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Create patch file for two directories

start a vnc server session to connect to a gdm login screen

Set random background image in gnome
Changes your desktop background image in gnome. Update the directory to wherever you keep your wallpapers. I like to create a sub-directory in my Wallpaper folder called "cycle" that I use to define the wallpapers I wish to loop in cron. ex: $ gconftool-2 -t str -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$(find ~/Wallpapers/cycle -type f | shuf -n1)"

Press a key automatically
Press a key automatically via xvkbd.

Convert multiple flac files to mp3
make sure that flac and lame are installed sudo apt-get install lame flac

Find out the starting directory of a script
Invoked from within a shell script, this will print the directory in which the script resides. Doesn't depend on external tools, /proc/self/*, etc.. (`echo` is a shell builtin.) To see the *current working* directory of a script, use `pwd`.

Lists all usernames in alphabetical order
Save some CPU, and some PIDs. :)

Search commandlinefu.com from the command line using the API
for me the above command didn't work for more than one argument but this one does

sort the output of the 'du' command by largest first, using human readable output.
In this case I'm just grabbing the next level of subdirectories (and same level regular files) with the --max-depth=1 flag. leaving out that flag will just give you finer resolution. Note that you have to use the -h switch with both 'du' and with 'sort.'

prevent accidents while using wildcards
alternative for "echo rm *.txt". Just doubletab the command you are willing to use and it will show you the affected files.


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