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invoke MATLAB functions from command line
`-r script.m` also possible

Run a program transparently, but print a stack trace if it fails
For automated unit tests I wanted my program to run normally, but if it crashed, to add a stack trace to the output log. I came up with this command so I wouldn't have to mess around with core files. The one downside is that it does smoosh your program's stderr and stdout together.

Get the size of all the directories in current directory (Sorted Human Readable)
as per eightmillion's comment. Simply economical :)

Grab mp3 files from your favorite netcasts, mp3blog, or sites that often have good mp3s
This was gotten from http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000573.html. The line will grab all the mp3 files on the urls listed in text file sourceurls.txt (one url per line) . A much more complete breakdown of the line can be found at the web site mentioned above.

Dump HTTP header using wget
Let me suggest using wget for obtaining the HTTP header only as the last resort because it generates considerable textual overhead. The first ellipsis of the sample output stands for Spider mode enabled. Check if remote file exists. --2009-03-31 20:42:46-- http://www.example.com/ Resolving www.example.com... 208.77.188.166 Connecting to www.example.com|208.77.188.166|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... and the second one looks for Length: 438 [text/html] Remote file exists and could contain further links, but recursion is disabled -- not retrieving.

Generate a list of installed packages on Debian-based systems
This command is useful when you want to install the same packages on another fresh OS install for example. To do that, use: $ sudo dpkg --set-selections < LIST_FILE

Remove leading zeros in multiple columns with sed
Leading zeros might help correct sorting and they can be removed by sed after sorting

Update all Docker Images

Test your bash skills.

"I Feel Lucky" for Google Images
prompts for a search term and then pulls down the first result from google images


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