Assistance Tools

2-minute read
Tool

Setup Tools 🔗︎

These tools are really useful when bootstraping from a new machine.

  • direnv: A tool to autoload env for each directory.
  • Kitty, Wezterm, Alacritty, Contour: Terminal emulators.
  • asdf: Package version control tool.
  • mise: An alternative to asdf and rtx. (you probably want to use this)
  • nix: It is another environment manager for builds; I am not sure if I would use these.

Regular Tools 🔗︎

Below are useful but unnecessary tools.

  • aria2c: aria2c is a tool to download files with any protocols. It supports BitTorrent, magnet link and many more. It also has a C++ library that allows you to build tools on top of libaria2.

  • firewall-cmd & firewalld: firewalld is the daemon process that manages port visibility. firewall-cmd is the command line tool that configures firewalld.

  • Eternal Terminal: et is a kind of persistent ssh. To set it up properly on the server, you need to set the port number in /etc/et.cfg, and also enable the port number using firewall-cmd. The default port for et is 2022.

  • systemctl: The command line tool to start/stop/manage daemon process.

  • Fig: A great command line autocomplete tool for mac & iTerm2. Currently it does not work well on Linux server.

  • Prezto: A framework to improve zsh experience.

  • tmux: Terminal multiplexter to make a better shell experience. Both iTerm2 & ET supports integration with tmux.

  • hugo: A fast framework to build static websites fast. It is suggested over hexo for building blogs.

    hugo server

    Hugo local server

  • fzf: A framework to easily traverse through command line history.

  • tpm: tmux plugin manager.

  • tmux-continuum: tmux plugin to save and restore tmux sessions on reboot.

  • asciinema: Record terminal sessions without barrier.

  • balenaEtcher: A software burns images to usb drives.

  • Helix: A post-modern editor that serves as an alternative to vim/neovim. The terminal editor is written in Rust and starts fast. The edit mode is a bit different from vim, and batch edits are based on selection. You may find it useful when it comes to editing code. And it loads fast.

  • Raycast: Alternative to default Spotlight on Mac.

  • OrbStack: An alternative to Docker on Mac.