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Essential CLI tools for developers on Windows 10

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Jimmy Royer edited this page Oct 24, 2020 · 61 revisions

This is a guide for a proper Windows 10 CLI development environment. It is biased on tools that I mostly used such as Git, GitHub, PowerShell, AWS. I first use this guide for myself, so that I remember what to setup on new reinstallation.

Our Linux and MacOSX relatives are quite awesome in their ways... but Microsoft has made some tremendeous improvements in the past years. Get on the ride with me if you want a comfy-slipper CLI to work with on Windows 10.

The essential tools

These are the first and esssential CLI tools to install for a productive developer's experience on Windows 10.

First things, first

Make sure you have the latest version of PowerShell installed. My Windows 10 installation bundled version 5.1 but the latest at the moment of this writing is 7.1.0-rc.2. Check out your version by opening a PowerShell session and executing that command:

Get-Host | Select-Object Version

If you don't have version 7, you can install it with this command.

Invoke-Expression "& { $(Invoke-Restmethod https://aka.ms/install-powershell.ps1) } -UseMSI -Preview"

Scoop -- your package manager

Scoop installs the tools you know and love.

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -scope CurrentUser
Invoke-Expression (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://get.scoop.sh')

Scoop is a package manager for Windows 10, quite similar to MacOSX HomeBrew in spirit. There are other package managers such as Chocolatey. From my observations, Scoop is more oriented to devtools whereas Chocolatey is more to general users' tools. For example, you can install Kotlin with Scoop but not with Chocolatey... but you can install the Windows Terminal with the latter! I prefer Scoop so far for its Homebrew feeling.

You will probably want to add custom repositories that are not part of the core Scoop manifest repository. The extras bucket is the most popular one and I highly recommend configuring it.

scoop bucket add extras

Your Windows Terminal

ℹ️ A must-have for its rich CLI experience that includes updated and modern features, bringing the Linux/MacOSX experience to the Windows terminal world. For example, search and re-execute any previous command by hitting the CTRL+R shortcut. Windows Terminal is a new, modern, feature-rich, productive terminal application for command-line users. It includes many of the features most frequently requested by the Windows command-line community including support for tabs, rich text, globalization, configurability, theming & styling, and more.

At this time, the modern version of the Windows terminal is not yet available in Windows 10 default installation. You could install it by heading to the Microsoft Store and install it from there...

...but let's try Scoop, which we just installed:

scoop install windows-terminal

To learn more on how to use and configure the terminal, head to the documentation. To learn about how to customize the background image or colors, head in that other direction.

You can find my own configuration here for inspiration and some sensible key bindings default.

aria2 -- your download manager

aria2 is a lightweight multi-protocol & multi-source command-line download utility. It supports HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent and Metalink. aria2 can be manipulated via built-in JSON-RPC and XML-RPC interfaces.

scoop install aria2

This should speed up future downloads made by Scoop, as the latter automatically leverages aria2 once installed.

ℹ️ A must-have for its multi-format capabilities. For example, to download Ubuntu torrent with secure encrypted transport and no limit on the seed ratio after the download is made (this will continue to seed after the download until you stop the command):

aria2c.exe --bt-force-encryption true --seed-ratio=0.0 -T .\ubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso.torrent

starship -- your shell prompt

ℹ️ A must-have for its speed, multi-modules support and high customizability.

scoop install starship

Easy to use and extend, this is the prompt that will display necessary information in a smart fashion only when it needs to.

starship CLI example

z.lua -- your directory compass

Tracks your most used directories, based on number of previously run commands. After a short learning phase, z will take you to the most popular directory that matches all of the regular expressions given on the command line. You can use Tab-Completion / Intellisense to pick directories that are not the first choice.

scoop install lua
scoop install z.lua

# Create the Profile file if not already existing.
if (!(Test-Path $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost)) {
  New-Item $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost
}

$ZLuaLocation = "$(scoop info z.lua | select -Index 7 | ForEach-Object { $_.Trim() })\z.lua"
$ZLuaLine = "`n# z.lua activation`n" + 'Invoke-Expression ($(lua ' + $ZLuaLocation + '  --init powershell) -join "`n")'
Add-Content $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost $ZLuaLine

PSReadLine -- your line auto-completion

ℹ️ A must-have to have a bash-like autocompletion that shows all choices at once instead of the default behavior of cycling through all choices. The latter is quite ineffective for long list.

First, let's make sure that the PowerShellGet module latest version is installed. In a regular PowerShell console, install it with the following command.

Install-Module -Name PowerShellGet -Force

Then, close all PowerShell consoles, including any opened by your favorite IDE such as VSCode. Open an admin-elevated regular command terminal (non-PowerShell) to install the latest version of PSReadLine.

"C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7-preview\preview\pwsh-preview.cmd" -noprofile -command "Install-Module PSReadLine -Force -SkipPublisherCheck -AllowPrerelease"

You might know or discover that PSReadline is already installed on Windows 10. It does not come with the latest version though. The updated version comes with important bug fixes and has a slicker behavior.

Slick PSReadLine autocompletion example

You will have to update your profile to automatically load it into your environment. Execute the following and that will be done.

# Create the Profile file if not already existing.
if (!(Test-Path $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost)) {
  New-Item $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost
}

$PSReadLine = "`n# PSReadline (Better tab completion)`nSet-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Tab -Function Complete"
Add-Content $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost $PSReadLine

ripgrep -- your regex recursive search tool

ℹ️ A must-have for its expanded features, multi-platform support and overall sheer performance.

scoop install ripgrep

There is no alternative on Windows installed by default. You could use the Select-String Powershell cmdlet but it is not recursive nor supports the full range of features and performance the ripgrep offers.

bat -- your cat clone, with wings

ℹ️ A must-have for its file highlighting, invisible characters display, integration with git and expanded features on top of the original cat.

scoop install bat

For example, the following bare minimum command invocation...

❯ bat .\windows-10-essential-cli-tools.md

...produces this highlighted Markdown output. Note the + signs on the left to indicate the recent git additions.

bat CLI example

fd -- your file finder

fd is a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find.

The standard way to find files on Windows is to use the search bar. That does not quite cut it while on the CLI. This Rust-written powered utility will provide fast and viable alternative to its find Linux counterpart.

scoop install fd

git -- your version control + git auto-completion

The popular distributed version control is installable via scoop.

scoop install git

To enable git autocompletion, install posh-git and enable it to your profile.

scoop install posh-git
Add-PoshGitToProfile

The second command will automatically add the necessary posh-git import to your $profile.CurrentUserCurrentHost file.

tldr -- your straight talkin' man pages

Community driven man pages improved with smart user interaction. tldr++ seperates itself from any other tldr client with convenient user guidance feature.

The tldr command is the functional equivalent of man pages: no longer you need to read pages and pages to make basic usage of a command. This helper provide you with most common use cases for using documented commands and helps you fill in proper command parameters once you selected a use case. I can't stress it enough but this tool super helpful.

scoop install tldr

The extra tools

A set of tools that might not be for all developers but quite nice to have on the CLI.

procs

A modern replacement for ps written in Rust.

The PowerShell Cmdlets such as get-process are nice but they won't provide an overview of the current process with a tree-like display or a top equivalent. The procs CLI tool will do just that.

scoop install procs

tokei

Tokei is a program that displays statistics about your code. Tokei will show the number of files, total lines within those files and code, comments, and blanks grouped by language.

Produces exhaustive statistics around your code repository. Evil managers will count how much new lines were added while great developers will try to minimize these.

scoop install tokei

tokei CLI example

touch

The classic POSIX command, popularized by Gunther in a ding dong moment.

scoop install touch

nushell

ℹ️ A promising shell that brings modernity to your everyday CLI home. It combines the pragmatism of veteran shells like bash while borrowing innovative ideas from Powershell, functional & system programming. Maturity is not its forte at this point but it's quite usable. Leveraging Rust and its speed, this means it's also cross-platform. Definitely worth to keep an eye on its future.

scoop install nu

docker -- your container tool

The one container solution that developers can't contain their jor for. ;)

scoop install docker

GitHub CLI

This will get the GitHub command-line in your shell environment.

scoop install gh

Example:

starship [🌊2412] on master [⇕] is 📦 v0.38.1 via 🦀 v1.42.0
➜ gh pr list

Showing 26 of 26 pull requests in starship/starship

#1047  New Crowdin translations                                         i18n_master
#1046  fix(python): Fix venv name not showing when using pyenv          andytom:fix/python_venv
#1035  fix: implement fallback branch_name for bare git repos           hrombach:fix-bare-git-repos
#1033  docs: Fix broken installation link anchor on README              jmfederico:patch-1
#1019  feat: Add Undistract Me Feature                                  schrieveslaach:undistract-me

gitignore (from psutils)

Fetches .gitignore file templates from gitignore.io and writes them to standard output.

scoop install gitignore

ℹ️ A must-have to generate a gitignore file based on a combination of your favorite tools! For example, if you are an unlikely Kotlin developer using vim to edit its files, the following would generate gitignore entries for both tools:

gitignore vim kotlin > .gitignore

Nodejs + npm

If you are not a node developer, you'll still need nodejs installed eventually as so many slick tools are now written with it.

scoop install nodejs

Yeoman

Yeoman is that one project scaffolding tool that will get you started real quick in your favorite programming language.

npm install -g yo

AWS CLI

This will get the AWS command-line in your shell environment.

scoop install aws

PsHosts

PsHosts is a PowerShell Module that provides Cmdlets for manipulating the local hosts file on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Supports tab completion for hostnames.

# Install with admin account with..
Install-Module PsHosts

# ..or with regular user but no creation/destruction commands will be permitted.
Install-Module PsHosts -Scope CurrentUser

sudo (from psutils)

A familiar tool to escalate permissions on the CLI.

scoop install sudo

The Windows Subsystem for Linux

The Windows Subsystem for Linux deserves a section of its own, as this requires some extra instructions. Not all developers might want it but this is an indispensable when required (or if you just prefer one of the Linux shell :neckbeard:).

ℹ️ A must-have to have a Linux shell and POSIX tools a command away. Use it for projects and environments that heavily relies on Linux tools and has no compatibility with the Microsoft CLI tools. The WSL is a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables (in ELF format) natively on Windows 10. Hence, with WSL enabled, Windows becomes a hybrid system that can adapt to the environments built for Linux command line environments (and potentially with POSIX compatible environments such as MacOSX), completely embracing these to provide the ultimate developer's experience.

Installation

The installation guide is over here, but... here are the steps, basically:

  1. Make sure the WSL is activated in your Windows 10 installation.
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

You will have to reboot if that wasn't already activated.

You have two choices next...

2.a. Head over to the Windows store to install your favorite Linux distribution. Here is the link for Ubuntu.

2.b. Or if you're a lazy programmer at heart and don't want to leave the comfort of the command-line (for Ubuntu 18/x64 arch):

Add-AppxPackage .\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_1804.2018.817.0_x64__79rhkp1fndgsc.Appx

Custom Linux distribution

Installing a custom distribution of your choice seems possible and some tools exist to make the task easy to perform. WSLInstall is one which will require you to run the tool on your favorite distribution.

Running the Linux shell using WSL

To start the installed distribution into your session, you can either start it from your Start menu or by executing the (wsl)[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/reference] command on the prompt. With no parameters, the command will launch your default distribution:

wsl

Once the Linux-flavored shell comes up (most likely bash), make sure to update your distribution to its latest:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Your distribution will keep its updates on the next WSL invocation, i.e. there is no need to re-run it every time. Make sure to run it once in a while though as this is no part of Windows 10 automated updates.

Graphical applications and misc

The Ubuntu Wiki page on WSL has many goodies on proper installation and even guidance on how to install graphical application using a X Server. I didn't try it myself.

Caveats

⚠️ A word of caution: Do not modify the Linux files using the Windows application and tools. For more information on that topic, head over at this link.

Troubleshooting

unable to start ssh-agent service, error :1058

It's possible that the ssh-agent service is currently not running. Check the status with that command:

Get-Service | Where {$_.name –eq 'ssh-agent'}

If the status is stopped, run that command to start it:

Start-Service -Name ssh-agent

This should start the ssh-agent.

I see  icons on the command-line

The fonts that the custom shells use are UTF-8, so you'll need UTF-8 fonts installed. You'll also need so-called "powerline" fonts. Fortunately, there's a simple script you can run to install a whole bunch of cool fonts that will work nicely on your consoles.

Here are the steps for installing the fonts. Open a PowerShell and enter the following commands:

You will need UTF-8 fonts installed that the custom themes make use of. You can get them via some github repository and by executing a PowerShell script with the following:

cd $projectDirectory
git clone https://github.com/powerline/fonts.git
.\install.ps1

With the help cmd, I keep seeing Get-Help cannot find the Help files for this cmdlet on this computer.

The help files are probably not available on your Windows installation. Open a PowerShell by running it as an administrator. You can't do that with the Windows Terminal: it has to be a PowerShell terminal. Once opened, simply running the help alias command should trigger the file download but you can explicitly ask for it by running this command:

Update-Help

All help files should be downloaded without any error. You can then have a help description on the next execution of the help alias command, even for non-admin users and in the Windows Terminal.

Git ask me non-stop for my passphrase

Follow steps as detailed in this StackOverflow answer. This is the simplest solution for Windows 10 that does not involve extra installation of tools whatsoever.

Credits

Clone this wiki locally