabal 2 64 12.8% nano 3 63 12.6% ls 4 22 4.4% more 5 21 4.2% cd 6 21 4.2% apt-get 7 20 4% supervisor 8 18 3.6% git 9 15 3% ghc 10 12 2.4% find
- helloTree 13y ago
  Looks like you use nano for Haskell development and vim for the other stuff why's that? And a minor tip, you can close your tty using ^D (because I saw exit).
  - tluyben2 13y ago
    Well in the particular case I wasn't coding Haskell; I was fighting cabal :) I needed to install some GUI lib and that took it's sweet time. But there was no coding involved just messing around with build files and such. Not sure why I didn't use vim for that, I use it for coding anyway.
giis 13y ago
interesting to see 'git' commonly used more like regular bash commands :)
caw 13y ago
Mostly sysadmin stuff, because that's what I do. 1 177 19.2601% ls 2 113 12.296% vim 3 101 10.9902% cd 4 95 10.3373% ssh 7 25 2.72035% rm 8 18 1.95865% grep 10 13 1.41458% df
ja27 13y ago
On my MacBook: 1 110 22% ls 2 99 19.8% cd 3 44 8.8% top 4 39 7.8% vi 5 23 4.6% pwd 6 23 4.6% crashoff 7 16 3.2% rm 8 14 2.8% du 9 12 2.4% crashon 10 11 2.2% ssh (crashon / crashoff are scripts to start and stop CrashPlan) Raspberry Pi: 1 85 26.3158% ls 2 53 16.4087% sudo 3 20 6.19195% pwd 4 20 6.19195% cd 5 19 5.88235% exit 6 17 5.26316% crontab 7 12 3.71517% df 8 11 3.40557% streamripper 9 10 3.09598% ps 10 9 2.78638% date (was setting up a streamripper cronjob recently, so it's skewed)
LarryMade2 13y ago
1 116 39.4558% sudo 2 37 12.585% cd 3 29 9.86395% ls 4 5 1.70068% traceroute 5 5 1.70068% nautilus 6 5 1.70068% ifconfig 7 5 1.70068% chmod 8 4 1.36054% ssh 9 3 1.02041% x64 10 3 1.02041% ping Nothing too exciting, use Ubuntu desktop mostly, most of the sudo stuff is likely apt-get and other non-repository installation stuff. Network debugging, Nautilus was when I was trying out desktop managers managers... Glad to see VICE C64 emulator on the list.
zachlatta 13y ago
1 1743 35.0493% git 2 726 14.5988% ls 3 385 7.74181% cd 4 314 6.3141% rvm 5 307 6.17334% vim 6 197 3.96139% rake 7 98 1.97064% tmux 8 97 1.95053% .. 9 86 1.72934% ag 10 72 1.44782% rspec Not too surprising. I'm surprised how high rvm is on the list.
akavi 13y ago
On my work computer (I'm a webdev): 1 101 20.2% vim 2 64 12.8% gs 3 56 11.2% cd 4 49 9.8% git 5 40 8% ls 6 30 6% ga 7 20 4% grep 8 20 4% gcm 9 20 4% brake 10 14 2.8% gpso `git` actually is a much higher percentage, since `gs`, `ga`, `gcm`, and `gpso` are aliases for various git commands.
beigeotter 13y ago
On my macbook: 1 90 18% cd 2 86 17.2% rails 3 64 12.8% ls 4 44 8.8% ssh 5 37 7.4% rake 6 34 6.8% ping 7 24 4.8% git 8 21 4.2% dig 9 11 2.2% cat 10 9 1.8% whois
anderspetersson 13y ago
1 83 16.6% django-admin.py 2 73 14.6% git 3 56 11.2% fab 4 42 8.4% ls 5 40 8% cd 6 39 7.8% ssh 7 24 4.8% knife 8 16 3.2% python 9 14 2.8% pip 10 13 2.6% ping
plexapp 13y ago
On dev box : 1 213 21.3% vi 2 172 17.2% git 3 161 16.1% ls 4 135 13.5% cd 5 37 3.7% python 6 36 3.6% screen 7 32 3.2% rm 8 21 2.1% wget 9 18 1.8% mv 10 15 1.5% cat
plexapp 13y ago
On desktop : 1 124 12.4% ls 2 115 11.5% ssh 3 96 9.6% cd 4 91 9.1% git 5 89 8.9% vi 6 72 7.2% sudo 7 36 3.6% rm 8 24 2.4% vagrant 9 18 1.8% adb 10 17 1.7% cat
S4M 13y ago
At work: 1 121 24.2% ls 2 83 16.6% svn 3 40 8% cd 4 38 7.6% cat 5 31 6.2% sudo 6 21 4.2% scp 7 20 4% zip 8 18 3.6% mysql 9 15 3% xrandr 10 14 2.8% ssh
orchdork10159 13y ago
1 107 21.4% php 2 96 19.2% ls 3 72 14.4% cd 4 42 8.4% ssh 5 33 6.6% sudo 6 29 5.8% composer 7 14 2.8% rm 8 12 2.4% exit 9 10 2% git 10 6 1.2% nano
copiga 13y ago
1 104 10.4% valac 2 98 9.8% cd 3 84 8.4% fg 4 83 8.3% emacs 5 59 5.9% ls 6 47 4.7% ssh 7 32 3.2% vala 8 31 3.1% cat 9 22 2.2% mkdir 10 22 2.2% ..
hgfischer 13y ago
1 162 32.4% ls 2 71 14.2% cd 3 31 6.2% git 4 30 6% sudo 5 19 3.8% rm 6 19 3.8% find 7 17 3.4% mv 8 9 1.8% more 9 9 1.8% go 10 9 1.8% dmesg

7 points by giis 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

adampresley 13y ago

1 331 33.1% git 2 170 17% cd 3 76 7.6% exit 4 71 7.1% ll 5 53 5.3% make 6 49 4.9% ls 7 41 4.1% fab 8 32 3.2% find 9 30 3% sudo 10 16 1.6% rm

dllthomas 13y ago

My results vary pretty dramatically depending on which of my history files I point it at, as expected (I separate them by context). It seems like this'll be warped by a couple things, though. It only sees the first command in a pipeline (I don't see a good general solution to this...) and loops just see the loop, blocks just see the { or (, etc. It's also going to be missing hidden lines (HISTCONTROL=ignoredups, etc). Interesting, nonetheless.

gee_totes 13y ago

1 182 18.2% git 2 151 15.1% ls 3 125 12.5% cd 4 51 5.1% rake 5 46 4.6% cat 6 43 4.3% vi 7 36 3.6% tail 8 33 3.3% casperjs 9 32 3.2% rails 10 29 2.9% tubesio Lol, I use cat more than vim (not really, I just have one vim session open and navigate files with :e)

tluyben2 13y ago

1 237 23.7% ls 2 119 11.9% cd 3 91 9.1% vim 4 68 6.8% screen 5 45 4.5% exit 6 40 4% more 7 40 4% grep 8 31 3.1% top 9 25 2.5% ps 10 18 1.8% df Seems weird that these would be my most used commands. Although screen contains stuff which is not the history outside screen. And I spend by far the most time in screen. So let's see what the screens have: cross compiling for ARM screen: 1 160 26.9815% ls 2 102 17.2007% make 3 79 13.3221% cd 4 51 8.60034% find 5 47 7.9258% vim 6 39 6.57673% more 7 10 1.68634% git 8 9 1.51771% grep 9 4 0.674536% tar 10 4 0.674536% rm web dev screen: 1 46 20.8145% vim 2 31 14.0271% ls 3 21 9.50226% git 4 20 9.04977% supervisor 5 12 5.42986% more 6 6 2.71493% ssh 7 6 2.71493% cd 8 5 2.26244% nano 9 4 1.80995% ps 10 3 1.35747% sudo Haskell dev screen (painful day today fighting with cabal): 1 80 16% cabal 2 64 12.8% nano 3 63 12.6% ls 4 22 4.4% more 5 21 4.2% cd 6 21 4.2% apt-get 7 20 4% supervisor 8 18 3.6% git 9 15 3% ghc 10 12 2.4% find

helloTree 13y ago
Looks like you use nano for Haskell development and vim for the other stuff why's that? And a minor tip, you can close your tty using ^D (because I saw exit).
- tluyben2 13y ago
  Well in the particular case I wasn't coding Haskell; I was fighting cabal :) I needed to install some GUI lib and that took it's sweet time. But there was no coding involved just messing around with build files and such. Not sure why I didn't use vim for that, I use it for coding anyway.

giis 13y ago

interesting to see 'git' commonly used more like regular bash commands :)

caw 13y ago

Mostly sysadmin stuff, because that's what I do. 1 177 19.2601% ls 2 113 12.296% vim 3 101 10.9902% cd 4 95 10.3373% ssh 7 25 2.72035% rm 8 18 1.95865% grep 10 13 1.41458% df

ja27 13y ago

On my MacBook: 1 110 22% ls 2 99 19.8% cd 3 44 8.8% top 4 39 7.8% vi 5 23 4.6% pwd 6 23 4.6% crashoff 7 16 3.2% rm 8 14 2.8% du 9 12 2.4% crashon 10 11 2.2% ssh (crashon / crashoff are scripts to start and stop CrashPlan) Raspberry Pi: 1 85 26.3158% ls 2 53 16.4087% sudo 3 20 6.19195% pwd 4 20 6.19195% cd 5 19 5.88235% exit 6 17 5.26316% crontab 7 12 3.71517% df 8 11 3.40557% streamripper 9 10 3.09598% ps 10 9 2.78638% date (was setting up a streamripper cronjob recently, so it's skewed)

LarryMade2 13y ago

1 116 39.4558% sudo 2 37 12.585% cd 3 29 9.86395% ls 4 5 1.70068% traceroute 5 5 1.70068% nautilus 6 5 1.70068% ifconfig 7 5 1.70068% chmod 8 4 1.36054% ssh 9 3 1.02041% x64 10 3 1.02041% ping Nothing too exciting, use Ubuntu desktop mostly, most of the sudo stuff is likely apt-get and other non-repository installation stuff. Network debugging, Nautilus was when I was trying out desktop managers managers... Glad to see VICE C64 emulator on the list.

zachlatta 13y ago

1 1743 35.0493% git 2 726 14.5988% ls 3 385 7.74181% cd 4 314 6.3141% rvm 5 307 6.17334% vim 6 197 3.96139% rake 7 98 1.97064% tmux 8 97 1.95053% .. 9 86 1.72934% ag 10 72 1.44782% rspec Not too surprising. I'm surprised how high rvm is on the list.

akavi 13y ago

On my work computer (I'm a webdev): 1 101 20.2% vim 2 64 12.8% gs 3 56 11.2% cd 4 49 9.8% git 5 40 8% ls 6 30 6% ga 7 20 4% grep 8 20 4% gcm 9 20 4% brake 10 14 2.8% gpso `git` actually is a much higher percentage, since `gs`, `ga`, `gcm`, and `gpso` are aliases for various git commands.

beigeotter 13y ago

On my macbook: 1 90 18% cd 2 86 17.2% rails 3 64 12.8% ls 4 44 8.8% ssh 5 37 7.4% rake 6 34 6.8% ping 7 24 4.8% git 8 21 4.2% dig 9 11 2.2% cat 10 9 1.8% whois

anderspetersson 13y ago

1 83 16.6% django-admin.py 2 73 14.6% git 3 56 11.2% fab 4 42 8.4% ls 5 40 8% cd 6 39 7.8% ssh 7 24 4.8% knife 8 16 3.2% python 9 14 2.8% pip 10 13 2.6% ping

plexapp 13y ago

On dev box : 1 213 21.3% vi 2 172 17.2% git 3 161 16.1% ls 4 135 13.5% cd 5 37 3.7% python 6 36 3.6% screen 7 32 3.2% rm 8 21 2.1% wget 9 18 1.8% mv 10 15 1.5% cat

plexapp 13y ago

On desktop : 1 124 12.4% ls 2 115 11.5% ssh 3 96 9.6% cd 4 91 9.1% git 5 89 8.9% vi 6 72 7.2% sudo 7 36 3.6% rm 8 24 2.4% vagrant 9 18 1.8% adb 10 17 1.7% cat

S4M 13y ago

At work: 1 121 24.2% ls 2 83 16.6% svn 3 40 8% cd 4 38 7.6% cat 5 31 6.2% sudo 6 21 4.2% scp 7 20 4% zip 8 18 3.6% mysql 9 15 3% xrandr 10 14 2.8% ssh

orchdork10159 13y ago

1 107 21.4% php 2 96 19.2% ls 3 72 14.4% cd 4 42 8.4% ssh 5 33 6.6% sudo 6 29 5.8% composer 7 14 2.8% rm 8 12 2.4% exit 9 10 2% git 10 6 1.2% nano

copiga 13y ago

1 104 10.4% valac 2 98 9.8% cd 3 84 8.4% fg 4 83 8.3% emacs 5 59 5.9% ls 6 47 4.7% ssh 7 32 3.2% vala 8 31 3.1% cat 9 22 2.2% mkdir 10 22 2.2% ..

hgfischer 13y ago

1 162 32.4% ls 2 71 14.2% cd 3 31 6.2% git 4 30 6% sudo 5 19 3.8% rm 6 19 3.8% find 7 17 3.4% mv 8 9 1.8% more 9 9 1.8% go 10 9 1.8% dmesg