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Keep track of diff progress
You're running a program that reads LOTS of files and takes a long time. But it doesn't tell you about its progress. First, run a command in the background, e.g. $ find /usr/share/doc -type f -exec cat {} + > output_file.txt Then run the watch command. "watch -d" highlights the changes as they happen In bash: $! is the process id (pid) of the last command run in the background. You can change this to $(pidof my_command) to watch something in particular.

Using the urxvt terminal daemon
- for .xsession use - Advantages of running a urxvt daemon include faster creation time for terminal windows and a lot of saved memory. You can start new terminals as childs of urxvtd by typing urxvtc. Another advantage is, that background jobs are always owned by the urxvtd and will survive as long the daemon is running.

"at" command w/o the resource usage/competition issues
EXAMPLES jb "next sun 12pm" "/bin/sh ~you/1.sh" & jb "2010-08-29 12:00:00" "~you/1.sh" & jb "29aug2010 gmt" ". ~you/1.sh" & jb 12:00p.m. "nohup ./1.sh" & jb 1min "echo stop!" & SEE ALSO parsedate(3) strftime(3)

Rename files in batch

check the status of 'dd' in progress (OS X)
Your platform may not have pv by default. If you are using Homebew on OSX, simply 'brew install pv'.

validate json
I have this saved as jsonlint chmodded +x and file.js is instead $1, but YMMV

Debian Runlevel configuration tool
This tool configures system services in connection with system runlevels. It turns on/off services using the scripts in /etc/init.d/. Rcconf works with System-V style runlevel configuration. It is a TUI(Text User Interface) frontend to the update-rc.d command.

Find the package that installed a command

How to copy CD/DVD into hard disk (.iso)
A dear friend of mine asked me how do I copy a DVD to your hard drive? If you want to make a copy of the ISO image that was burned to a CD or DVD, insert that medium into your CD/DVD drive and (assuming /dev/cdrom is associated with your computer?s CD drive) type the following command

Get AWS temporary credentials ready to export based on a MFA virtual appliance
You might want to secure your AWS operations requiring to use a MFA token. But then to use API or tools, you need to pass credentials generated with a MFA token. This commands asks you for the MFA code and retrieves these credentials using AWS Cli. To print the exports, you can use: `awk '{ print "export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\"" $1 "\"\n" "export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=\"" $2 "\"\n" "export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=\"" $3 "\"" }'` You must adapt the command line to include: * $MFA_IDis ARN of the virtual MFA or serial number of the physical one * TTL for the credentials


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