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

Extract tar.gz file with original permission
-x, --extract, --get extract files from an archive -p, --preserve-permissions, --same-permissions extract information about file permissions (default for superuser) -f, --file=ARCHIVE use archive file or device ARCHIVE -v, --verbose verbosely list files processed

Edit 2 or more files in vim using vim -d
Use vim's diff mode to edit two or more files in one window. The '+diffoff!' turns off diff highlighting when the session is started. Use ctrl+w + ctrl+w to switch between windows.

Send your terminfo to another machine
I frequently use this trick to send my terminal settings to HPUX and older RHEL systems. This is due to the fact that terminfo support for rxvt-unicode (my preferred terminal app) does not exist on many older Linux and Unices.

Avoiding history file to be overwritten
If histappend options is set in bash, the file .bash_history will not be overwrite and history list is append to it.

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"

Copy a folder with progress with pv

Pronounce an English word using Merriam-Webster.com
Looks up a word on merriam-webster.com, does a screen scrape for the FIRST audio pronunciation and plays it. USAGE: Put this one-liner into a shell script (e.g., ~/bin/pronounce) and run it from the command line giving it the word to say: $ pronounce lek If the word isn't found in merriam-webster, no audio is played and the script returns an error value. However, M-W is a fairly complete dictionary (better than howjsay.com which won't let you hear how to pronounce naughty words). ASSUMPTIONS: GNU's sed (which supports -r for extended regular expressions) and Linux's aplay. Aplay can be replaced by any program that can play .WAV files from stdin. KNOWN BUGS: only the FIRST pronunciation is played, which is problematic if you wanted a particular form (plural, adjectival, etc) of the word. For example, if you run this: $ pronounce onomatopoetic you'll hear a voice saying "onomatopoeia". Playing the correct form of the word is possible, but doing so might make the screen scraper even more fragile than it already is. (The slightest change to the format of m-w.com could break it).

Update program providing java on Debian
Lets you set all the java alternatives at once to a matching version. Also has options for just changing the jre or the plugin.

Indent a one-liner.
Bash builtin type also indents the function.


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