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check open ports without netstat or lsof

Convert diff output to HTML ins/del

tar pipe to copy files, alternate to cp -Ra
uses tar to dump files from /orignl/path to /dst/dir. i find tar's out more readable than cp, and it doesn't mess with modified dates.

Upgrading packages. Pacman can update all packages on the system with just one command. This could take quite a while depending on how up-to-date the system is. This command can synchronize the repository databases and update the system's packages.
Warning: Instead of immediately updating as soon as updates are available, users must recognize that due to the nature of Arch's rolling release approach, an update may have unforeseen consequences. This means that it is not wise to update if, for example, one is about to deliver an important presentation. Rather, update during free time and be prepared to deal with any problems that may arise. Pacman is a powerful package management tool, but it does not attempt to handle all corner cases. Read The Arch Way if this causes confusion. Users must be vigilant and take responsibility for maintaining their own system. When performing a system update, it is essential that users read all information output by pacman and use common sense. If a user-modified configuration file needs to be upgraded for a new version of a package, a .pacnew file will be created to avoid overwriting settings modified by the user. Pacman will prompt the user to merge them. These files require manual intervention from the user and it is good practice to handle them right after every package upgrade or removal. See Pacnew and Pacsave Files for more info. Tip: Remember that pacman's output is logged in /var/log/pacman.log.

xargs for builtin bash commands
Similar to xargs -i, but works with builtin bash commands (rather than running "bash -c ..." through xargs)

Sort files in folders alphabetically
Creates one letter folders in the current directory and moves files with corresponding initial in the folder.

recursively change file name from uppercase to lowercase (or viceversa)
or, to process a single directory: $ for f in *; do mv $f `echo $f |tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`; done

External IP (raw data)
can be used in script like : echo $(wget -qO- http://utils.admin-linux.fr/ip.php)

List programs with open ports and connections

List only executables installed by a debian package
I wanted to view only executables installed by a package. This seemed to work. There's got to be easier way, please share. Note: (1) Replace iptables with the package name of your interest (2) The command will trash any existing environment variable named 'lst' (3) Instead if you are interested in viewing just .ko or .so files installed by this package, then that would be easy: $ dpkg -L iptables | grep "\.[sk]o$"


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