All commands

All commands (14,187)

sorted by

Have a list of directories in a file, ending with newlines and need to run du on it?

du only accepts lines ending with a NUL, which can be a pain to create. This solves that issue.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

cat filename | tr '\n' '\0' | du -hsc ?files0-from=-

Diluted · 2009-08-21 18:36:49 4
YES = NO
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-3

yes | tr 'y' 'n'

Diluted · 2009-08-21 18:34:52 4
follow the content of all files in a directory

The `-q' arg forces tail to not output the name of the current file
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

find dir/ -type f | xargs tail -fqn0

chickenzilla · 2009-08-21 18:05:12 4
Download all Phrack .tar.gzs
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

curl http://www.phrack.org/archives/tgz/phrack[1-67].tar.gz -o phrack#1.tar.gz

amaymon · 2009-08-21 10:14:25 6
Show GCC-generated optimization commands when using the "-march=native" or "-mtune=native" switches for compilation.

You can tell GCC to automatically select optimization commands and produce optimized code for the local machine (the one compiling the code), but you can't normally see what switches have been selected and used unless you append a "-v" and pause compilation. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
This is the output on my AMD Athlon64 X2:

/usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.3.3/cc1 -E -quiet -v - -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -march=k8-sse3 -mcx16 -msahf --param l1-cache-size=64 --param l1-cache-line-size=64 -mtune=k8
```
5

cc -march=native -E -v - </dev/null 2>&1 | grep cc1

manny79 · 2009-08-21 09:47:37 11
how long system has been running
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-13

uptime

markoval · 2009-08-21 07:22:21 5
View Processeses like a fu, fu

Shows a less detailed output, made only of the process tree and their pids.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

pstree -p

Octave · 2009-08-20 23:31:30 3
Download all Phrack .tar.gzs

This will download all the phracks! Enjoy!
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

for ((i=1; i<67; i++)) do wget http://www.phrack.org/archives/tgz/phrack${i}.tar.gz -q; done

Abiden · 2009-08-20 23:27:01 6
Not a kismet replacement...

If you're like some individuals who rely on ndiswrapper and cannot use kismet, this command may be of service. watch -n .5 "iwlist wlan0 scan | egrep 'ESSID|Encryption'" Or... watch -n .5 "iwlist wlan0 scan | egrep 'ESSID|Encryption' | egrep 'linksys'" :-) Hopefully you'll find some dd-wrt compatible routers.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

watch -n .5 "iwlist wlan0 scan"

Abiden · 2009-08-20 23:05:04 3
clear the cache from memory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

lunarblu · 2009-08-20 17:28:56 7
Visit another command line gōngfu site

Today I learned that commandlinefu.com is not a alone in its conquest for further the knowledge about the command line. Allow me to introduce you to http://shell-fu.org/
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-9

lynx http://shell-fu.org/

penpen · 2009-08-20 11:47:35 5
for all who don't have the watch command
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

watch() { t=$1; shift; while test :; do clear; date=$(date); echo -e "Every "$t"s: $@ \t\t\t\t $date"; $@; sleep $t; done }

yaccovs · 2009-08-19 19:55:55 3
Schedule a script or command in x num hours, silently run in the background even if logged out

doesn't require "at", change the "2h" to whatever you want... (deafult unit for sleep is seconds)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
25

( ( sleep 2h; your-command your-args ) & )

sitaram · 2009-08-19 17:39:11 12
for all who don't have the watch command

#Usage: watch timeinsecond "command" Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
Every 3s: ls 				 Mi 19 Aug 2009 17:27:24 CEST
file1
file2
file3
...
```
4

watch() { while test :; do clear; date=$(date); echo -e "Every "$1"s: $2 \t\t\t\t $date"; $2; sleep $1; done }

peshay · 2009-08-19 15:29:00 3
Save iptables firewall info

Stores the currently active iptables rules to a file that will be applied upon reboot
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-3

sudo iptables-save > /etc/iptables.up.rules

kamiller · 2009-08-19 14:55:05 4
Update iptables firewall with a temp ruleset

If you don't save the rule set it won't be applied during a reboot
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

sudo iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.test.rules

kamiller · 2009-08-19 14:38:08 4
Watch mysql processlist on a remote host

Locally watch MySQL process list update every 5s on a remote host. While you watch pipe to a file. The file out put is messy though but hey at least you have a history of what you see.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

watch -n 0.5 ssh [user]@[host] mysqladmin -u [mysql_user] -p[password] processlist | tee -a /to/a/file

lunarblu · 2009-08-19 14:21:27 6
Emptying a text file in one shot in VIM
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-4

:!>test.txt

amaymon · 2009-08-19 13:45:23 4
Emulate sleep in DOS/BAT

Enable 'sleep' function in Windows environment where this does not exist, although not exact in time. (there is a delay for each ping) This is a simple way to separate commands with a time-period. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
sleep() begins: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
sleep() end: 15:37:49,76
```
-2

echo sleep() begins: %TIME% && FOR /l %a IN (10,-1,1) do (ECHO 1 >NUL %as&ping -n 2 -w 1 127.0.0.1>NUL) && echo sleep() end: %TIME%

pfredrik · 2009-08-19 13:43:09 3
Find UTF-8 text files misinterpreted as ISO 8859-1 due to Byte Order Mark (BOM) of the Unicode Standard.

Character: "?" is the Byte Order Mark (BOM) of the Unicode Standard. Specifically it is the hex bytes EF BB BF, which form the UTF-8 representation of the BOM, misinterpreted as ISO 8859/1 text instead of UTF-8. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
..list of files containing "BOM".
```
4

find . -type f | grep -rl $'\xEF\xBB\xBF'

pfredrik · 2009-08-19 13:27:09 3
Remove CR from Windows- / DOS-textfiles
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

dos2unix file.txt

sklm · 2009-08-19 13:23:48 3

Remove ^M characters at end of lines in vi

Whereas ^V is CTRL-V. converts a dos file to unix by removing 0x13 characters Show Sample Output

-1

:%s/^V^M//g

slim · 2009-08-19 11:59:22 4

Emptying a text file in one shot

deletes to the end of the buffer Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
~
```
-1

ggdG

slim · 2009-08-19 11:40:55 3
Search for an active process without catching the search-process

This does the same thing as many of the 'grep' based alternatives but allows a more finite control over the output. For example if you only wanted the process ID you could change the command: ps -ef | awk '/mingetty/ && !/awk/ {print $2}' If you wanted to kill the returned PID's: ps -ef | awk '/mingetty/ && !/awk/ {print $2}' | xargs -i kill {} Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ ps -ef | awk '/mingetty/ && !/awk/ {print}'
root      4976     1  0 Jul01 tty1     00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty --noclear tty1
root      4977     1  0 Jul01 tty2     00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
root      4978     1  0 Jul01 tty3     00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty3
root      4979     1  0 Jul01 tty4     00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty4
root      4980     1  0 Jul01 tty5     00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty5
root      4981     1  0 Jul01 tty6     00:00:00 /sbin/mingetty tty6
```
1

ps -ef | awk '/process-name/ && !/awk/ {print}'

dopeman · 2009-08-19 11:22:09 3
Watch changeable interrupts continuously
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

watch -n1 'cat /proc/interrupts

theIndianMaiden · 2009-08-19 11:10:55 3
‹ First < 460 461 462 463 464 > 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

Getting ESP and EIP addresses from running processes

'ps' let you specify the format that you want to see on the output.

Find usb device in realtime

Using this command you can track a moment when usb device was attached.

list all files in a directory, sorted in reverse order by modification time, use file descriptors.

It's both silly, and infinitely useful. Especially useful in logfile directories where you want to know what file is being updated while troubleshooting.

LIST FILENAMES OF FILES CREATED TODAY IN CURRENT DIRECTORY

This version eliminates the grep before the awk, which is always good. It works for GNU core utils and ensures that the date output of ls matches the format in the pattern match, regardless of locale, etc. On BSD-based systems, you can easily eliminate both the grep and the awk: find . -maxdepth 1 -Btime -$(date +%kh%lm) -type f

Flush DNS cache in MacOS 10.5

Stream and copy a video from lan

Requires a listening port on HOST eg. "cat movie.mp4 | nc -l 1356 " (cat movie.mp4 | nc -l PORT) Useful if you're impatient and want to watch a movie immediately and download it at the same time without using extra bandwidth. You can't seek (it'll crash and kill the stream) but you can pause it.

get a rough estimate about how much disk space is used by all the currently installed debian packages

The vaule is expressed in megabytes

Search for a string inside all files in the current directory

This is how I typically grep. -R recurse into subdirectories, -n show line numbers of matches, -i ignore case, -s suppress "doesn't exist" and "can't read" messages, -I ignore binary files (technically, process them as having no matches, important for showing inverted results with -v) I have grep aliased to "grep --color=auto" as well, but that's a matter of formatting not function.

find the biggest files recursively, no matter how many

This command will find the biggest files recursively under a certain directory, no matter if they are too many. If you try the regular commands ("find -type f -exec ls -laSr {} +" or "find -type f -print0 | xargs -0 ls -laSr") the sorting won't be correct because of command line arguments limit. This command won't use command line arguments to sort the files and will display the sorted list correctly.

Use a var with more text only if it exists

See "Parameter Expansion" in the bash manpage. They refer to this as "Use Alternate Value", but we're including the var in the at alternative.

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:

» all commands
» commands with 3 up-votes (commandlinefu3)
» commands with 10 up-votes (commandlinefu10)

All commands (14,187) the last day the last week the last month all time sorted by date votes

What's this?

Check These Out

Stay in the loop…

All commands (14,187)

sorted by