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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.

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change up n directories
Change n directories up, without parameters change one up

Find files that were modified by a given command
This has helped me numerous times trying to find either log files or tmp files that get created after execution of a command. And really eye opening as to how active a given process really is. Play around with -anewer, -cnewer & -newerXY

Change the ownership of all files owned by one user.
Finds all files in /home owned by UID 1056 and changes to 2056.

Remount root in read-write mode.
Saved my day, when my harddrive got stuck in read-only mode.

list block devices
Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.

Set laptop display brightness
Run as root. Path may vary depending on laptop model and video card (this was tested on an Acer laptop with ATI HD3200 video). $ cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness to discover the possible values for your display.

Install pip with Proxy
Installs pip packages defining a proxy

bulk rename files with sed, one-liner
Far from my favorite, but works in sh and with an old sed that doesn't support '-E'

rsync + find
use find with rsync

copy from host1 to host2, through your host
This is a 'nocd' alternative :)


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