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detach remote console for long running operations
Starts midnightcommander and allows you to detach the console; use ctrl-\ to detach Then at a later time you can reconnect using $ dtach -a /tmp/wires-mc In my experience dtach works much better for programs like irssi, mutt, mc, aptitude than screen does.

Convert CSV to JSON
Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

generate random password
-B flag = don't include characters that can be confused for other characters (this helps when you give someone their password for the first time so they don't cause a lockout with, for example, denyhosts or fail2ban) -s flag = make a "secure", or hard-to-crack password -y flag = include special characters (not used in the example because so many people hate it -- however I recommend it) "1 10" = output 1 password, make it 10 characters in length For even more secure passwords please use the -y flag to include special characters like so: $ pwgen -Bsy 10 1 output>> }&^Y?.>7Wu

Generate Random Text based on Length
Random text of length "$1" without the useless cat command.

copy audio file from playlist to a floder
copy some file from xx.m3u to target folder

Unaccent an entire directory tree with files.
This command changes all filename and directories within a directory tree to unaccented ones. I had to do this to 'sanitize' some samba-exported trees. The reason it works might seem a little difficult to see at first - it first reverses-sort by pathname length, then it renames only the basename of the path. This way it'll always go in the right order to rename everything. Some notes: 1. You'll have to have the 'unaccent' command. On Ubuntu, just aptitude install unaccent. 2. In this case, the encoding of the tree was UTF-8 - but you might be using another one, just adjust the command to your encoding. 3. The program might spit a few harmless errors saying the files are the same - not to fear.

Watch the progress of 'dd'
The 'dd' command doesn't provide a progress when writing data. So, sending the "USR1" signal to the process will spit out its progress as it writes data. This command is superior to others on the site, as it doesn't require you to previously know the PID of the dd command.

Which processes are listening on a specific port (e.g. port 80)
swap out "80" for your port of interest. Can use port number or named ports e.g. "http"

Sort your music
This will mv all your mp3 files in the current directory to $ARTIST/$ALBUM/$NAME.mp3 Make sure not to use sudo - as some weird things can happen if the mp3 file doesn't have id3 tags.

Rips CDs (Playstation, etc.) and names the files the same as the volume name


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