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Set a posix shell to echo all commands that it's about to execute, after all expansions have been done.
the 'set -x' mode can be exited by typing $ set +x

Find the package that installed a command

Reuse last parameter
Reuse the last parameter of the previous command line

Renaming a file without overwiting an existing file name
Sometimes in a hurry you may move or copy a file using an already existent file name. If you aliased the cp and mv command with the -i option you are prompted for a confirmation before overwriting but if your aliases aren't there you will loose the target file! The -b option will force the mv command to check if the destination file already exists and if it is already there a backup copy with an ending ~ is created.

Mount important virtual system directories under chroot'ed directory
The command is useful when, e.g., booting an existing system with a rescue or installation CD where you need to chroot into the hard-disk and be able to do stuff which accesses kernel info (e.g. when installing Ubuntu desktop with LVM2 you need to mount and chroot the hard disk from a shell window in order to install packages and run initramfs inside chroot). The command assumes that /mnt/xxx is where the chroot'ed environment's root file system on the hard disk is mounted.

Open a file with specified application.
This command require mac os x.

draw line separator
Even shorter: $ seq -s '*' 120|tr -d '[0-9]'

create an uncompressed tar file of each child directory of the current working directory
First, use find to find directories exactly one level below current directory, then create a tar file using the directory as the basename.

Find top 10 largest files in /var directory (subdirectories and hidden files included )
Should work even when very large files exist.

Edit file(s) that has been just listed
That will open vi with the four README files in different viewports. Specially handy when you find there is only one file matching your pattern and you don't want to specify the full path.


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