What command line tools and resources do you use?

Discuss anything related to command line tools here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
ashghost
Posts: 384
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:55 pm
Location: South Carolina

What command line tools and resources do you use?

#1 Post by ashghost »

Cornflower inspired me to start this thread.
Cornflower wrote:10. various DOS command line tools (which will remain nameless unless asked)
The command line tools I have and use: Being the ridiculous software collector that I am, there are also a few I don't use, but keep around because maybe I wish I were more of a geek, or maybe just in case (and hey, they're generally tiny little things): On the "About" page, Andrew says there are plenty of places that list command line applications. I still don't know what those might be. If anyone knows any websites that list quality command line apps, I'd love to hear about them!

EDIT: added links
Last edited by ashghost on Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
m^(2)
Posts: 890
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:38 am
Location: Kce,PL
Contact:

#2 Post by m^(2) »

TrID - identifies file type by content
grep - parses files with regular expressions
gsar - search and replace in files
knife - cuts files
timer by Igor Pavlov
Jad - Java decompiler
DAR - DiskArchiver, the best backup tool I know

Also a bunch of programs that I wrote to make batch scripting easier and some file type converters.

User avatar
Cornflower
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:58 am
Location: Canada's capital

#3 Post by Cornflower »

Great thread. Wish I'd thought of it!

Here are my favs.

NirCmd - more and more my multi-function script thingy of choice.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

Replace.com - Text file search-and-replace utility. It crops columns, replaces higher-order codes (CR and LF and tab for example), and is ultra fast and still works on my Vista Home edition. It was written in 1987 or 88 and I tried in 88-89 to find the author to pay him something and give him credit for this amazing small utility, but could not. If you know of the author let me know.
REPLACE Version 2.01.15 1987-88 (C) Gene Garapic (1:157/502)
http://www.dreamlandbbs.com/files/fileg ... index.html

WPrompt and Winput - from Horst Schaeffer (of Mempad fame).
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/win.htm
I use these to make basic interactive shells for batch files, both for myself and for others. Then I compile them with

BatToExe - This is the best batch file compiler yet, and works with both XP and Vista.
http://www.f2ko.de/English/index.php

Junction - creates virtual paths. I commonly create virtual paths off the root of C: then run a program, then remove the path, so as to keep things clean, and because I hate drilling down (esp with Vista's Explorer) to remote paths all the time.
http://www.sysinternals.com

SvcUtil - stop, start, view services
SvcUtil V02.04.00cpp Joe Richards (joe@joeware.net) June 2005

USBdlm - managers usb drives (non-portable) - My main usb key always comes up as U: and may other usb options.
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html



(note--I also have a couple DOS programs, which are not command-line tools, such oas PC-Write) which I will not include here, because they are not command-line, just run from the command line)

User avatar
m^(2)
Posts: 890
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:38 am
Location: Kce,PL
Contact:

#4 Post by m^(2) »

Cornflower wrote:Replace.com - Text file search-and-replace utility. It crops columns, replaces higher-order codes (CR and LF and tab for example), and is ultra fast and still works on my Vista Home edition. It was written in 1987 or 88 and I tried in 88-89 to find the author to pay him something and give him credit for this amazing small utility, but could not. If you know of the author let me know.
REPLACE Version 2.01.15 1987-88 (C) Gene Garapic (1:157/502)
http://www.dreamlandbbs.com/files/fileg ... index.html
Warning. Not for XP x64 / Vista.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: What command line tools and resources do you use?

#5 Post by webfork »

As I've been getting into Windows automation and command-line tools are easier to automate than other types of programs, wanted to poll everyone again and see if there were any additions to this already great list.

User avatar
m^(2)
Posts: 890
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:38 am
Location: Kce,PL
Contact:

Re: What command line tools and resources do you use?

#6 Post by m^(2) »

SoX - a swiss knife for audio management
Strings - extracts text from binary files
rpnCalc - calculator

User avatar
SYSTEM
Posts: 2041
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:19 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: What command line tools and resources do you use?

#7 Post by SYSTEM »

I use Swiss File Knife and TrID. I also used Junction back in the day when I ran Windows XP and still have it on my drive. (Now I use the built-in mklink command of Windows instead of Junction.)
My YouTube channel | Release date of my 13th playlist: August 24, 2020

Ruby
Posts: 324
Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:35 pm

Re: What command line tools and resources do you use?

#8 Post by Ruby »

+1 for Swiss File Knife

Wget has already been mentioned by ashghost, however for a single exe compiled with OpenSSL support:
http://users.ugent.be/~bpuype/wget/

@webfork:
You might want to look into 'PsTools' by Mark Russinovich.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... s/bb896649

Hydaral
Posts: 194
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:36 pm

Re: What command line tools and resources do you use?

#9 Post by Hydaral »

I use a lot.

The holy trinity of text processing
Super-SED (like SED, but super): http://sed.sourceforge.net/grabbag/ssed/
Grep: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/ or See UnxUtils below
Gawk: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/ or See UnxUtils below

Win32 version of Unix Date command (VERY useful): See UnxUtils below

I use a few collections of CLI apps
PSTools: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96649.aspx
UnxUtils: http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/
PSUtils: http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/psutils/
PStoEdit: http://www.pstoedit.net/

A couple of different renamers, one is versatile, the other does regex
Bulk Rename Command (looks like the name has changed): http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/
BK Renamer: http://www.orbit.org/renamer/

Text file mergers
uuMerge (looks like it's no longer available here): http://www.bradtrupp.com/
Logc: (this is the address from the help text, but the software isn't there): http://www.tonyedgecombe.com/

PDF file manipulation
XPDF: http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/

Delete files based on age
Delage: http://www.horstmuc.de/

Logging:
Logtext (good support, I requested a feature, UNC paths, and the author added it in about a month or so): http://www.logtext.de

FTP uploader:
File Uploader: http://noeld.com/programs.asp?cat=misc#upload

Active Directory reporting:
ADFind: http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/adfind/index.htm

XML file manipulation
XMLStarlet: http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/

CSV to XML converters
c2x-cmd: http://www.goedeke.net/c2x_cmd_eng.html
csv2xml: http://www.a7soft.com/

Excel to CSV converters
Roadkil's xls2csv: http://www.roadkil.net/program.php/P31/ ... 0Converter
Graphical xls2csv: http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=741977

Remote control
RemCom: http://talhatariq.wordpress.com/remote- ... utor-xrce/

File timestamp modifiers:
nTouch and dTouch: http://www.flos-freeware.ch/archive.html

Hosts file modifier
HostsEdit: http://www.holistech.co.uk/sw/hostsedit/hostsedit.html

Recover CHKDSK files
FileCHK and UnCHK: http://www.ericphelps.com/uncheck/

Delete to recycle bin
Recycle: http://cfc.kizzx2.com/index.php/cmd-rec ... mand-line/

Hydaral
Posts: 194
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:36 pm

Re: What command line tools and resources do you use?

#10 Post by Hydaral »

Some sites I check when I'm looking for something specific;

http://tinyapps.org/
http://primewares.com/

Post Reply