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Reload all sysctl variables without reboot
Reload all defined kernel variables from /etc/sysctl.conf(if no parameter after -p is given) without the old myth "Ah, you'll need to reboot to apply those variables"...

Remove Suspend option from XFCE logoff dialog

Get the full path of a bash script's Git repository head.
Rather than complicated and fragile paths relative to a script like "../../other", this command will retrieve the full path of the file's repository head. Safe with spaces in directory names. Works within a symlinked directory. Broken down: $cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" temporarily changes directories within this expansion. Double quoted "$(dirname" and ")" with unquoted ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} allows spaces in the path. $git rev-parse --show-toplevel gets the full path of the repository head of the current working directory, which was temporarily changed by the "cd".

A Console-based Audio Visualizer for ALSA
# Installing apt search cava sudo apt install cava # modify the default config to change the colors by their hex color code cava -p mkdir ~/.cava nano ~/.cava/config cava # run with changes!

Two command output
Summarize established connections after netstat output. Using tee and /dev/stderr you can send one command output to terminal before executing wc so you can summarize at the bottom of the output.

Update a tarball
This will update the tarball, adding files that have changed since the last update. This assumes that the tarball is in the same directory as the files being archived. N.B. This command can't be used on compressed tarballs. N.B. This will add the updated files to the tarball, so that the tarball will have two versions of each file. This will make the tarball larger, but doesn't have any other significant effect.

ROT13 using the tr command

Get your public ip

PRINT LINE the width of screen or specified using any char including Colors, Escapes and metachars
One of the first functions programmers learn is how to print a line. This is my 100% bash builtin function to do it, which makes it as optimal as a function can be. The COLUMNS environment variable is also set by bash (including bash resetting its value when you resize your term) so its very efficient. I like pretty-output in my shells and have experimented with several ways to output a line the width of the screen using a minimal amount of code. This is like version 9,000 lol. This function is what I use, though when using colors or other terminal features I create separate functions that call this one, since this is the lowest level type of function. It might be better named printl(), but since I use it so much it's more optimal to have the name contain less chars (both for my programming and for the internal workings). If you do use terminal escapes this will reset to default. $ tput sgr0 For implementation ideas, check my http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html

Fast tape rewind
Traditionally we rewind a tape using this syntaxis: $ mt -f /dev/rmt/0cbn rewind Redirecting the dispositive to nothing as shown above is faster. Less typing is always better.


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