Nushell – A Modern Command Interpreter

Nushell is a free, modern, and interactive command interpreter, with powerful functions, yet easy to use. It’s designed for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What is Nushell?

As we’ve already mentioned, Nushell is a command interpreter. These are programs used to control a computer using text commands. Another name for them is shell, which was obviously the inspiration for Nushell. Well-known command interpreters include Bash, Zsh, PowerShell, etc. Once, knowing how to work with them was essential for anyone considered computer literate. With the development of graphical user interfaces, this claim has only been relativized, though it’s far from untrue.

Nushell works with structured data in an interactive way. Unlike classic shell programs that display data as plain text, Nushell structures it into tables, which are more natural and easier to view and analyze. For example, if you enter a command to display a list of files, Nushell will show them in a table with columns such as name, size, creation date, etc.

Nushell is built in the Rust programming language, known for its high performance and security. This command interpreter comes with a set of useful commands for working with files, searching, filtering, and analyzing data. The commands are designed to be intuitive to input and easy to read, so they can be used even by non-programmers. You can easily add your own commands and customize the shell’s behavior. Nushell has a powerful scripting language. Users can use it to automate tasks, manipulate data, and filter results. The syntax is simple and understandable.

Basic Nushell Commands

We’ll list just a few commands that everyone will use if they try Nushell.

The application is started with the command nu
ls – Returns a list of files and directories in the current directory
cd – Changes the current directory
open – Opens and gives the content of the file
help – Displays a list of all available commands and their explanations

An example of simplicity and readability, if you want to see the five largest files in a folder, enter:

ls | sort-by size | reverse | first 5

For everything else, first check the book in HTML format, and then the list of all commands.

Who Needs Nushell?

Nushell is an attempt to make command interpreters trendy again. It was created with the aim of combining the best features of traditional programs of this type with modern tools and languages. It’s adapted to contemporary users. To increase readability, colors and text formatting are used. It easily integrates with existing tools and commands. It can open many types of files, such as Excel, JSON, MD, SQLite. Nushell exists for all three major operating systems, so you can apply the same commands on different platforms.

Besides the praises we’ve mentioned, we should note that learning to work, and the work itself in a graphical environment is easier. Also, there are commands written for other command interpreters that may not work in Nushell.

Nushell is in active development, currently in version 0.96. Many tasks are performed faster this way, from the command line, than from the graphical user interface. It helps you better understand how the operating system works. It’s good for beginners and advanced users. If you’ve wanted to learn to work in the command line, Nushell is the right choice for you.

Platform:
Windows, Linux, and macOS