Which Linux command or utility is simple, powerful, and surprisingly unknown to many people or used less often?

This could be a command or a piece of software or an application.

For example I’m surprised to find that many people are unaware of Caddy, a very simple web server that can make setting up a reverse proxy incredibly easy.

Another example is fzf. Many people overlook this, a fast command-line fuzzy finder. It’s versatile for searching files, directories, or even shell history with minimal effort.

  • bamboo
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    4 days ago

    dd is probably well known, but one of the simplest and most powerful ways to accidentally delete all data on your hard drive. dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda

    • I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      ddrescue (or gddrescue) is a great version if you have a sick drive. It’ll try to copy the good areas first then go back to hammer on the sick areas.

      Not perfect as it doesn’t know about the file system so it tries to copy the entire surface, but generally a good tool.

    • 🜏 Jyan 잔 🜏@4bear.com
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      4 days ago

      @bamboo @mfat , DD, great tool. Utilize it so often, but it is powerful and dangerous. I always double, triple, quadruple check my target disks with multiple programs to avoid destroying my production workstation. Might be best if I just designated a RPi for the job. 😅