10 Fun Commands of Linux
Linux is fun! Huh. OK, so you don’t believe me. Mind me at the end of this article you will have to believe that Linux is actually a fun box.
1. Command: sl (Steam Locomotive)
You might be aware of command ‘ls‘ the list command, which is used frequently to view the contents of a folder but because of miss-typing sometimes you would result in ‘sl‘, how about getting a little fun in the terminal and not “command not found“.
Install sl
$ sudo apt install sl [On Debian/Ubuntu & Mint]
$ sudo yum install sl [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
$ sudo dnf install sl [On CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S sl [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo pkg_add -v sl [On FreeBSD]
Output
root@tecmint:~# sl
This command works even when you type ‘LS‘ and not ‘ls‘.
2. Command: telnet
No! No!! it is not as much complex as it seems. You would be familiar with telnet. Telnet is a text-oriented bidirectional network protocol over a network. Here is nothing to be installed. What you should have is a Linux box and a working Internet.
root@tecmint:~# telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl [No longer working]
3. Command: fortune
what about getting your random fortune, sometimes funny in terminal.
Install fortune
$ sudo apt install fortune [On Debian/Ubuntu & Mint]
$ sudo yum install fortune [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
$ sudo dnf install fortune [On CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S fortune [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo pkg_add -v fortune [On FreeBSD]root@tecmint:~# fortuneYou're not my type. For that matter, you're not even my species!!!
Future looks spotty. You will spill soup in the late evening.
You worry too much about your job. Stop it. You are not paid enough to worry.
Your love life will be... interesting.
4. Command: rev (Reverse)
It reverses every string given to it, is not it funny.
root@tecmint:~# rev123abc
cba321 xuniL eb ot nrob
born to be Linux
5. Command: factor
Time for some Mathematics, this command output all the possible factors of a given number.
root@tecmint:~# factor 55
5: 5 12
12: 2 2 3 1001
1001: 7 11 13 5442134
5442134: 2 2721067
6. Command: script
OK fine this is not a command and a script but it is nice.
root@tecmint:~# for i in {1..12}; do for j in $(seq 1 $i); do echo -ne $i×$j=$((i*j))\\t;done; echo;done 1×1=1
2×1=2 2×2=4
3×1=3 3×2=6 3×3=9
4×1=4 4×2=8 4×3=12 4×4=16
5×1=5 5×2=10 5×3=15 5×4=20 5×5=25
6×1=6 6×2=12 6×3=18 6×4=24 6×5=30 6×6=36
7×1=7 7×2=14 7×3=21 7×4=28 7×5=35 7×6=42 7×7=49
8×1=8 8×2=16 8×3=24 8×4=32 8×5=40 8×6=48 8×7=56 8×8=64
9×1=9 9×2=18 9×3=27 9×4=36 9×5=45 9×6=54 9×7=63 9×8=72 9×9=81
10×1=10 10×2=20 10×3=30 10×4=40 10×5=50 10×6=60 10×7=70 10×8=80 10×9=90 10×10=100
11×1=11 11×2=22 11×3=33 11×4=44 11×5=55 11×6=66 11×7=77 11×8=88 11×9=99 11×10=110 11×11=121
12×1=12 12×2=24 12×3=36 12×4=48 12×5=60 12×6=72 12×7=84 12×8=96 12×9=108 12×10=120 12×11=132 12×12=144
7. Command: Cowsay
An ASCII cow in the terminal will say whatever you want.
Install Cowsay
$ sudo apt install cowsay [On Debian/Ubuntu & Mint]
$ sudo yum install cowsay [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
$ sudo dnf install cowsay [On CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S cowsay [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo pkg_add -v cowsay [On FreeBSD]
Output
root@tecmint:~# cowsay I Love nix ____________
< I Love nix >
------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
How about pipelining ‘fortune command‘, described above with cowsay?
root@tecmint:~# fortune | cowsay _________________________________________
/ Q: How many Oregonians does it take to \
| screw in a light bulb? A: Three. One to |
| screw in the light bulb and two to fend |
| off all those |
| |
| Californians trying to share the |
\ experience. /
-----------------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
Note: ‘|‘ is called pipeline instruction and it is used where the output of one command needs to be the input of another command. In the above example, the output of the ‘fortune‘ command acts as an input of the ‘cowsay‘ command. This pipeline instruction is frequently used in scripting and programming.
xcowsay is a graphical program that response similar to cowsay but in a graphical manner, hence it is X of cowsay.
$ sudo apt install xcowsay [On Debian/Ubuntu & Mint]
$ sudo yum install xcowsay [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
$ sudo dnf install xcowsay [On CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S xcowsay [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo pkg_add -v xcowsay [On FreeBSD]
Output
root@tecmint:~# xcowsay I Love nix
cowthink is another command just run “cowthink Linux is sooo funny” and see the difference in the output of cowsay and cowthink.
Output
root@tecmint:~# cowthink ....Linux is sooo funny
_________________________
( ....Linux is sooo funny )
-------------------------
o ^__^
o (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
8. Command: yes
It is funny but useful as well, especially in scripts and for System Administrators where an automated predefined response can be passed to the terminal or generated.
root@tecmint:~# yes I Love LinuxI Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
Note: (Till you interrupt i.e ctrl+c).
9. Command: toilet
what? Are u kidding, huh no! Definitely not, but for sure this command name itself is too funny, and I don’t know from where this command gets its name.
Install toilet
$ sudo apt install toilet [On Debian/Ubuntu & Mint]
$ sudo yum install toilet [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
$ sudo dnf install toilet [On CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S toilet [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo pkg_add -v toilet [On FreeBSD]
Output
root@tecmint:~# toilet tecmint mmmmmmm " m
# mmm mmm mmmmm mmm m mm mm#mm mmm mmm mmmmm
# #" # #" " # # # # #" # # #" " #" "# # # #
# #"""" # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# "#mm" "#mm" # # # mm#mm # # "mm # "#mm" "#m#" # # #
It even offers some kind of color and font style.
root@tecmint:~# toilet -f mono12 -F metal Tecmint.com
10. Command: cmatrix
You might have seen the Hollywood movie ‘matrix‘ and would be fascinated with the power, Neo was provided with, to see anything and everything in the matrix or you might think of an animation that looks like Hacker‘s desktop.
Install cmatrix
$ sudo apt install cmatrix [On Debian/Ubuntu & Mint]
$ sudo yum install cmatrix [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
$ sudo dnf install cmatrix [On CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S cmatrix [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo pkg_add -v cmatrix [On FreeBSD]
Output
root@tecmint:~# cmatrix