Skip to main content

10 - 3rd party linux tools

gog: manage google ecosystem​

Setup​

To use gog, you first need OAuth permissions. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Google Cloud Console (https://console.cloud.google.com/apis).
  2. Create or select a project.
  3. Enable the Gmail API and Google Calendar API:
    • Go to "APIs & Services" > Library.
    • Search for "Gmail API" and "Google Calendar API," then enable both.
  4. Create OAuth 2.0 credentials:
    • Go to "APIs & Services" > "Credentials."
    • Click "Create Credentials" > "OAuth Client ID."
    • Choose "Desktop App" or "Other" as the application type.
    • Download the client_secret.json file after it’s created.

Obsidian CLI​

The obsidian cli is run with the obsidian command which brings up a TUI (interactive CLI). The TUI and CLI are only available if the Obsidian app is currently open.

Vault Commands​

These commands run in the context of the current vault you have open in obsidian

  • daily: opens today's daily note in the current vault
  • daily:append: appends content to the daily note, and then you can pass in key=value arguments.
  • search: searches the current vault, and then you can pass in key=value arguments.
  • create: creates a new note, and then you can pass in key=value arguments.
# Open today's daily note
obsidian daily

# Add a task to your daily note
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Buy groceries"

# Search your vault
obsidian search query="meeting notes"

# Read the active file
obsidian read

# List all tasks from your daily note
obsidian tasks daily

# Create a new note from a template
obsidian create name="Trip to Paris" template=Travel

# Create a new note with content
obsidian create name=Note content="# Title\n\nBody text"

# List all tags in your vault with counts
obsidian tags counts

# Compare two versions of a file
obsidian diff file=README from=1 to=3

Switching vaults​

you can run vault commands in a different vault by specifying the vault name you want to target with the vault= command:

obsidian vault=Notes daily

Opening a vault​

Open a vault from the TUI with the vault:open command, passing the name of the vault:

vault:open name=<name>        # (required) vault name

ImageMagick​

You can install this CLI tool using brew on mac.

The basics of using it follow this pattern:

magick [input-options] input-file [output-options] output-file

Basics​

Here are the 9 most common use cases:

  1. Convert an image to a different format

To convert a JPEG to a PNG, simply specify the new file extension in the output file name. 

magick input.jpg output.png
  1. Resize an image

  • Resize to specific dimensions: To fit an image within a given width and height while maintaining its aspect ratio, use the -resize option.

    magick input.png -resize 800x600 output.png

  • Force specific dimensions: To stretch or shrink an image to an exact size, ignoring the aspect ratio, add an exclamation mark (!).

    magick input.png -resize 800x600! output.png

  • Resize by percentage: Use a percentage value to scale the image proportionally.

    magick input.png -resize 50% output.png

     

  1. Crop an image

Crop an image by specifying the width, height, and starting position (+x+y). The coordinates are from the top-left corner. 

magick input.png -crop 200x200+50+50 output.png
  1. Rotate and flip an image

  • Rotate: Rotate an image by a specified number of degrees.

    magick input.png -rotate 90 output.png

  • Flip (vertical): Flip the image along its horizontal axis.

    magick input.png -flip output.png

  • Flop (horizontal): Flip the image along its vertical axis.

    magick input.png -flop output.png

     

  1. Add text to an image

Use the -annotate and -draw options to add text. The example below adds "Hello World" at a specific location. 

magick input.png -pointsize 48 -fill white -annotate +20+50 "Hello World" output.png
  1. Add a watermark or composite images

The composite command overlays one image on another. 

composite watermark.png input.png output.png

You can also do this with magick, which can be more versatile for complex operations. 

magick input.png watermark.png -composite output.png
  1. Create a GIF animation

Combine a series of images into a single animated GIF. The -delay option sets the time between frames in hundredths of a second. 

magick -delay 20 -loop 0 image1.png image2.png image3.png animation.gif
  • -delay 20: 20 hundredths of a second (0.2 seconds) between frames.
  • -loop 0: Infinite loop. 
  1. Batch processing with mogrify

To apply the same change to many files at once, use mogrify. It directly modifies files, so it's a good idea to back up your images first. 

  • Resize all JPEGs in a directory:

    magick mogrify -resize 800x600 *.jpg

  • Convert all JPEGs to PNGs:

    magick mogrify -format png *.jpg
  1. Identify image information

Use the identify command to get detailed information about an image. 

magick identify -verbose input.png

Playing sounds​

Playing sounds on a mac

This is some built in code for zsh that allows us to play system sounds:

afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff

saying text

This is how to do robotic text to speech: use the say command

say 'process complete'