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run php code inline from the command line
Most people know that you can run a PHP script from the command line like so: $php ./my_script.php But sometimes I just want to run a quick bit of code, the PHP Command Line Interface allows me to do so with the -r option. Requires package php5-cli

Play all files in the directory using MPlayer
Skip forward and back using the < and > keys. Display the file title with I.

Generate random valid mac addresses
Shorter and more straightforward. Also in perl: $ perl -e 'print join(":", map { sprintf "%0.2X",rand(256) }(1..6))."\n"'

Clean up display when the bash prompt is displayed
This will cause bash to fix a garbled terminal before the prompt is printed. For example, if you cat a file with nonprintable character sequences, the terminal sometimes ends up in a mode where it only prints line drawing characters. This sequence will return the terminal to the standard character set after every command.

List all symbolic links in a directory matching a string
Finds all symbolic links in the specified directory which match the specified string pattern. I used this when upgrading from an Apple-supported version of Java 6 (1.6.0_65) to an Oracle-supported version (1.7.0_55) on Mac OS X 10.8.5 to find out which executables were pointing to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands (Apple version) vs. /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_55.jdk/Contents/Home/bin (Oracle version). However, it appears the current JDK installation script already takes care of modifying the links.

Rename .JPG to .jpg recursively
This command is useful for renaming a clipart, pic gallery or your photo collection. It will only change the big caps to small ones (on the extension).

prettier "cal" command
Displays the same output as "cal", but with the current day highlighted (probably dependent on gnu grep, as I'm not sure other grep's support the "--color=auto" option). Tested and working on Ubuntu 11 and OSX Lion.

Convert CSV to JSON
Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

prevent accidents while using wildcards
alternative for "echo rm *.txt". Just doubletab the command you are willing to use and it will show you the affected files.

Fix for error perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
Fix for ubuntu error: perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = "en_GB:en", LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_GB.UTF-8" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory


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