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

Get notified when a job you run in a terminal is done, using NotifyOSD
This is an alias you can add to your .bashrc file to get notified when a job you run in a terminal is done. example of use sleep 20; alert Source:http://www.webupd8.org/2010/07/get-notified-when-job-you-run-in.html

converts a directory full of source tarballs into a bzr repository so you can compare different versions easily

Run netcat to server files of current folder

Force logout after 24 hours idle
Shell timeout variables (TMOUT) can be very liberal about what is classified as 'activity', like having an editor open. This command string will terminate the login shell for an user with more than a day's idle time.

Output as many input
Output of a command as input to many

Compare directories via diff
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070408062023352

Rename files in batch

Add a DNS server on the fly
Since systemd-resolved was implemented, add a DNS server have become weirder and harder than before. With this command, you can add a DNS server on-the-fly tied to an specific interface

Which processes are listening on a specific port (e.g. port 80)
swap out "80" for your port of interest. Can use port number or named ports e.g. "http"

Binary clock
Fun idea! This one adds seconds and keeps running on the same line. Perl's probably cheating though. :)


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: