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Test file system performance
You need bonnie++ package for this. More detail than a simple hdparm -t /dev/sda would give you. the -d is the directory where it performs writes/reads for example I use /tmp/scratch with 777 permissions Bonnie++ benchmarks three things: data read and write speed, number of seeks that can be performed per second, and number of file metadata operations that can be performed per second.

Change Title of Terminal Window to Verbose Info useful at Login
I usually have 5 or more ssh connections to various servers, and putting this command in my .bash_profile file makes my putty window or x terminal window title change to this easily recognizable and descriptive text. Includes the username, group, server hostname, where I am connecting from (for SSH tunneling), which device pts, current server load, and how many processes are running. You can also use this for your PROMPT_COMMAND variable, which updates the window title to the current values each time you exec a command. I prefix running this in my .bash_profile with $ [[ ! -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] && which makes sure it only does this when connecting via SSH with a TTY. Here's some rougher examples from http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html $ # If set, the value is executed as a command prior to issuing each primary prompt. $ #H=$((hostname || uname -n) 2>/dev/null | sed 1q);W=$(whoami) $ #export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${W}@${H}:${PWD/#$HOME/~} ${SSH_TTY/\/dev\//} [`uptime|sed -e "s/.*: \([^,]*\).*/\1/" -e "s/ //g"`]\007"' $ #PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;`id -un`:`id -gn`@`hostname||uname -n 2>/dev/null|sed 1q` `command who -m|sed -e "s%^.* \(pts/[0-9]*\).*(\(.*\))%[\1] (\2)%g"` [`uptime|sed -e "s/.*: \([^,]*\).*/\1/" -e "s/ //g"` / `command ps aux|wc -l`]\007"' $ #[[ -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] || export PROMPT_COMMAND $ #[[ -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] && [[ -f /dev/stdout ]] && SSH_TTY=/dev/stdout And here's a simple function example for setting the title: $ function set_window_title(){ echo -e "\033]0; ${1:-$USER@$HOST - $SHLVL} \007"; }

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

Append stdout and stderr to a file, and print stderr to the screen [bash]
Useful for cron jobs -- all output will be logged but only errors will cause email to be sent. NB the order of "2>&1" and ">> logfile" is important, it doesn't work if you reverse them (everything goes to the logfile, nothing left for tee).

count match string lines from file(s)

Remind yourself to leave in 15 minutes
If you spend most of your time in front of the terminal, leave is a useful reminder. Leave can have absolute form: leave 1555 reminds you to leave at 3:55PM

Find the package that installed a command

Test a SSLv2 connection
Test for weak SSL version.

Print the IPv4 address of a given interface

Renames all files in the current directory such that the new file contains no space characters.
This is a better version, as it does no command piping, uses for instead of while loops, which allows for a list of files in the current working directory to be natively processed. It also uses the -v/verbose option with mv to let you know what the command is doing. While the command does exactly the same in a better way, I would modify the sed option to replace spaces with underscores instead, or dashes. Please note that you'll receive errors with this command as it tries to rename files that don't even have spaces. This is an alternative to: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/8761/renames-all-files-in-the-current-directory-such-that-the-new-file-contains-no-space-characters.


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