Jan 05 2025 8 mins 1
Yes, there's other tools that can make terminal output prettier on Linux. We all know that. But the "column" command is likely already there, on your system, waiting for you to use it.
With "column" you can get nice looking terminal output & JSON from terminal commands, without a lot of additional cruft!
I mentioned a few print materials in this episode, here's some links:
📖 The AWK book: https://archive.org/details/pdfy-MgN0H1joIoDVoIC7
📘 The K/P UNIX book: https://archive.org/details/unixprogramminge0000kern
🔐 1979's "Password Security: A Case History" by Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, which talks about how password encryption evolved in early UNIX: https://rist.tech.cornell.edu/6431papers/MorrisThompson1979.pdf
And here's the "support the channel" links (my video isn't sponsored):
👕 Buy my nerdy ethernet t-shirt: https://vkc.sh/merch
✨ Join the Patreon (with Discord/Matrix benefits): https://patreon.com/VeronicaExplains
☕ Or Ko-Fi if that's your jam (same benefits): https://ko-fi.com/VeronicaExplains
Chapters:
0:00 I say "greetings" and introduce the column command
0:58 Basic use of the column command
2:02 Piping more advanced commands into column
2:57 Column's table mode: unlocking power
4:18 Adding neat headers to our table so we can manipulate them
5:57 Getting JSON output from terminal commands using column
6:57 Conclusion: column is awesome
#linux #terminal #homelab
With "column" you can get nice looking terminal output & JSON from terminal commands, without a lot of additional cruft!
I mentioned a few print materials in this episode, here's some links:
📖 The AWK book: https://archive.org/details/pdfy-MgN0H1joIoDVoIC7
📘 The K/P UNIX book: https://archive.org/details/unixprogramminge0000kern
🔐 1979's "Password Security: A Case History" by Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, which talks about how password encryption evolved in early UNIX: https://rist.tech.cornell.edu/6431papers/MorrisThompson1979.pdf
And here's the "support the channel" links (my video isn't sponsored):
👕 Buy my nerdy ethernet t-shirt: https://vkc.sh/merch
✨ Join the Patreon (with Discord/Matrix benefits): https://patreon.com/VeronicaExplains
☕ Or Ko-Fi if that's your jam (same benefits): https://ko-fi.com/VeronicaExplains
Chapters:
0:00 I say "greetings" and introduce the column command
0:58 Basic use of the column command
2:02 Piping more advanced commands into column
2:57 Column's table mode: unlocking power
4:18 Adding neat headers to our table so we can manipulate them
5:57 Getting JSON output from terminal commands using column
6:57 Conclusion: column is awesome
#linux #terminal #homelab
