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delay execution of a command that needs lots of memory and CPU time until the resources are available
[ 2000 -ge "$(free -m | awk '/buffers.cache:/ {print $4}')" ] returns true if less than 2000 MB of RAM are available, so adjust this number to your needs. [ $(echo "$(uptime | awk '{print $10}' | sed -e 's/,$//' -e 's/,/./') >= $(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo)" | bc) -eq 1 ] returns true if the current machine load is at least equal to the number of CPUs. If either of the tests returns true we wait 10 seconds and check again. If both tests return false, i.e. 2GB are available and machine load falls below number of CPUs, we start our command and save it's output in a text file. The ( ( ... ) & ) construct lets the command run in background even if we log out. See http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/3115/ .

Simplest port scanner
Very handy way to perform a host scan if you don't have nmap,ncat,nc ...or other tools installed locally. When executing a command on a /dev/tcp/$host/$port pseudo-device file, Bash opens a TCP connection to the associated socket and UDP connection when using /dev/udp/$host/$port.A simlpe way to get servers banner is to run this command "cat < /dev/tcp/localhost/25" , here you will get mail server's banner. NOTE: Bash, as packaged for Debian, does not support using the /dev/tcp and /dev/udp pseudo-device it's not enabled by default Because bash in Debian is compiled with ?disable-net-redirections.

Find the package that installed a command

Capture video of a linux desktop
Proper screencast with audio using ffmpeg and x264, as per http://verb3k.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/how-to-do-proper-screencasts-on-linux/

Mount a windows partition in a dual boot linux installation with write permission...[Read and Write]
If you have the library installed ntfs-3g, you will be able to mount the windows partition and write on it....

Dump root ext3 fs over ssh
...can do similar w/ tar, dd, xfsdump, e2fsdump, etc.

What is my public IP-address?
Short command, easy to remember

Run the last command as root - (Open)Solaris version with RBAC

find all active IP addresses in a network
Have to run as superuser... but easier and more informational if you are looking for actual devices. Need to install arp-scan.

Copy a file using pv and watch its progress
pv allows a user to see the progress of data through a pipeline, by giving information such as time elapsed, percentage completed (with progress bar), current throughput rate, total data transferred, and ETA. (man pv)


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