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Prepend a text to a file.
The original command is great, but I often want to prepend to every line.

from the console, start a second X server
This starts a very basic X session, with just a simple xterm. You can use this xterm to launch your preferred distant session. $ ssh -X john@otherbox gnome-session Try also startkde or fluxbox or xfce4-session. To switch between your two X servers, use CTRL+ALT+F7 and CTRL+ALT+F8.

List all symbolic links in current directory
With this version, you can list all symlinks in the current directory (no subdirectories), and have it list both the link and the target.

Remove security limitations from PDF documents using ghostscript (for Windows)
#4345 also works under windows

Maximum PNG compression with optipng, advpng, and advdef
optipng and advancecomp (for the the advpng and advdef tools) are the best FOSS tools for losslessly compressing PNGs. With the above tool chain, you can cut off as much as 20% off a PNG's file size.

Execute multiple commands from history
Assuming that 219,229 and 221 are entries in history, I recall them in a single line for execute multiple commands 219 ifdown wlan0 ... 221 ifup wlan0 ... 229 iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed so the result is execution of # ifdown wlan0 ; iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed ; ifup wlan0

bash pause command
Waiting for a key stroke. You can use this with a ";" behind to build a command chain.

shortcut to scp a file to the same location on a remote machine
This will copy a file from your current directory to the same location on another machine. Handy for configuring ha, copying your resolv.conf, .bashrc, anything in /usr/local, etc.

network interface and routing summary

Exit mc with 2 keystrokes
For those who like to hit instead of typing "exit" to leave the shell and find it annoying that it doesn't work in Midnight Commander, just press to switch to the subshell and now you can leave with


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