A little collection of cool unix terminal/console/curses tools

Just a list of 20 (now 28) tools for the command line. Some are little-known, some are just too useful to miss, some are pure obscure -- I hope you find something useful that you weren't aware of yet! Use your operating system's package manager to install most of them. (Thanks for the tips, everybody!)

dstat & sar

iostat, vmstat, ifstat and much more in one.

slurm

Visualizes network interface traffic over time.

vim & emacs

The real programmers' editors.

screen, dtach, tmux, byobu

Keep your terminal sessions alive.

multitail

See your log files in separate windows.

tpp

Presentation ("PowerPoint") tool for terminal.

xargs & parallel

Executes tasks from input (even multithread).

duplicity & rsyncrypto

Encrypting backup tools.

nethack & slash'em

Still the most complex game on the planet.

lftp

Does FTPS. Can mirror, kinda like rsync.

ack

A better grep for source code.

calcurse & remind + wyrd

Calendar systems.

newsbeuter & rsstail

Command line RSS readers.

powertop

Helps conserve power on Linux.

tig

A console UI for git.

qalc

The best calculator. Ever. (For scripts too.)

htop & iotop

Process, memory and io monitoring.

ttyrec & ipbt

Record and play back terminal sessions.

rsync

Keeps filesystems in sync over SSH.

mtr

traceroute 2.0.

socat & netpipes

Directing stuff easily in and out of sockets.

iftop, iptraf & nethogs

To see where your traffic goes.

siege & tsung

Command line load test tools.

ledger

Terminal-based accounting package.

taskwarrior

Todo management in the terminal.

curl

Everybody's favorite HTTP toolbox.

rtorrent & aria2

Command line torrent downloaders.

ttytter & earthquake

Nice trendy Twitter clients :)

vifm & ranger

Alternatives to the midnight commander.

cowsay & sl

I just couldn't resist. :o)

cloc

Counts lines of code.

ipcalc

For network assignments.