All commands (14,187)

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

Send an http HEAD request w/curl

Print all git repos from a user (only curl and grep)

Use jq to validate and pretty-print json output
The `jq` tool can also be used do validate json files and pretty print output: ` jq < file.json` Available on several platforms, including newer debian-based systems via `#sudo apt install jq`, mac via `brew install jq`, and from source https://stedolan.github.io/jq/download/ This alternative to the original avoids the useless use of cat

Check if filesystem hangs
When a fs hangs and you've just one console, even # ls could be a dangerous command. Simply put a trailing "&" and play safe

find files containing text
-l outputs only the file names -i ignores the case -r descends into subdirectories

Find the package that installed a command

Which processes are listening on a specific port (e.g. port 80)
swap out "80" for your port of interest. Can use port number or named ports e.g. "http"

Update zone file Serial numbers
Will edit *.db files in the same directory with todays date. Useful for doing a mass update to domains on a nameserver, adding spf records, etc. Looks for a string starting with 200 or 201 followed by 7 numbers, and replaces with todays date. This won't overwrite Ip's but i would still do some double checking after running this. Make sure your server's date is correct, otherwise insert your own serial number. $rndc reload should usually follow this command.

Make changes in .bashrc immediately available
Simply sourcing .bashrc does not function correctly when you edit it and change an alias for a function or the other way round with the *same name*. I therefor use this function. Prior to re-sourcing .bashrc it unsets all aliases and functions.

Tune your guitar from the command line.
This command, taken from play's manual page, plays a synthesized guitar tone for each of the strings on a standard tuned guitar. The command "play" is a part of the package "sox".


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: