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Copy a file to a new directory created on the fly
You need to cp, mv, scp, ..., some files around from one place to another, and after having laboriously typed out the source path, you remember that the destination directory doesn't yet exist, and so the command will fail. So rather than killing the command line and starting over, just interpolate the results of creating the directory and echo its name. You could DRY this with a for; do; done, but that may be more trouble than it's worth.

extract content of a Debian package

ThePirateBay.org torrent search
usage: tpb searchterm example: tpb the matrix trilogy This searches for torrents from thepiratebay and displays the top results in reverse order, so the 1st result is at the bottom instead of the top -- which is better for command line users

Get your outgoing IP address

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.

list files recursively by size

Single use vnc-over-ssh connection
This command 1. SSH into a machine 2. Tunnels VNC port to your local computer ("-L 5900:localhost:5900") 3. Runs a single use vnc server ("x11vnc -safer -localhost -nopw -once -display :0") 4. Goes into the background ("-f") 5. Runs VNC viewer on the local computer connecting to the remote machine via the newly created SSH tunnel ("vinagre localhost:5900")

edit, view or execute last modified file with a single key-press
Copy this function to command line, press 'Enter' 'f'' 'Enter' to execute (sentence on the left written only for newbies). Hint 'e|x|v|1..9' in front of displayed last modified file name means: "Press 'e' for edit,'x' for execute,'v' for view or a digit-key '1..9' to touch one file from the recent files list to be last modified" and suggested (hidden files are listed too, else remove 'a' from 'ls -tarp' statement if not intended). If you find this function useful you can then rename it if needed and append or include into your ~/.bashrc config script. With the command $ . ~/.bashrc the function then can be made immediately available. In the body of the function modifications can be made, i.e. replaced joe editor command or added new option into case statement, for example 'o) exo-open $h;;' command for opening file with default application - or something else (here could not be added since the function would exceed 255 chars). To cancel execution of function started is no need to press Ctrl-C - if the mind changed and want to leave simple Enter-press is enough. Once defined, this function can with $ typeset -f f command be displayed in easy readable form

Create date based backups
This script creates date based backups of the files. It copies the files to the same place the original ones are but with an additional extension that is the timestamp of the copy on the following format: YearMonthDay-HourMinuteSecond

Text to image with transparent background
Create transparent image to use as icon, watermark for other images, etc.


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