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Lists all files and directories with modified time newer than a given date
This is great for looking for files that have been updated recently. Logs especially or monitoring what files were added during an install.

Set laptop display brightness
Run as root. Path may vary depending on laptop model and video card (this was tested on an Acer laptop with ATI HD3200 video). $ cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness to discover the possible values for your display.

Fast search in man files or bz-files by keyword direct by man or bz files
For example we need find fast where located and described keyword COMMIT_EDITMSG in man files. Here example howto solve it by search with command bzgrep in man files. Generally these files in bz compressed format. You can use another keywords to your search. Common syntax is: bzgrep -lE keyword1 /usr/share/man/man?/optional-keyword-to-refine* or bzgrep -lE keyword1 /usr/share/man/man?/* where optional-keyword-to-refine is optional and may be omitted but used to speedup search Of course you may combine other options for bzgrep (its based on grep)

Execute a command with a timeout
I like much more the perl solution, but without using perl. It launches a backgroup process that will kill the command if it lasts too much. A bigger function: check_with_timeout() { [ "$DEBUG" ] && set -x COMMAND=$1 TIMEOUT=$2 RET=0 # Launch command in backgroup [ ! "$DEBUG" ] && exec 6>&2 # Link file descriptor #6 with stderr. [ ! "$DEBUG" ] && exec 2> /dev/null # Send stderr to null (avoid the Terminated messages) $COMMAND 2>&1 >/dev/null & COMMAND_PID=$! [ "$DEBUG" ] && echo "Background command pid $COMMAND_PID, parent pid $$" # Timer that will kill the command if timesout sleep $TIMEOUT && ps -p $COMMAND_PID -o pid,ppid |grep $$ | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill & KILLER_PID=$! [ "$DEBUG" ] && echo "Killer command pid $KILLER_PID, parent pid $$" wait $COMMAND_PID RET=$? # Kill the killer timer [ "$DEBUG" ] && ps -e -o pid,ppid |grep $KILLER_PID | awk '{print $1}' | xargs echo "Killing processes: " ps -e -o pid,ppid |grep -v PID | grep $KILLER_PID | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill wait sleep 1 [ ! "$DEBUG" ] && exec 2>&6 6>&- # Restore stderr and close file descriptor #6. return $RET }

Monitor a file's size
use "watch" instead of while-loops in these simple cases

append empty line after every line in file.txt

Show linux kernel modules dependencies
Use modprobe to list all the dependencies of a certain kernel module. Handy when debugging system issues.

camelcase to underscore
Convert a camelCase string into snake_case. To complement senorpedro's command.

Edit a file on a remote host using vim

Get AWS temporary credentials ready to export based on a MFA virtual appliance
You might want to secure your AWS operations requiring to use a MFA token. But then to use API or tools, you need to pass credentials generated with a MFA token. This commands asks you for the MFA code and retrieves these credentials using AWS Cli. To print the exports, you can use: `awk '{ print "export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\"" $1 "\"\n" "export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=\"" $2 "\"\n" "export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=\"" $3 "\"" }'` You must adapt the command line to include: * $MFA_IDis ARN of the virtual MFA or serial number of the physical one * TTL for the credentials


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