Ask HN: Share your top 10 cli commands

[aleyan]

We have last done this a few years ago. Below command will output the top 10 commands from your 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 are my results. 1 293 58.6% git 2 30 6% sudo 3 30 6% npm 4 20 4% ls 5 14 2.8% scp 6 13 2.6% cd 7 9 1.8% ssh 8 9 1.8% history 9 8 1.6% rm 10 5 1% pwd

[leipert]

Had to adjust on my zsh shell:

    cat ~/.zhistory | cut -d";" -f2 | awk '{CMD[$1]++;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
    
     1	1681  15.2472%     git
     2	964   8.74376%     yarn
     3	921   8.35374%     cat
     4	755   6.84807%     docker
     5	628   5.69615%     brew
     6	515   4.6712%      cd
     7	372   3.37415%     curl
     8	366   3.31973%     npm
     9	298   2.70295%     trash
    10	270   2.44898%     find
    

EDIT: trash is is like rm, but moves to system trash. From the reast you see that I mainly work in the JS ecosystem. If I add the second parameter, things get more interesting, and docker pops up:

     1	645  5.84928%     git checkout
     2	324  2.93824%     yarn add
     3	221  2.00417%     brew cask
     4	176  1.59608%
     5	161  1.46005%     find .
     6	157  1.42378%     yarn upgrade
     7	136  1.23334%     docker run
     8	125  1.13358%     curl -s
     9	124  1.12451%     docker image
    10	121  1.09731%     yarn remove
    

EDIT2: The analysis may be more interesting if you check for piped commands as well, as I missed grep in the first list

    $ cat ~/.zhistory | grep grep | wc -l
    1098
    $ cat ~/.zhistory | grep sort | wc -l
    316

[ra7]

     1	1668  26.8426%    git
     2	723   11.635%     gst
     3	361   5.80946%    vim
     4	355   5.71291%    gd
     5	311   5.00483%    clear
     6	280   4.50595%    ls
     7	276   4.44158%    gco
     8	222   3.57258%    cd
     9	152   2.44609%    ga
    10	147   2.36563%    pip

gst, gd, gco and ga are aliases for git status, diff, checkout and add respectively.

[ponyous]

     1	2258  22.5823%   git
     2	594   5.94059%   npm
     3	539   5.39054%   cd
     4	366   3.66037%   ls
     5	360   3.60036%   vim
     6	344   3.44034%   cat
     7	316   3.16032%   rm
     8	287   2.87029%   mix
     9	255   2.55026%   nr
    10	216   2.16022%   X_IP=0.0.0.0*
    11	213   2.13021%   gst

* (Omitted) It's not a command but environment variable followed by a command. I could probably alias it, but it is pretty unique and so easy to find with ^R in zsh.

Edit:If anyone would like to have more granular view I wrote this oneliner sometime ago:

    history | cut -c8- | cut -d' ' -f1-2 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n

It gives result like:

    # ... All other entries from history
    180 vim
    207 npm install
    212 gst
    220 git pull
    361 git commit
    537 git checkout

[Mizza]

For OSX, the command is:

$ history | awk '{CMD[$5]++;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

     1	104  20.8%  ls
     2	72   14.4%  cd
     3	49   9.8%   pip
     4	25   5%     a
     5	21   4.2%   j
     6	19   3.8%   z
     7	19   3.8%   vim
     8	19   3.8%   git
     9	19   3.8%   cat
    10	12   2.4%   sba
    11	12   2.4%   gs
    13	8    1.6%   ga
    14	7    1.4%   p
    15	5    1%     sof

`a` is an alias for ag, `j` is an alias for `autojump`, `sba` is an alias for `source env/bin/activate`. `gs` is git status, `ga` is git add, `p` is python, `sof` is soundscrape -of, `z` is zappa.

[bob4uk]

     1	1123  11.2311%   mpv
     2	631   6.31063%   sudo
     3	386   3.86039%   cd
     4	265   2.65027%   echo
     5	260   2.60026%   cat
     6	215   2.15022%   cowerd
     7	210   2.10021%   pacs
     8	173   1.73017%   tweet
     9	132   1.32013%   cowers
    10	128   1.28013%   pacman

some handy shell functions https://paste.xinu.at/ocnBw/

[TurboHaskal]

This is in my macOS box. Pretty vanilla. I'm surprised `ls` didn't make it to the top10, probably due to auto-complete.

     1	1855  18.5519%   git
     2	851   8.51085%   cd
     3	493   4.93049%   rm
     4	414   4.14041%   brew
     5	376   3.76038%   find
     6	373   3.73037%   vi
     7	369   3.69037%   docker
     8	338   3.38034%   cat
     9	238   2.38024%   vim
    10	237   2.37024%   ag

[Something1234]

     1	39  7.81563%   git
     2	35  7.01403%   rm
     3	33  6.61323%   cd
     4	28  5.61122%   wc
     5	28  5.61122%   make
     6	21  4.20842%   valgrind
     7	18  3.60721%   massif-visualizer
     8	16  3.20641%   cat
     9	13  2.60521%   vi
    10	12  2.40481%   ssh

I've been fiddling with valgrind an unhealthy amount, just because I find it interesting.

[johncoltrane]

My list:

     1	565    14,3437%    vim
     2	513    13,0236%    cd
     3	468    11,8812%    git
     4	280    7,1084%     yarn
     5	147    3,73191%    npm
     6	104    2,64026%    gulp
     7	95     2,41178%    up
     8	87     2,20868%    rm
     9	82     2,08175%    docker
    10	79     2,00559%    la

'up' is an alias for 'cd ..' and 'la' is an alias for 'ls -la'.

[stevekemp]

I expected `ls`, and `cd` to be top, and they were:

     1	34393  18.2057%      ls
     2	29496  15.6135%      cd
     3	22794  12.0659%      git
     4	21305  11.2777%      ssh
     5	6181   3.27188%      make
     6	5183   2.74359%      less
     7	4616   2.44345%      cat
     8	4379   2.318%        vi
     9	3474   1.83894%      rm
    10	2892   1.53086%      ping

[assafmo]

This doesn't take pipes into account...

     1	412  11.4191%    sudo
     2	301  8.34257%    curl
     3	197  5.46009%    cd
     4	182  5.04435%    cat
     5	163  4.51774%    git
     6	138  3.82483%    ll
     7	125  3.46452%    man
     8	116  3.21508%    npm
     9	79   2.18958%    echo
    10	74   2.051%      jq

[imauld]

The ks commands are aliases for kubectl to different clusters:

     1	147  29.4%  git
     2	37   7.4%   ks
     3	35   7%     ksdev
     4	32   6.4%   kprod
     5	20   4%     kslogs
     6	17   3.4%   kubectl
     7	8    1.6%   export
     8	6    1.2%   ssh
     9	6    1.2%   python
    10	5    1%     curl

[AlexAMEEE]

     1	796  18.3664%    ls
     2	718  16.5667%    cd
     3	373  8.60637%    gradle
     4	342  7.89109%    git
     5	231  5.32995%    vim
     6	182  4.19935%    cat
     7	130  2.99954%    gulp
     8	124  2.8611%     .
     9	99   2.28426%    psql
    10	94   2.1689%     curl

"." == alias to "cd .."

[wprapido]

1 169 23.4722% cd 2 122 16.9444% ls 3 76 10.5556% wp 4 62 8.61111% vim 5 47 6.52778% ee 6 28 3.88889% ping 7 27 3.75% bash 8 19 2.63889% chmod 9 15 2.08333% unzip 10 15 2.08333% mv

[Davidbrcz]

     1	1150  11.5012%   cd
     2	849   8.49085%   git
     3	749   7.49075%   gedit
     4	489   4.89049%   ls
     5	471   4.71047%   rm
     6	357   3.57036%   sudo
     7	311   3.11031%   ack
     8	279   2.79028%   cat
     9	262   2.62026%   find
    10	259   2.59026%   emacs

[johntdaly]

     1	1751  17.5118%   cd
     2	1542  15.4215%   git
     3	1273  12.7313%   ls
     4	501   5.0105%    touch
     5	330   3.30033%   ssh
     6	321   3.21032%   mkdir
     7	244   2.44024%   vagrant
     8	234   2.34023%   cat
     9	187   1.87019%   subl
    10	177   1.77018%   openstack

[borplk]

     1	905  9.05091%   yarn
     2	852  8.52085%   git
     3	658  6.58066%   ls
     4	504  5.0405%    sudo
     5	394  3.94039%   node
     6	380  3.80038%   cd
     7	332  3.32033%   npm
     8	254  2.54025%   rm
     9	191  1.91019%   vagrant
    10	185  1.85019%   nano

[ezekg]

Mine:

     1	194  38.8%  git
     2	88   17.6%  curl
     3	62   12.4%  clear
     4	45   9%     npm
     5	17   3.4%   cd
     6	10   2%     rails
     7	10   2%     nvm
     8	10   2%     atom
     9	8    1.6%   ember
    10	7    1.4%   vi

[AlexAMEEE → ezekg]

Try ctrl + l, should do the clear.

[spcelzrd]

     1	206  41.2%  git
     2	57   11.4%  ls
     3	43   8.6%   vim
     4	40   8%     cd
     5	31   6.2%   open
     6	27   5.4%   exit
     7	13   2.6%   grep
     8	12   2.4%   man
     9	10   2%     gforth
    10	6    1.2%   info

[richerlariviere]

Mine:

     1	55  11%    cd
     2	53  10,6%  swift
     3	49  9,8%   ssh
     4	45  9%     ls
     5	30  6%     git
     6	23  4,6%   cf
     7	19  3,8%   vapor
     8	19  3,8%   say
     9	17  3,4%   sudo
    10	17  3,4%   ngrok

[tmnvix]

     1	97  19.4%  python
     2	88  17.6%  git
     3	35  7%     zappa
     4	34  6.8%   npm
     5	28  5.6%   ls
     6	28  5.6%   dig
     7	28  5.6%   cd
     8	26  5.2%   pip
     9	18  3.6%   cat
    10	15  3%     fab

[Mizza → tmnvix]

Yay Zappa! :D

[tmnvix → Mizza]

Gotta say, Zappa has been an absolute pleasure to work with so far. Thanks for all the hard work!

[AquiGorka]

1 240 19.4647% git

2 138 11.1922% vim

3 121 9.81346% cd

4 94 7.62368% ls

5 50 4.05515% sF

6 43 3.48743% exit

7 40 3.24412% npm

8 35 2.83861% tmux

9 33 2.6764% node

10 32 2.5953% ..

sF is a function to search that formats output similar to sublime's text search

[seanwasere]

     1  21  43.75%    sudo
     2  8   16.6667%  cd
     3  5   10.4167%  iptables
     4  3   6.25%     ufw
     5  2   4.16667%  zabbix_agentd
     6  2   4.16667%  ls
     7  1   2.08333%  top
     8  1   2.08333%  tcpdump
     9  1   2.08333%  mc
    10  1   2.08333%  ifconfig