In Operation
Once we’ve downloaded and installed the repos, we’re now ready to use navi.
The tool can be started by typing navi in the terminal, as a shell widget, a Tmux widget, with an alias, or as a shell scripting tool.
We’ll explore starting navi from the terminal as this gives all possible subcommands and flags.
navi aims to boost your productivity by making it unnecessary to remember options, and by giving quicker access to commands by typing less. Along the way, you’ll also master some powerful one-liners.
The program’s interactivity comes into play when a selected command is double-click on a selected command. If the command requires no further input, the program passes it directly to the shell.
The software also lets you use cheatsheets from other tools. To use cheatsheets from tldr, run
$ navi --tldr query
Or from cheat.sh:
$ navi --cheatsh query
Integrating navi to the shell as a widget is sometimes useful. It lets you keep the history up to date.
Summary
man pages are very useful but sometimes they are very long and complicated. Step forward navi, a lovely interactive cheat sheet tool.
navi is a very useful tool utilizing the power of fuzzy finders (in Linux, that’s either fzf or skim). There are many other cheat sheet tools available for Linux, but we like navi a lot. It offers good functionality, an attractive design, and can be extended by integrating online or your own crafted cheat sheets..
The project has amassed a whopping 14k GitHub stars.
We recommend you get acquainted with navi’s arguments and options with $ navi --help.
We’d like navi to support auto-updating repositories out of the box.
Website: github.com/denisidoro/navi
Support:
Developer: Denis Isidoro
License: Apache License 2.0
navi is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction and Installation
Page 2 – In Operation and Summary
Complete list of articles in this series:
| Excellent Utilities | |
|---|---|
| AES Crypt | Encrypt files using the Advanced Encryption Standard |
| Ananicy | Shell daemon created to manage processes’ IO and CPU priorities |
| broot | Next gen tree explorer and customizable launcher |
| Cerebro | Fast application launcher |
| cheat.sh | Community driven unified cheat sheet |
| CopyQ | Advanced clipboard manager |
| croc | Securely transfer files and folders from the command-line |
| Deskreen | Live streaming your desktop to a web browser |
| duf | Disk usage utility with more polished presentation than the classic df |
| eza | A turbo-charged alternative to the venerable ls command |
| Extension Manager | Browse, install and manage GNOME Shell Extensions |
| fd | Wonderful alternative to the venerable find |
| fkill | Kill processes quick and easy |
| fontpreview | Quickly search and preview fonts |
| horcrux | File splitter with encryption and redundancy |
| Kooha | Simple screen recorder |
| KOReader | Document viewer for a wide variety of file formats |
| Imagine | A simple yet effective image optimization tool |
| LanguageTool | Style and grammar checker for 30+ languages |
| Liquid Prompt | Adaptive prompt for Bash & Zsh |
| lnav | Advanced log file viewer for the small-scale; great for troubleshooting |
| lsd | Like exa, lsd is a turbo-charged alternative to ls |
| Mark Text | Simple and elegant Markdown editor |
| McFly | Navigate through your bash shell history |
| mdless | Formatted and highlighted view of Markdown files |
| navi | Interactive cheatsheet tool |
| noti | Monitors a command or process and triggers a notification |
| Nushell | Flexible cross-platform shell with a modern feel |
| nvitop | GPU process management for NVIDIA graphics cards |
| OCRmyPDF | Add OCR text layer to scanned PDFs |
| Oh My Zsh | Framework to manage your Zsh configuration |
| Paperwork | Designed to simplify the management of your paperwork |
| pastel | Generate, analyze, convert and manipulate colors |
| PDF Mix Tool | Perform common editing operations on PDF files |
| peco | Simple interactive filtering tool that's remarkably useful |
| ripgrep | Recursively search directories for a regex pattern |
| Rnote | Sketch and take handwritten notes |
| scrcpy | Display and control Android devices |
| Sticky | Simulates the traditional “sticky note” style stationery on your desktop |
| tldr | Simplified and community-driven man pages |
| tmux | A terminal multiplexer that offers a massive boost to your workflow |
| Tusk | An unofficial Evernote client with bags of potential |
| Ulauncher | Sublime application launcher |
| Watson | Track the time spent on projects |
| Whoogle Search | Self-hosted and privacy-focused metasearch engine |
| Zellij | Terminal workspace with batteries included |