All commands (14,187)

  • This is a handy way to circumvent the "Maximum line length of 2048 exceeded" grep error. Once you have run the above command (or put it in your .bashrc), files can be searched using: lgrep search-string /file/to/search


    1
    lgrep() { string=$1; file=$2; awk -v String=${string} '$0 ~ String' ${file}; }
    dopeman · 2010-01-19 09:42:19 3
  • To also move the db backup to another location you could pass the output to the dd command instead of a file mysqldump -u user -h host -ppwd -B dbname | bzip2 -zc9 | dd ssh usr@server "dd of=db_dump"


    1
    mysqldump -u user -h host -ppwd -B dbname | bzip2 -zc9 > dbname.sql.bz2
    olaseni · 2010-01-19 07:34:21 3

  • 1
    perl -i~ -0777pe's/^/\!\#\/usr\/bin\/ksh\n/' testing
    azil · 2010-01-19 06:49:10 4
  • This command defragment the SQLite databases found in the home folder of the current Windows user. This is usefull to speed up Firefox startup. The executable sqlite3.exe must be located in PATH or in the current folder. In a script use: for /f "delims==" %%a in (' dir "%USERPROFILE%\*.sqlite" /s/b ') do echo vacuum;|"sqlite3.exe" "%%a" Show Sample Output


    -3
    for /f "delims==" %a in (' dir "%USERPROFILE%\*.sqlite" /s/b ') do echo vacuum;|"sqlite3.exe" "%a"
    vutcovici · 2010-01-18 20:56:00 6
  • It's very common to have cron jobs that send emails as their output, but the From: address is whatever account the cron job is running under, which is often not the address you want replies to go to. Here's a way to change the From: address right on the command line. What's happening here is that the "--" separates the options to the mail client from options for the sendmail backend. So the -f and -F get passed through to sendmail and interpreted there. This works on even on a system where postfix is the active mailer - looks like postfix supports the same options. I think it's possible to customize the From: address using mutt as a command line mailer also, but most servers don't have mutt preinstalled.


    10
    mail -s "subject" user@todomain.com <emailbody.txt -- -f customfrom@fromdomain.com -F 'From Display Name'
    dmmst19 · 2010-01-18 19:55:27 30
  • if firefox is running the database is locked, so you need to copy the places.sqlite file temporarily somewhere to be able to query it...


    2
    sqlite3 -list /home/$USER/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/places.sqlite 'select url from moz_places ;' | grep http
    bubo · 2010-01-18 15:25:00 3
  • http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-mpeg.html MEncoder can create MPEG (MPEG-PS) format output files. Usually, when you are using MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video, it is because you are encoding for a constrained format such as SVCD, VCD, or DVD. To change MEncoder's output file format, use the -of mpeg option. Creating an MPEG-1 file suitable to be played on systems with minimal multimedia support, such as default Windows installs: mencoder input.avi -of mpeg -mpegopts format=mpeg1:tsaf:muxrate=2000 \ -o output.mpg -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:vbitrate=1152:keyint=15:mbd=2:aspect=4/3


    1
    mencoder input.avi -of mpeg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video \ -oac copy other_options -o output.mpg
    slishan · 2010-01-18 13:12:03 3
  • Also look at xload


    1
    tload -s 10
    chinmaya · 2010-01-18 08:14:06 3

  • 0
    purple-remote "setstatus?status=Available&message=Checking libpurple"
    spsneo · 2010-01-17 23:48:17 4
  • Note: you'll want to set up pub-key ssh auth. Gives you a quick means of changing volume/tracks/etc for rhythmbox on a remote machine. E.g.: rc --next # Play next track rc --print-playing # Grab the name rc --volume-down rc --help


    9
    alias rc='ssh ${MEDIAPCHOSTNAME} env DISPLAY=:0.0 rhythmbox-client --no-start'
    rhythmx · 2010-01-17 19:43:43 6

  • -1
    watch -n 7 -d 'uptime | sed s/.*users?, //'
    matthewbauer · 2010-01-17 18:45:52 3
  • cat - concatenate MP3 files and save it... Show Sample Output


    -4
    # cat file1.mp3 file2.mp3 > file3.mp3
    svnlabs · 2010-01-17 13:18:34 5
  • CHANGELOG Version 1.1 removedir () { echo "You are about to delete the current directory $PWD Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=$(echo "$PWD" | sed 's/ /\\ /g'); foo=$(basename "$blah"); rm -Rf ../$foo/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; } BUG FIX: Folders with spaces Version 1.0 removedir () { echo "You are about to delete the current directory $PWD Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=`basename $PWD`; rm -Rf ../$blah/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; } BUG FIX: Hidden directories (.dotdirectory) Version 0.9 rmdir () { echo "You are about to delete the current directory $PWD. Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=`basename $PWD`; rm -Rf ../$blah/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; } Removes current directory with recursive and force flags plus basic human check. When prompted type yes 1. [user@host ~]$ ls foo bar 2. [user@host ~]$ cd foo 3. [user@host foo]$ removedir 4. yes 5. rm -Rf foo/ 6. [user@host ~]$ 7. [user@host ~]$ ls bar Show Sample Output


    -2
    removedir () { echo "Deleting the current directory $PWD Are you sure?"; read human; if [[ "$human" = "yes" ]]; then blah=$(echo "$PWD" | sed 's/ /\\ /g'); foo=$(basename "$blah"); rm -Rf ../$foo/ && cd ..; else echo "I'm watching you" | pv -qL 10; fi; }
    oshazard · 2010-01-17 11:34:38 31
  • Combines a few repetitive tasks when compiling source code. Especially useful when a hypen in a file-name breaks tab completion. 1.) wget source.tar.gz 2.) tar xzvf source.tar.gz 3.) cd source 4.) ls From there you can run ./configure, make and etc. Show Sample Output


    -1
    wtzc () { wget "$@"; foo=`echo "$@" | sed 's:.*/::'`; tar xzvf $foo; blah=`echo $foo | sed 's:,*/::'`; bar=`echo $blah | sed -e 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/' -e 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/'`; cd $bar; ls; }
    oshazard · 2010-01-17 11:25:47 3

  • 2
    echo -e "swap=me\n1=2"|sed 's/\(.*\)=\(.*\)/\2=\1/g'
    axelabs · 2010-01-16 22:01:37 3
  • Will find all files containing "sample" in the current directory and in the directories below.


    -9
    find . -exec grep -l "sample" {} \;
    whoami · 2010-01-16 13:12:52 4

  • 6
    mwiki () { blah=`echo $@ | sed -e 's/ /_/g'`; dig +short txt $blah.wp.dg.cx; }
    oshazard · 2010-01-16 07:13:43 3
  • This is very similar to the first example except that it employs the 'exec' argument of the find command rather than piping the result to xargs. The second example is nice and tidy but different *NIXs may not have as capable a grep command.


    -1
    find . -name "*.php" -exec grep -il searchphrase {} \;
    unixmonkey7797 · 2010-01-16 05:09:30 4
  • I use this command (PS1) to show a list bash prompt's special characters. I tested it against A flavor of Red Hat Linux and Mac OS X Show Sample Output


    3
    alias PS1="man bash | sed -n '/ASCII bell/,/end a sequence/p'"
    haivu · 2010-01-15 23:39:28 3

  • -2
    hdid somefile.dmg
    rnoyfb · 2010-01-15 12:00:48 5
  • If you really _must_ use a loop, this is better than parsing the output of 'ps': PID=$! ;while kill -0 $PID &>/dev/null; do sleep 1; done kill -0 $PID returns 0 if the process still exists; otherwise 1


    0
    wait
    bhepple · 2010-01-15 04:03:11 5

  • -4
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/bigfile bs=1024k count=100
    wincus · 2010-01-15 00:44:44 4
  • shorter :p Show Sample Output


    2
    grep -rHi searchphrase *.php
    psybermonkey · 2010-01-15 00:23:25 5
  • This command will find all files recursively containing the phrase entered, represented here by "searchphrase". This particular command searches in all php files, but you could change that to just be html files or just log files etc. Show Sample Output


    2
    find . -name "*.php" | xargs grep -il searchphrase
    refrax · 2010-01-14 22:42:36 5
  • This will output the characters at 10 per second.


    124
    echo "You can simulate on-screen typing just like in the movies" | pv -qL 10
    dennisw · 2010-01-14 20:17:44 885
  • ‹ First  < 408 409 410 411 412 >  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

File rotation without rename command
Rotates log files with "gz"-extension in a directory for 7 days and enumerates the number in file name. i.e.: logfile.1.gz > logfile.2.gz I needed this line due to the limitations on AIX Unix systems which do not ship with the rename command.

Hypnosis
rather don't depend on those sleepin'pills http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_sheep

Remove a range of lines from a file

Generate Random Passwords
If you want a password length longer than 6, changing the -c6 to read -c8 will give you 8 random characters instead of 6. To end up with a line-feed, use this with echo: # echo `< /dev/urandom tr -dc _A-Z-a-z-0-9 | head -c6` Modern systems need higher strenght, so add some special characters: # < /dev/urandom tr -dc '12345!@#$%qwertQWERTasdfgASDFGzxcvbZXCVB' | head -c8

Mount/unmount your truecrypted file containers
This should automatically mount it to /media/truecrypt1. Further mounts will go to /media/truecrypt2, and so on. You shouldn't need sudo/su if your permissions are right. I alias tru='truecrypt' since tr and true are commands. To explicitly create a mount point do: tru volume.tc /media/foo To make sure an GUI explorer window (nautilus, et al) opens on the mounted volume, add: --explorer To see what you currently have mounted do: tru -l To dismount a volume do: tru -d volume.tc. To dismount all mounted volumes at once do: tru -d Tested with Truecrypt v6.3a / Ubuntu 9.10

Easy Persistent SSH Connections Using Screen
Use as: $ s host1 Will ssh to remote host upon first invocation. Then use C-a d to detatch. Running "s host1" again will resume the shell session on the remote host. Only useful in LAN environment. You'd want to start the screen on the remote host over a WAN. Adapted from Hack 34 in Linux Server Hacks 2nd Addition.

Zip each file in a directory individually with the original file name
This will list the files in a directory, then zip each one with the original filename individually. video1.wmv -> video1.zip video2.wmv -> video2.zip This was for zipping up large amounts of video files for upload on a Windows machine.

IBM AIX: Extract a .tar.gz archive in one shot
This command is for UNIX OSes that have plain vanilla System V UNIX commands instead of their more functional GNU counterparts, such as IBM AIX.

Check which files are opened by Firefox then sort by largest size.
Just refining last proposal for this check, showing awk power to make more complex math (instead /1024/1024, 2^20). We don't need declare variable before run lsof, because $(command) returns his output. Also, awk can perform filtering by regexp instead to call grep. I changed the 0.0000xxxx messy output, with a more readable form purging all fractional numbers and files less than 1 MB.

Calculate days on which Friday the 13th occurs (inspired from the work of the user justsomeguy)
Friday is the 5th day of the week, monday is the 1st. Output may be affected by locale.


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: