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create tar archive of files in a directory and its sub-directories
creates a compressed tar archive of files in /path/foo and writes to a timestamped filename in /path.

Find biggest 10 files in current and subdirectories and sort by file size

Run the Firefox Profile Manager
even when another instance is already open. Great for testing purposes when you need to be 2 people at once on the same site.

mount a cdrom

Follow tail by name (fix for rolling logs with tail -f)
If you use 'tail -f foo.txt' and it becomes temporarily moved/deleted (ie: log rolls over) then tail will not pick up on the new foo.txt and simply waits with no output. 'tail -F' allows you to follow the file by it's name, rather than a descriptor. If foo.txt disappears, tail will wait until the filename appears again and then continues tailing.

Optimal way of deleting huge numbers of files
Using xargs is better than: $ find /path/to/dir -type f -exec rm \-f {} \; as the -exec switch uses a separate process for each remove. xargs splits the streamed files into more managable subsets so less processes are required.

Simple word scramble
enlubtsqyuse $ cat /tmp/out subsequently

Print sensors data for your hardware

Run the last command as root
Same as `sudo !!`. If you do not have permission to be sudo or sudo does not installed on your system, you can use this.

Find distro name and/or version/release
Works for most distributions, tested on Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, Gentoo, SUSE, RedHat. Debian and Slackware: $cat /etc/*version


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