Luke Oliff · Blog
Writing.
Original posts, published first on this site. Imported posts live in the archive.
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220 posts
2026
TIL: Running TypeScript Directly With tsxOriginaltsx executes TypeScript files with zero config using esbuild under the hood. Faster than ts-node and handles ESM and CJS automatically.TIL
TIL: Chaining Shell Commands With && vs ; vs ||Original&& runs next only on success, ; runs unconditionally, || runs only on failure. Choosing the right operator prevents silent cascade failures in CI.TIL
2025
TIL: Finding Processes on a Port With lsof -iOriginallsof -i :PORT shows which process is holding a port. End the 'what is already running on 3000' guessing game for good.TIL
TIL: Reading Gzip Files Without Decompressing With zcatOriginalzcat pipes decompressed content to stdout without writing a temp file. Read compressed logs, CSVs, or JSON straight into your pipeline.TIL
TIL: Comparing Directory Trees With diff -rOriginaldiff -r compares two directories recursively, showing every file that differs. Verify that a build output matches between two branches.TIL
TIL: Generating Trusted Local HTTPS Certs With mkcertOriginalmkcert creates locally-trusted TLS certificates in one command. Your browser trusts them instantly — no more self-signed cert warnings.TIL
TIL: Running TypeScript Directly With ts-nodeOriginalts-node compiles and executes TypeScript in memory. No build step needed for quick scripts, REPL sessions, or SDK example testing.TIL
TIL: Finding Disk Usage Per Directory With du -shOriginaldu -sh gives a human-readable total per directory. Find the largest space hogs on a drive without clicking through a GUI.TIL
TIL: Deduplicating Lines With sort -uOriginalsort -u sorts and removes duplicate lines in one pass. Clean up word lists, logs, and API response extracts without writing a script.TIL
TIL: Formatting Terminal Output Into Tables With columnOriginalcolumn -t aligns whitespace-separated data into clean columns. Pipe any command output through it for instantly readable tables.TIL