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find previously entered commands (requires configuring .inputrc)
[Click the "show sample output" link to see how to use this keystroke.]   Meta-p is one of my all time most used and most loved features of working at the command line. It's also one that surprisingly few people know about. To use it with bash (actually in any readline application), you'll need to add a couple lines to your .inputrc then have bash reread the .inputrc using the bind command:   $ echo '"\en": history-search-forward' >> ~/.inputrc   $ echo '"\ep": history-search-backward' >> ~/.inputrc   $ bind -f ~/.inputrc     I first learned about this feature in tcsh. When I switched over to bash about fifteen years ago, I had assumed I'd prefer ^R to search in reverse. Intuitively ^R seemed better since you could search for an argument instead of a command. I think that, like using a microkernel for the Hurd, it sounded so obviously right fifteen years ago, but that was only because the older way had benefits we hadn't known about.     I think many of you who use the command line as much as I do know that we can just be thinking about what results we want and our fingers will start typing the commands needed. I assume it's some sort of parallel processing going on with the linguistic part of the brain. Unfortunately, that parallelism doesn't seem to work (at least for me) with searching the history. I realize I can save myself typing using the history shortly after my fingers have already started "speaking". But, when I hit ^R in Bash, everything I've already typed gets ignored and I have to stop and think again about what I was doing. It's a small bump in the road but it can be annoying, especially for long-time command line users. Usually M-p is exactly what I need to save myself time and trouble.     If you use the command line a lot, please give Meta-p a try. You may be surprised how it frees your brain to process more smoothly in parallel. (Or maybe it won't. Post here and let me know either way. ☺)

Use AWS CLI and JQ to get a list of instances sorted by launch time
Use the AWS CLI tools to generate a list instances, then pipe them to JQ to show only their launch time and instance id. Finally use sort to bring them out in runtime order. Find all those instances you launched months ago and have forgotten about.

find only current directory (universal)
you must be in the directory to analyse report all files and links in the currect directory, not recursively. this find command ahs been tested on hp-ux/linux/aix/solaris.

Download all Delicious bookmarks

Easily decode unix-time (funtion)
More recent versions of the date command finally have the ability to decode the unix epoch time into a human readable date. This function makes it simple to utilize this feature quickly.

Set up alarm with fade-in, for graceful awakening
There are a lot of commands, which invokes your player at specified time. But I prefer not to jump from by bed, when alarm start to play. Instead, this script increases volume of mpd over time, which much more pleasant when you just woke up :)

Edit a script that's somewhere in your path.
Often I need to edit a bash or perl script I've written. I know it's in my path but I don't feel like typing the whole path (or I don't remember the path).

Convert CSV to JSON
Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

Time conversion/format using the date command

Get the /dev/disk/by-id fragment for a physical drive
Substitute for #11720 Can probably be even shorter and easier.


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