A few terminal commands combined replaced the Linux apps I was using for search, logs, and disk usage
https://www.makeuseof.com/terminal-commands-combined-replaced-linux-apps-for-search-logs-disk-usage/
Publish Date: 2026-06-02 06:00:00
Source Domain: www.makeuseof.com
For several years, I was the guy with a dozen GUI apps on my Linux desktop. They all served a purpose: one for file search, one for log viewing, and another for disk usage. I was constantly switching between windows to perform different parts of my workflow.
However, everything changed the moment I started chaining together basic terminal commands like grep, find, du, jq, and sort. It’s been a valuable upgrade to my workflow, improving my efficiency and reducing the time spent switching between GUI apps. I’ll walk you through the exact combinations I use and how they’ve helped.
Search got faster
Find and grep changed how I look for files
Afam Onyimadu / MUO
I’ve always believed that file search should be an entirely separate task. This made me comfortable opening my file manager, searching, and then opening a different app to search within files afterward. It works, but the issue is inefficiency.
Understanding that terminal searches don’t stop at finding files changed everything for me. With find, I can locate .conf files within a specific project and pipe the results into grep to find outdated paths. As long as I used the terminal, these seemingly separate searches did not require opening a second app and only required a simple command like this:
find ~/Projects -name “*.conf” | xargs grep -l “localhost”
Adding -l to your grep command (e.g….
