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

directory size with subdirectories, sorted list

Move mp3 files to another path with existing subtree structure
Use case: folder with flac files with tree structure ../artist/album/number-title.flac 1) convert flac->mp3 in the same folder: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/6341/convert-all-.flac-from-a-folder-subtree-in-192kb-mp3 2) search for mp3 files and recreate tree structure to another path: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/8853/copy-selected-folder-found-recursively-under-src-retaining-the-structure 3) move all mp3 files to that new folder: this command

Create a continuous digital clock in Linux terminal
Source: http://www.my-guides.net/en/guides/linux/364-how-to-create-a-continuous-digital-clock-in-linux-terminal

Multi-thread any command
For instance: $ find . -type f -name '*.wav' -print0 |xargs -0 -P 3 -n 1 flac -V8 will encode all .wav files into FLAC in parallel. Explanation of xargs flags: -P [max-procs]: Max number of invocations to run at once. Set to 0 to run all at once [potentially dangerous re: excessive RAM usage]. -n [max-args]: Max number of arguments from the list to send to each invocation. -0: Stdin is a null-terminated list. I use xargs to build parallel-processing frameworks into my scripts like the one here: http://pastebin.com/1GvcifYa

Change Gnome wallpaper
You can use this in a script which rotates wallpapers from a directory at each login.

list block devices
Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.

tree command limit depth for recusive directory list
sometimes I need list from path with max limit for recursive depth directory listing

check open ports without netstat or lsof

Mac OS X: remove extra languages to save over 3 GB of space.
This will get the job done in the most efficient way - spawning only one `rm` process. "On-the-fly" find data is displayed through `tee` and you should have plenty of time to ctrl-c if needed before it's too late. You may need to re-run this after major Software Updates. To leave more languages in, add more ``-and \! -iname "lang*"'' statements: $ sudo find / -iname "*.lproj" -and \! -iname "en*" -and \! -iname "spanish*" -print0 | tee /dev/stderr | sudo xargs -0 rm -rfv **Edit: note the 2nd sudo near the end of the pipeline - this is necessary.

Record a screencast and convert it to an mpeg
Grab X11 input and create an MPEG at 25 fps with the resolution 800x600


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: