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Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS
Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

Extract rpm package name, version and release using some fancy sed regex
This command could seem pretty pointless especially when you can get the same result more easily using the rpm builtin queryformat, like: $ rpm -qa --qf "%{NAME} %{VERSION} %{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n" | sort | column -t but nonetheless I've learned that sometimes it can be quite interesting trying to explore alternative ways to accomplish the same task (as Perl folks like to say: There's more than one way to do it!)

Perl Command Line Interpreter
Can also just use the debug mode like this.

Efficient count files in directory (no recursion)
$ time perl -e 'if(opendir D,"."){@a=readdir D;print $#a - 1,"\n"}' 205413 real 0m0.497s user 0m0.220s sys 0m0.268s $ time { ls |wc -l; } 205413 real 0m3.776s user 0m3.340s sys 0m0.424s ********* ** EDIT: turns out this perl liner is mostly masturbation. this is slightly faster: $ find . -maxdepth 1 | wc -l sh-3.2$ time { find . -maxdepth 1|wc -l; } 205414 real 0m0.456s user 0m0.116s sys 0m0.328s ** EDIT: now a slightly faster perl version $ perl -e 'if(opendir D,"."){++$c foreach readdir D}print $c-1,"\n"' sh-3.2$ time perl -e 'if(opendir D,"."){++$c foreach readdir D}print $c-1,"\n"' 205414 real 0m0.415s user 0m0.176s sys 0m0.232s

list files recursively by size

check open ports without netstat or lsof

Search for a string inside all files in the current directory
options: -n line nbrs, -i ignore case, -s no "doesn't exist", -I ignore binary args: * for all files of current dir (not hidden), .[!.]* for all hidden files I don't include by default the -R (recursive) option, which is not always useful. You add it by hand when needed.

Numeric zero padding file rename
This uses Perl's rename utility (you may have to call it as prename on your box) and won't choke on spaces or other characters in filenames. It will also zero pad a number even in filenames like "vacation-4.jpg".

access to last touched or created file with arrow_up_key immediately after displaying the file list
Display recursive file list (newest file displayed at the end) and be free to access last file in the list simply by pressing arrow_up_key i.e. open it with joe editor. BTW IMHO the list of files with newest files at the end is often more informative. Put this 'lsa' function somewhere in your .bashrc and issue $ . ~/.bashrc or $ source ~/.bashrc to have access to the 'lsa' command immediately. . (the function appends command "joe last_file_in_the_list" at the end of command history)

Diff on two variables
You got some results in two variables within your shell script and would like to find the differences? Changes in process lists, reworked file contents, ... . No need to write to temporary files. You can use all the diff parameters you'll need. Maybe anything like $ grep "^>" is helpful afterwards.


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