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create an uncompressed tar file of each child directory of the current working directory
First, use find to find directories exactly one level below current directory, then create a tar file using the directory as the basename.

Run skype using your GTK theme
I use this to make skype blend better into my desktop :) --disable-cleanlooks might not be nescessary to achieve the wanted effect.

Wait for an already launched program to stop before starting a new command.
Referring to the original post, if you are using $! then that means the process is a child of the current shell, so you can just use `wait $!`. If you are trying to wait for a process created outside of the current shell, then the loop on `kill -0 $PID` is good; although, you can't get the exit status of the process.

Find the package that installed a command

Delete all flash cookies.
Maybe you want first check which files will be deleted: $ find $HOME -name '*.sol' -exec echo rm {} \;

Commit only newly added files to subversion repository

convert unixtime to human-readable with awk
- convert unixtime to human-readable with awk - useful to read logfiles with unix-timestamps, f.e. squid-log: sudo tail -f /var/log/squid3/access.log | awk '{ print strftime("%c ", $1) $0; }

Normalize volume output in MPlayer
Works really well for playing DVDs, which have the volume turned way down for some reason. The `2' method is better IMHO because it will adjust to changing loud/soft parts. If you want to add it to your ~/.mplayer/config: # format: volnorm[=method:target] # method: # 1: use single sample (default) # 2: multiple samples # target: # default is 0.25 af-add=volnorm=2:0.75

how to allow a program to listen through the firewall
To allow a program ("programmaautorizzato" in example) to listen through the firewall

Determine if a command is in your $PATH using POSIX
it is generally advised to avoid using which(1) whenever possible. which(1) is usually a csh(1) script, or sometimes a compiled binary. It's output is highly variable from operating system to operating system, so platform independent scripts could become quite complicated with the logic. On HP-UX 10.20, for example, it prints "no bash in /path /path /path ..."; on OpenBSD 4.1, it prints "bash: Command not found."; on Debian (3.1 through 5.0 at least) and SuSE, it prints nothing at all; on Red Hat 5.2, it prints "which: no bash in (/path:/path:...)"; on Red Hat 6.2, it writes the same message, but on standard error instead of standard output; and on Gentoo, it writes something on stderr. And given all these differences, it's still variable based on your shell. This is why POSIX is king. See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/081 for more ways on avoiding which(1).


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