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Terminal - Show directories in the PATH, one per line with sed and bash3.X `here string'
another method : awk '{gsub(/:/, "\n");print}'

copy root to new device
Clone a root partition. The reason for double-mounting the root device is to avoid any filesystem overlay issues. This is particularly important for /dev. Also, note the importance of the trailing slashes on the paths when using rsync (search the man page for "slash" for more details). rsync and bash add several subtle nuances to path handling; using trailing slashes will effectively mean "clone this directory", even when run multiple times. For example: run once to get an initial copy, and then run again in single user mode just before rebooting into the new disk. Using file globs (which miss dot-files) or leaving off the trailing slash with rsync (which will create /mnt/target/root) are traps that are easy to fall into.

Downmix first audio stream from 7.1 to 5.1 keeping all other streams
Useful for Roku which does not support 7.1. Useful resources: - https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Map - https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/HighQualityAudio - https://superuser.com/questions/852400/properly-downmix-5-1-to-stereo-using-ffmpeg

Converts uppercase chars in a string to lowercase
Another alternative is to define a function: lower() { echo ${@,,} } lower StrinG

Quick calculator at the terminal
Useful for quick calculations at the command line. $math_expr is any arithmetic expression (see sample output): 4.5*16+3^2 s(3.1415926/2) More options in the bc man page.

Generate random passwords (from which you may select "memorable" ones)
See: "man pwgen" for full details. Some Linux distros may not have pwgen included in the base distribution so you maye have to install it (eg in Mandriva Linux: "urpmi pwgen").

Get all possible problems from any log files
Using the grep command, retrieve all lines from any log files in /var/log/ that have one of the problem states

check open ports without netstat or lsof

create a progress bar...
A simple way yo do a progress bar like wget.

Set random background image in gnome
Changes your desktop background image in gnome. Update the directory to wherever you keep your wallpapers. I like to create a sub-directory in my Wallpaper folder called "cycle" that I use to define the wallpapers I wish to loop in cron. ex: $ gconftool-2 -t str -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$(find ~/Wallpapers/cycle -type f | shuf -n1)"


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