DevToys (a Swiss Army knife for developers) is a free and open-source tool for developers that is finally available now as a DEB package for Debian and Ubuntu-based distributions (no RPM version is currently available).
If you are unfamiliar with this tool, let me give a short introduction: it's a developer tool (a complete software suite) that offers a set of tiny offline tools to speed up the development process. Which includes:
| Group | Tool |
|---|---|
| Converters | Cron expression parser, convert data to a human-readable format, convert the JSON array to tabular format, convert JSON data to YAML, and convert a number from one base to another. |
| Encoders/Decoders | Encode and decode Base64 image data, encode and decode Base64 text data, encode and decode HTML text data, encode and decode JSON Web Token, encode and decode URLs, decide a certificate, compress and decompress a text in GZip, and read QR code from an image. |
| Formatters | Indent or minify JSON data, format SQL data, indent or minify XML data. |
| Generators | Calculate hashes from text or binary data, generate random text, generate random passwords, and generate UUIDs for versions 1 and 4. |
| Graphic | Simulate color blindness on a picture or screenshot and use a lossless image converter. |
| Testers | Test a JSON path, validate and test regular expressions, and validate XML data via an XSD scheme. |
| Text | Escape or unescape a string, compare two lists, preview a Markdown document with a GitHub-like render, analyze text and provide some basic utility tools, and compare two texts. |
Besides this, it comes in multiple languages, provides support for light and dark themes, offers a compact spacing option to reduce space between UI elements, and features smart text detection that automatically suggests the best tool based on the clipboard content.
Since version 2.0, it has also supported external extensions; developers can refer to the documentation to develop their own extension, and other users can browse the NuGet Marketplace for pre-made extensions.
If you are a developer, you should definitely give it a try. Now, let's see how to install DevToys on Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 23.04.
How to Install DevToys in Ubuntu
DevToys is available in two variants: a CLI for advanced users, capable of performing all supported operations in the terminal, and a GUI for users who prefer graphical interfaces.
To begin, first visit the DevToys GitHub release page and download the desired DevToys CLI or GUI version for either x64 desktop or ARM devices (e.g., Raspberry Pi).
Once the download is complete, navigate to the downloads directory and execute the following command to start the installation.
$ sudo dpkg -i devtoys_linux*.debIf you are installing it on other Debian or Ubuntu-based distributions such as Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, or Kali Linux, you can do so, but while installing it on Linux Mint, I encountered the "libwebkitgtk-6.0-4" error, so make sure to install this package before installing DevToys on Linux Mint.
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install libwebkitgtk-6.0-4Once the installation is complete, you must launch it either using root privileges or by using the following command with sudo privileges:
$ sudo devtoys
How to Uninstall DevToys from Ubuntu
To uninstall DevToys installed via the ".deb" package, use this command:
$ sudo apt remove --auto-remove devtoysDevToys is a quite useful tool that eliminates the need to visit untrusted sites for basic development tasks, wrapping all essential tools into one completely open-source application.
If you know of similar tools and are interested in sharing your thoughts, please leave a comment below.
