All commands (14,187)

  • If you should happen to find yourself needing some binary numbers, this is a quickie way of doing it. If you need more digits, just add more "{0..1}" sequences for each digit you need. You can assign them to an array, too, and access them by their decimal equivalent for a quickie binary to decimal conversion (for larger values it's probably better to use another method). Note: this works in bash, ksh and zsh. For zsh, though, you'll need to issue a setopt KSH_ARRAYS to make the array zero-based. binary=({0..1}{0..1}{0..1}{0..1}) echo ${binary[9]} Show Sample Output


    18
    echo {0..1}{0..1}{0..1}{0..1}
    dennisw · 2009-06-23 17:30:20 11
  • order the files by modification (thanks stanishjohnd) time, one file per output line and filter first 10


    7
    ls -1t | head -n10
    wires · 2009-06-23 12:15:12 9
  • ditto can be used to "thinnify" Mach-O Universal binaries to separate unncessary code from your machine. For example, doubleTwist.app shaved off around 10 MB while Google Earth went from 112 MB to 62 MB after extracting only the i386 code from them.


    0
    ditto --arch i386 doubleTwist.app doubleTwist_i386.app
    thebillywayne · 2009-06-22 23:59:14 12
  • Thankfully, the ssh command allows you to specify multiple tunnels through the same server in one command. Remeber if you want a priviliged port on your machine, you must use root or sudo account. Show Sample Output


    9
    ssh -L :: -L :: @
    starchox · 2009-06-22 19:12:48 1652
  • Intended for dynamic ip OpenDNS users, this command will update your OpenDNS network IP. For getting your IP, you can use one of the many one-liners here on commandlinefu. Example: I use this in a script which is run by kppp after it has successfully connected to my ISP: --- #!/bin/bash IP="`curl -s http://checkip.dyndns.org/ | grep -o '[[:digit:].]\+'`" PW="hex-obfuscated-pw-here" if [ "$IP" == "" ] ; then echo 'Not online.' ; exit 1 else wget -q --user=topsecret --password="`echo $PW | xxd -ps -r`" 'https://updates.opendns.com/nic/update?hostname=myhostname&myip='"$IP" -O - /etc/init.d/ntp-client restart & fi --- PS: DynDNS should use a similar method, if you know the URL, please post a comment. (Something with members.dyndns.org, if I recall correctly) Show Sample Output


    5
    wget -q --user=<username> --password=<password> 'https://updates.opendns.com/nic/update?hostname=your_opendns_hostname&myip=your_ip' -O -
    Alanceil · 2009-06-22 18:08:42 24
  • This command gives you the number of lines of every file in the folder and its subfolders matching the search options specified in the find command. It also gives the total amount of lines of these files. The combination of print0 and files0-from options makes the whole command simple and efficient. Show Sample Output


    2
    find . -name "*.sql" -print0 | wc -l --files0-from=-
    vincentp · 2009-06-22 17:45:03 12
  • It works like a "tail -f" on several files. Use the number keys 0-9 to set a baseline in the numbered window. Pressing "b" let you scroll back in one of the windows.


    4
    multitail /var/log/messages /var/log/apache2/access.log /var/log/mail.info
    Neo23x0 · 2009-06-22 06:51:11 10
  • Uses logger in a while loop to log memory statistics frequently into the local syslog server.


    3
    while true; do { $(which logger) -p local4.notice `free -m | grep Mem`; sleep 60; } done &
    Neo23x0 · 2009-06-22 00:29:53 7
  • Command binds a set of commands to the F12 key. Feel free to alter the dashboard according to your own needs. How to find the key codes? Type read Then press the desired key (example: F5) ^[[15~ Try bind '"\e[15~"':"\"ssh su@ip-address\C-m""" or bind '"\e[16~"':"\"apachectl -k restart\C-m""" Show Sample Output


    18
    bind '"\e[24~"':"\"ps -elF;df -h;free -mt;netstat -lnpt;who -a\C-m"""
    Neo23x0 · 2009-06-21 23:57:20 81
  • !* is all of the arguments to the previous command rather than just the last one. This is useful in many situations. Here's a simple example: vi cd /stuff oops! [exit vi, twice] !* expands to: cd /stuff


    99
    !*
    Neo23x0 · 2009-06-21 17:58:01 20
  • This command securely erases all the unused blocks on a partition. The unused blocks are the "free space" on the partition. Some of these blocks will contain data from previously deleted files. You might want to use this if you are given access to an old computer and you do not know its provenance. The command could be used while booted from a LiveCD to clear freespace space on old HD. On modern Linux LiveCDs, the "ntfs-3g" system provides ReadWrite access to NTFS partitions thus enabling this method to also be used on Wind'ohs drives. NB depending on the size of the partition, this command could take a while to complete. Show Sample Output


    8
    # cd $partition; dd if=/dev/zero of=ShredUnusedBlocks bs=512M; shred -vzu ShredUnusedBlocks
    mpb · 2009-06-21 14:17:22 12

  • 3
    sudo sed 's/\o0/\n/g' "/proc/$(pidof -x firefox)/environ" ;# replace firefox
    plasticdoc · 2009-06-21 09:47:02 9
  • This command displays a clock on your terminal which updates the time every second. Press Ctrl-C to exit. A couple of variants: A little bit bigger text: watch -t -n1 "date +%T|figlet -f big" You can try other figlet fonts, too. Big sideways characters: watch -n 1 -t '/usr/games/banner -w 30 $(date +%M:%S)' This requires a particular version of banner and a 40-line terminal or you can adjust the width ("30" here). Show Sample Output


    48
    watch -t -n1 "date +%T|figlet"
    dennisw · 2009-06-21 01:02:37 39
  • sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1 sets hiberate on. sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 sets hibernate off. from the pmset man page: 0001 (bit 0) enables hibernation; causes OS X to write memory state to hibernation image at sleep time. On wake (without bit 1 set) OS X will resume from the hibernation image. Bit 0 set (without bit 1 set) causes OS X to write memory state and immediately hibernate at sleep time. I often change my MacBook's sleep state. So I created a function for bash to make it a little easier. Usage: hibernate (on | off) "hibernate on" will set your laptop to hibernate if the lid is closed. "hibernate off" will set your laptop to sleep if the lid is closed. ### note : "proper" indentation isn't preserved on the website function hibernate() { case "${1}" in on) sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1 echo Hibernate mode on. ;; off) sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 echo Hiberate mode off. ;; *) echo "I'm sorry Dave, but I can't do that." ;; esac } To make things easier, add the proper line in your /etc/sudoers file so that your user may invoke pmset without a password. Here's how mine looks: bwayne luna = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/pmset Don't forget that you must edit sudoers with `sudo visudo` from Terminal.app, and not by another text editor. Sorry this is so Mac OS specific. Show Sample Output


    -1
    sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1
    thebillywayne · 2009-06-20 22:52:10 8

  • 2
    svn status | grep '!' | sed 's/!/ /' | xargs svn del --force
    tarzantiger · 2009-06-20 13:01:07 6

  • 3
    mplayer dvdnav:// -dvd-device foo.img -mouse-movements
    dezza · 2009-06-19 23:03:04 7

  • 6
    unrar p -inul foo.rar|mplayer -
    dezza · 2009-06-19 22:40:01 7
  • The option -an disables audio recording, -f forces the use of video4linux for the input, -s sets the video to the size 320x240, -b sets the recording bitrate, -r sets the frame rate to 15fps, -i gives the input device, -vcodec sets the output format. Press Q to stop recording or you can specify the recording time with the -t option like -t 00:1:30


    3
    ffmpeg -an -f video4linux -s 320x240 -b 800k -r 15 -i /dev/v4l/video0 -vcodec mpeg4 myvideo.avi
    dcabanis · 2009-06-19 17:41:43 7
  • Encode video.avi into newvideo.avi using the libav codec to produce an MPEG4 file with a bitrate of 800


    1
    mencoder video.avi lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=800 newvideo.avi
    dcabanis · 2009-06-19 17:30:46 7
  • video.avi is the resulting file. Press Ctrl+c to stop the recording. You can change the OVC option to another to record into a different format.


    1
    mencoder -tv device=/dev/video1 tv:// -ovc copy -o video.avi
    dcabanis · 2009-06-19 17:21:33 7
  • GNU Sed can 'address' between two regex, but it continues parsing through to the end of the file. This slight alteration causes it to terminate reading the input file once the STOP match is made. In my example I have included an extra '/START/d' as my 'start' marker line contains the 'stop' string (I'm extracting data between 'resets' and using the time stamp as the 'start'). My previous coding using grep is slightly faster near the end of the file, but overall (extracting all the reset cycles in turn) the new SED method is quicker and a lot neater. Show Sample Output


    3
    sed -n '/START/,${/STOP/q;p}'
    mungewell · 2009-06-19 15:27:36 11

  • -5
    ga
    miccaman · 2009-06-19 12:20:10 5
  • insert filename Normal mode: "%p Insert mode: %


    1
    :r! echo %
    miccaman · 2009-06-19 12:17:28 13
  • src: daily vim blog


    3
    :source ~/.vimrc
    miccaman · 2009-06-19 12:14:55 6

  • 2
    :set nomore :argdo %s/foo/bar/g | update
    miccaman · 2009-06-19 12:12:33 25
  • ‹ First  < 483 484 485 486 487 >  Last ›

What's this?

commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.

Share Your Commands


Check These Out

change user & preserver environment (.bashrc&co)

Go to the next sibling directory in alphabetical order, version 2
Another version based on linkinpark342's contribution. Sometimes you have to browse your way through a lot of sub-directories. This command cd to the next sub-directory in alphabetical order. For example, if you have the directories "lectures/01-intro", "lectures/02-basic", "lectures/03-advanced" and so on, and your PWD is "02-basic", it jumps to "03-advanced".

Configuring proxy client on terminal without leaving password on screen or in bash_history
Prompts the user for username and password, that are then exported to http_proxy for use by wget, yum etc Default user, webproxy and port are used. Using this script prevent the cleartext user and pass being in your bash_history and on-screen

reverse order of file
awk reverse order of lines (emulates "tac")

Create a backup of the file.
It will create a backup of the filename. The advantage is that if you list the folder the backups will be sorted by date. The command works on any unix in bash.

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.

Display current bandwidth statistics
ifstat, part of ifstat package, is a tool for displaying bandwidth and other statistics. The -n option avoid to display header periodically, the -t option put a timestamp at the beginning of the line. Works for me on Debian and CentOS

create ICO file with more than one image
requires imagemagick. -background transparent is of course optional.

Fastest segmented parallel sync of a remote directory over ssh
Mirror a remote directory using some tricks to maximize network speed. lftp:: coolest file transfer tool ever -u: username and password (pwd is merely a placeholder if you have ~/.ssh/id_rsa) -e: execute internal lftp commands set sftp:connect-program: use some specific command instead of plain ssh ssh:: -a -x -T: disable useless things -c arcfour: use the most efficient cipher specification -o Compression=no: disable compression to save CPU mirror: copy remote dir subtree to local dir -v: be verbose (cool progress bar and speed meter, one for each file in parallel) -c: continue interrupted file transfers if possible --loop: repeat mirror until no differences found --use-pget-n=3: transfer each file with 3 independent parallel TCP connections -P 2: transfer 2 files in parallel (totalling 6 TCP connections) sftp://remotehost:22: use sftp protocol on port 22 (you can give any other port if appropriate) You can play with values for --use-pget-n and/or -P to achieve maximum speed depending on the particular network. If the files are compressible removing "-o Compression=n" can be beneficial. Better create an alias for the command.

Switch all connected PulseAudio bluetooth devices to A2DP profile
Tries to switch all audio devices to the A2DP profile for optimal sound quality. Useful for bluetooth speakers and headphones that always power up in HSP/HFP mode. Note however that this command is only a shorthand for the GUI, so it cannot fix stubborn BT controllers that leave your device stuck in HSP mode until a manual re-coupling.


Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for: