Linux

I think it’s just a matter of getting used to it. I had the same issue at first and the more I used the command line, the more I started to prefer it to GUI apps for certain tasks.

A couple things that I use all the time:

• tab completion is incredible
• cd - goes back to the last directory you were in (useful for bouncing back and forth between locations)
• !$ means the last argument. So if you ls ~/Downloads and then decide you want to go there, you can cd !$.
• :h removes the last piece of a path. So I can do vim /etc/network/interfaces and then cd !$:h will take me to /etc/network.

You're pressing the tab key for auto completion right?

Learn to use pushd and popd

I am old and I like ‘mc’ (Midnight Commander) a lot when doing many/complex file operations

Others have mentioned using interactive tools like zoxide to easily get to frequently visited directories.

In addition, I also use nnn (https://github.com/jarun/nnn), which is a terminal file manager that you can navigate through. You can create shortcuts, snippets and bookmarks with this. I use this and zoxide + fzf regularly on CLI to navigate.

Some here also mention ranger, which is another terminal file manager. In my limited experience with ranger, I feel like the start up time is much slower than nnn; but I haven’t tried much. Tho with ranger + graphic-accelerated terminals like kitty, I believe you can preview images and files, which seems to be a great feature. So it depends on your need.

Something I haven't seen mentioned here is Ctrl + R on the command line to quick-search history. You start typing/backspacing and it shows the most recent matching history entry. Press Ctrl + R or Ctrl + Shift + R to navigate up and down through matching entries. Press Enter to pick an entry, Ctrl + C to cancel.

• ls / cd for basic stuff

• fzf if I want to find my way through the history

• broot if I want to search for a file

• ripgrep if I want to find a file with specific contents.

I know that the last 3 are not available by default, but they are good pieces of software, so I'm just going to install them.

I simply use ls and spam cd xyz cd .. etc

Not strictly file browsing advice, but you can quickly search for previously issued commands by hitting ctrl-r and starting to type. (and you can press it again to search further back)

I did 4 things, that helped me a lot:

1. Make aliases for the most visited directories

alias cem=’cd /home/drops/.config/emacs’

2. Make aliases for moving up the tree tree:

alias. .=’cd. . && ls’

Three points for two levels up, etc...

3. Name all directories lowercase, 3-5 letters long, and try to avoid directories with the same starting letter as siblings That way you can use tab completion with just a single letter

4. Use the option to jump to subdirectories of /home/user from everywhere.

The Linux Command Line is a book I still go back and look stuff up in.

In Linux, the locate command is crazy fast. I am amazed at how slow search is in Windows, compared to this.

I just use ls, cd, tree and tab completion. Sometimes I will use rg to find files which contains specified string, and use locate to find files which I known name but path.

For navigating files quickly fzf is pretty much crucial to my workflow. Being able to get my home directory to the directory of the project I want to work on in two seconds flat is such a nice feeling after manually typing the path in for months. https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

Check out ranger fm, helps navigate through files very quickly, also has a ton of features

To navigate quickly between directories in ssh, I recommend you using zoxide as cd replacement.

Zoxide remembers the directories you visited, then you can jump to them very quickly.

What file structure? I just put everything in /home and then try to vaguely remember part of the filename and glob *part-of-filename*.

Ok, actually, every couple of years, I move all my files into a new directory, /home/old. I think I'm up to /home/old/old/old/old/old right now. I recommend using find to look for files in there.

There are a few directory structures I have memorized, like my programming projects for instance. For everything else, I use the GUI. That's what it's there for. Mixing and match to get the best of both worlds. Some handy tips:

• xdg-open will act like clicking on a file in the GUI, and is an easy way to open folders from the terminal when you want to browse them.
• Use sshfs or even just whatever is built into your desktop environment to connect to remote servers and browse them
• Most terminals let you drag files or folders into them to paste their paths

Not necessarily navigation, but ncdu will give the total size of your directories. It's a simple but very useful tool

i have broot, an interactive tree

Use the fish shell... No, seriously it's autocomplete and tab functionality makes browsing directories through the terminal so much easier

Useful one I find is the z program you can install it with package manager and it's also included with zsh shell. It's basically like a smart cd command. Instead of having to type the entire path for cd, when using z you can just type the destination folder and if it's in your history it will resolve the path by itself.

Try a TUI like mc (midnight commander)

cd, ls, and the tab key are the basic tools of terminal filesystem navigation

I use ls and ranger, to find files i use find -name and remember that * is used as a wildcard so you can use it when searching for stuff with in incomplete filename or when copying or moving files/directories. You could also use colorls to add some flare to your ls, and oh-my-zsh for syntax highlighting and tab autocomplete

pushd and popd may be useful

I tend to use walk or midnight commander. zoxide is nice as well. It also helps to have bash aliases. https://github.com/antonmedv/walk

https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide https://midnight-commander.org/ https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/linux-commands

Just using "cd -" to go back where you were is useful.

history command and ! and the number in history, like

!123

For instance, it's useful

You can quickly display the filesystem hierarchy using the tree command.

I just type ls everytime I cd into something. It's not that efficient honestly but I usually remember where I want to go after going there a couple times. Also if you hit tab twice after typing cd and a space, it shows all of the files in the directory.

Look into your shell’s tab completion abilities, the find command, and fzf. There’s also stuff like midnight commander but I find that to be a little overkill for my tastes.