this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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Still using these obsolete Linux commands? They might be popular from the olden days but perhaps it is time to look for alternatives.

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[–] pkjqpg1h@lemmy.zip 95 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Replacement:

  • scprsync or sftp

  • egrep --> grep -E

  • fgrep --> grep -F

  • netstat --> ss

    • arp --> ip n
    • route --> ip route
    • iptunnel --> ip tunnel
    • nameif --> ip link
  • ifconfig --> ip

  • iwconfig --> iw

  • iptables --> nftables

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 32 points 2 days ago (2 children)

rsync is cool but is nowhere a replacement for scp's main use case. scp actually uses your SSH client settings file, whereas rsync doesn't (it does have the opportunity to use a SSH command, which you then have to setup separately).

[–] Brummbaer@pawb.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I get what you mean. In every distro I used so far rsync did use ssh by default so it would honor everything I set in the ssh config.

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Not everything however. For it to catch some options , for example SOCKS bridges, you have to use the SSH passthrough notation aka rsync -e 'ssh bridgename...' --rsync-options.... And ofc if you have to load a different SSH conffile, you have to use the while passthrough for that as well, there's no rsync native option to load a SSH conffile: rsync -e 'ssh -F conffile ssh_options...' --rsync-options....

[–] poinck@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I am guilty of using scp. Glad to see that there is a reimplementation going on.

[–] Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Seriously who thought that ss is a good command name.

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah! I'm scared of snakes and ss reminds me of them

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago

I don't even want to know where this "rail car" is going 😫

[–] stewie410@programming.dev 9 points 1 day ago

iptables --> nftables

And if you really want the iptables UX, iptables-nft is also an option (at least on Debian). While I prefer firewalld most of the time on a server, my boss really wants to stick with the same tools he's used for 20yr; so iptables-nft it is.