All commands (14,187)

  • This is a handy way to circumvent the "Maximum line length of 2048 exceeded" grep error. Once you have run the above command (or put it in your .bashrc), files can be searched using: lgrep search-string /file/to/search


    1
    lgrep() { string=$1; file=$2; awk -v String=${string} '$0 ~ String' ${file}; }
    dopeman · 2010-01-19 09:42:19 3
  • To also move the db backup to another location you could pass the output to the dd command instead of a file mysqldump -u user -h host -ppwd -B dbname | bzip2 -zc9 | dd ssh usr@server "dd of=db_dump"


    1
    mysqldump -u user -h host -ppwd -B dbname | bzip2 -zc9 > dbname.sql.bz2
    olaseni · 2010-01-19 07:34:21 3

  • 1
    perl -i~ -0777pe's/^/\!\#\/usr\/bin\/ksh\n/' testing
    azil · 2010-01-19 06:49:10 4
  • This command defragment the SQLite databases found in the home folder of the current Windows user. This is usefull to speed up Firefox startup. The executable sqlite3.exe must be located in PATH or in the current folder. In a script use: for /f "delims==" %%a in (' dir "%USERPROFILE%\*.sqlite" /s/b ') do echo vacuum;|"sqlite3.exe" "%%a" Show Sample Output


    -3
    for /f "delims==" %a in (' dir "%USERPROFILE%\*.sqlite" /s/b ') do echo vacuum;|"sqlite3.exe" "%a"
    vutcovici · 2010-01-18 20:56:00 6
  • It's very common to have cron jobs that send emails as their output, but the From: address is whatever account the cron job is running under, which is often not the address you want replies to go to. Here's a way to change the From: address right on the command line. What's happening here is that the "--" separates the options to the mail client from options for the sendmail backend. So the -f and -F get passed through to sendmail and interpreted there. This works on even on a system where postfix is the active mailer - looks like postfix supports the same options. I think it's possible to customize the From: address using mutt as a command line mailer also, but most servers don't have mutt preinstalled.


    10
    mail -s "subject" user@todomain.com <emailbody.txt -- -f customfrom@fromdomain.com -F 'From Display Name'
    dmmst19 · 2010-01-18 19:55:27 30
  • if firefox is running the database is locked, so you need to copy the places.sqlite file temporarily somewhere to be able to query it...


    2
    sqlite3 -list /home/$USER/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/places.sqlite 'select url from moz_places ;' | grep http
    bubo · 2010-01-18 15:25:00 3
  • http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-mpeg.html MEncoder can create MPEG (MPEG-PS) format output files. Usually, when you are using MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video, it is because you are encoding for a constrained format such as SVCD, VCD, or DVD. To change MEncoder's output file format, use the -of mpeg option. Creating an MPEG-1 file suitable to be played on systems with minimal multimedia support, such as default Windows installs: mencoder input.avi -of mpeg -mpegopts format=mpeg1:tsaf:muxrate=2000 \ -o output.mpg -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:vbitrate=1152:keyint=15:mbd=2:aspect=4/3


    1
    mencoder input.avi -of mpeg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video \ -oac copy other_options -o output.mpg
    slishan · 2010-01-18 13:12:03 3
  • Also look at xload


    1
    tload -s 10
    chinmaya · 2010-01-18 08:14:06 3

  • 0
    purple-remote "setstatus?status=Available&message=Checking libpurple"
    spsneo · 2010-01-17 23:48:17 4
  • Note: you'll want to set up pub-key ssh auth. Gives you a quick means of changing volume/tracks/etc for rhythmbox on a remote machine. E.g.: rc --next # Play next track rc --print-playing # Grab the name rc --volume-down rc --help


    9
    alias rc='ssh ${MEDIAPCHOSTNAME} env DISPLAY=:0.0 rhythmbox-client --no-start'
    rhythmx · 2010-01-17 19:43:43 6

  • -1
    watch -n 7 -d 'uptime | sed s/.*users?, //'
    matthewbauer · 2010-01-17 18:45:52 3
  • cat - concatenate MP3 files and save it... Show Sample Output


    -4
    # cat file1.mp3 file2.mp3 > file3.mp3
    svnlabs · 2010-01-17 13:18:34 5
  • CHANGELOG Version 1.1 removedir () { echo "You are about to delete the current directory $PWD Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=$(echo "$PWD" | sed 's/ /\\ /g'); foo=$(basename "$blah"); rm -Rf ../$foo/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; } BUG FIX: Folders with spaces Version 1.0 removedir () { echo "You are about to delete the current directory $PWD Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=`basename $PWD`; rm -Rf ../$blah/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; } BUG FIX: Hidden directories (.dotdirectory) Version 0.9 rmdir () { echo "You are about to delete the current directory $PWD. Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=`basename $PWD`; rm -Rf ../$blah/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; } Removes current directory with recursive and force flags plus basic human check. When prompted type yes 1. [user@host ~]$ ls foo bar 2. [user@host ~]$ cd foo 3. [user@host foo]$ removedir 4. yes 5. rm -Rf foo/ 6. [user@host ~]$ 7. [user@host ~]$ ls bar Show Sample Output


    -2
    removedir () { echo "Deleting the current directory $PWD Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=$(echo "$PWD" | sed 's/ /\\ /g'); foo=$(basename "$blah"); rm -Rf ../$foo/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; }
    oshazard · 2010-01-17 11:34:38 31
  • Combines a few repetitive tasks when compiling source code. Especially useful when a hypen in a file-name breaks tab completion. 1.) wget source.tar.gz 2.) tar xzvf source.tar.gz 3.) cd source 4.) ls From there you can run ./configure, make and etc. Show Sample Output


    -1
    wtzc () { wget "$@"; foo=`echo "$@" | sed 's:.*/::'`; tar xzvf $foo; blah=`echo $foo | sed 's:,*/::'`; bar=`echo $blah | sed -e 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/' -e 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/'`; cd $bar; ls; }
    oshazard · 2010-01-17 11:25:47 3

  • 2
    echo -e "swap=me\n1=2"|sed 's/\(.*\)=\(.*\)/\2=\1/g'
    axelabs · 2010-01-16 22:01:37 3
  • Will find all files containing "sample" in the current directory and in the directories below.


    -9
    find . -exec grep -l "sample" {} \;
    whoami · 2010-01-16 13:12:52 4

  • 6
    mwiki () { blah=`echo $@ | sed -e 's/ /_/g'`; dig +short txt $blah.wp.dg.cx; }
    oshazard · 2010-01-16 07:13:43 3
  • This is very similar to the first example except that it employs the 'exec' argument of the find command rather than piping the result to xargs. The second example is nice and tidy but different *NIXs may not have as capable a grep command.


    -1
    find . -name "*.php" -exec grep -il searchphrase {} \;
    unixmonkey7797 · 2010-01-16 05:09:30 4
  • I use this command (PS1) to show a list bash prompt's special characters. I tested it against A flavor of Red Hat Linux and Mac OS X Show Sample Output


    3
    alias PS1="man bash | sed -n '/ASCII bell/,/end a sequence/p'"
    haivu · 2010-01-15 23:39:28 3

  • -2
    hdid somefile.dmg
    rnoyfb · 2010-01-15 12:00:48 5
  • If you really _must_ use a loop, this is better than parsing the output of 'ps': PID=$! ;while kill -0 $PID &>/dev/null; do sleep 1; done kill -0 $PID returns 0 if the process still exists; otherwise 1


    0
    wait
    bhepple · 2010-01-15 04:03:11 5

  • -4
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/bigfile bs=1024k count=100
    wincus · 2010-01-15 00:44:44 4
  • shorter :p Show Sample Output


    2
    grep -rHi searchphrase *.php
    psybermonkey · 2010-01-15 00:23:25 5
  • This command will find all files recursively containing the phrase entered, represented here by "searchphrase". This particular command searches in all php files, but you could change that to just be html files or just log files etc. Show Sample Output


    2
    find . -name "*.php" | xargs grep -il searchphrase
    refrax · 2010-01-14 22:42:36 5
  • This will output the characters at 10 per second.


    124
    echo "You can simulate on-screen typing just like in the movies" | pv -qL 10
    dennisw · 2010-01-14 20:17:44 894
  • ‹ First  < 408 409 410 411 412 >  Last ›

What's this?

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.

Share Your Commands


Check These Out

Display all shell functions set in the current shell environment
Uses the shell builtin `declare` with the '-f' flag to output only functions to grep out only the function names. You can use it as an alias or function like so: alias shfunctions="builtin declare -f | command grep --color=never -E '^[a-zA-Z_]+\ \(\)'" shfunctions () { builtin declare -f | command grep --color=never -E '^[a-zA-Z_]+\ \(\)'; }

get the full description of a randomly selected package from the list of installed packages on a debian system
I put this command on my ~/.bashrc in order to learn something new about installed packages on my Debian/Ubuntu system each time I open a new terminal

Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS
Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

Return threads count of a process
Source: http://superuser.com/questions/49408/how-do-i-monitor-or-view-the-thread-count-of-a-certain-process-on-aix

check site ssl certificate dates
remotely connects to an https site, fetches the ssl certificate and displays the valid dates for the cert

Change MySQL Pager For Nicer Output

easily strace all your apache processes
This one-liner will use strace to attach to all of the currently running apache processes output and piped from the initial "ps auxw" command into some awk.

random xkcd comic
i sorta stole this from http://www.shell-fu.org/lister.php?id=878#MTC_form but it didn't work, so here it is, fixed. --- updated to work with jpegs, and to use a fancy positive look behind assertion.

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"

Show a config file without comments
Shows a file without comments (at least those starting by #) - removes empty lines - removes lines starting by # or "some spaces/tabs then #'" Useful when you want to quickly see what you have to customize on a freshly installed application without reading the comments that sometimes are a full 1000 lines documentation :) While posting, I saw this http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/1041/display-contents-of-a-file-wo-any-comments-or-blank-lines But it's dirty and incomplete, to my mind My original goal was to remove lines like "\t*#" but I can't figure out how to do a egrep '\t' on a command-line. Two workarounds if needed: $egrep -v 'press control + V then TAB then #' /your/file or $egrep -v -f some_file /your/file #where some_file contains what you want to exclude, example a really inserted TAB


Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for: