All commands

All commands (14,187)

sorted by

Edit all files found having a specific string found by grep

This will drop you into vim to edit all files that contain your grep string.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

grep -ir 'foo' * | awk '{print $1}' | sed -e 's/://' | xargs vim

elubow · 2009-09-03 15:12:27 3
How far is Mac OS X 10.6 from 64-bit?

Next time you see a mac fanboy bragging about 64-bitness of 10.6 give him this so he might sh? Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
   127	Mach-O 64-bit kext bundle x86_64
   314	Mach-O object i386
```
-1

file /System/Library/Extensions/*.kext/Contents/MacOS/* |grep -i x86_64 |nl |tail -1 |cut -f1 -f3 && file /System/Library/Extensions/*.kext/Contents/MacOS/* |grep -v x86_64 |nl |tail -1 |cut -f1 -f3

commandlinefu · 2009-09-03 14:28:02 6

Ultimate current directory usage command

biggest->small directories, then biggest->smallest files Show Sample Output

-3

O=$IFS;IFS=$'\n'; D=$(for f in *;do [[ -d $f ]] && du -sh "$f";done | sort -gr);F=$(for f in *;do [[ -f $f ]] && du -sh "$f";done | sort -gr);IFS=$O;echo "$D";echo "$F"

Viperlin · 2009-09-03 11:39:50 6

Sort a character string

another possibility
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

echo sortmeplease|sed 's/./&\n/g'|sort|tr -d '\n'

foob4r · 2009-09-03 10:37:57 3
When was your OS installed?

Show time and date when you installed your OS. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ ls -lct /etc | tail -1 | awk '{print $6, $7}'
2009-08-25 13:25
```
10

ls -lct /etc | tail -1 | awk '{print $6, $7}'

MrMerry · 2009-09-03 10:26:37 13
Sort a character string

using awk missed the last char thanks @Josay Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
aeeelmoprsst
```
-1

echo sortmeplease | awk '{l=split($1,a,"");asort(a);while(x<=l){printf "%s",a[x];x++ }print "";}'

foob4r · 2009-09-03 10:22:39 4
Let your computer lull you to sleep

Can change language and speed, see espeak man page for options. (Install espeak in your linux distro via yum or apt-get) For insomniacs you may need to enclose in a while true; do ...; done loop ;) Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep, ...

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz...
```
7

echo {1..199}" sheep," | espeak -v english -s 80

MrMerry · 2009-09-03 10:08:12 7
Create a large test file (taking no space).
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

dd bs=1 seek=2TB if=/dev/null of=ext3.test

Superhuman · 2009-09-03 08:35:20 3
Ultimate current directory usage command

use manpages, they give you "ultimate commands" "ls -SshF --color" list by filesize (biggest at the top) "ls -SshFr --color" list by filesize in reverse order (biggest at the bottom) Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
> ls
total 24K
4.0K css/  4.0K images/  8.0K index.html  8.0K index.html~
```
-3

ls -shF --color

Viperlin · 2009-09-03 05:45:33 9
Add user to group on OS X 10.5

adding users to groups on OS X is not a straightforward process, you need to use the new in built in Directory Service command line utility...
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

sudo dscl localhost -append /Local/Default/Groups/admin GroupMembership username

kulor · 2009-09-03 04:40:10 3
Sort a character string

Sorts a character string, using common shell commands. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ echo sortmeplease | grep -o . | sort | tr -d '\n'; echo
aeeelmoprsst
```
1

echo sortmeplease | grep -o . | sort | tr -d '\n'; echo

MrMerry · 2009-09-03 00:52:49 28
floating point operations in shell scripts

using bc is for sissies. dc is much better :-D Polish notation will rule the world... Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
.60000
```
2

echo "5 k 3 5 / p" | dc

xamaco · 2009-09-03 00:21:54 3
Cleanup firefox's database.

For Mac OS X users only
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

find ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/ -type f -name "*.sqlite" -exec sqlite3 {} VACUUM \;

stanishjohnd · 2009-09-02 23:12:13 3

List of reverse DNS records for a subnet

This command uses nmap to perform reverse DNS lookups on a subnet. It produces a list of IP addresses with the corresponding PTR record for a given subnet. You can enter the subnet in CDIR notation (i.e. /24 for a Class C)). You could add "--dns-servers x.x.x.x" after the "-sL" if you need the lookups to be performed on a specific DNS server. On some installations nmap needs sudo I believe. Also I hope awk is standard on most distros. Show Sample Output

nmap -R -sL 209.85.229.99/27 | awk '{if($3=="not")print"("$2") no PTR";else print$3" is "$2}' | grep '('

netsaint · 2009-09-02 16:33:15 5

floating point operations in shell scripts

-l auto-selects many more digits (but you can round/truncate in your head, right) plus it loads a few math functions like sin(). Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
.56464247339503535720
```
3

bc -l <<< s(3/5)

akg240 · 2009-09-02 15:41:39 9
list all hd partitions

Only one command and not dependant on full read access to the devices. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
sda1
sda2
sda3
sda5
sda6
sda7
sda8
sda9
sdb1
```
3

awk '/d.[0-9]/{print $4}' /proc/partitions

akg240 · 2009-09-02 15:26:03 6
list all hd partitions

Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
hdc1
hdc2
hdc5
hdd1
hdd2
hdd5
```
0

fdisk -l |grep -e '^/' |awk '{print $1}'|sed -e "s|/dev/||g"

opexxx · 2009-09-02 13:03:04 3
Today's date on a yearly calendar...

Show today date on a yearly calendar.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

cal -y

andrepuel · 2009-09-02 12:57:23 50
free swap

simple way to show free swap Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
2979
```
-2

free -m | awk '/Swap/ {print $4}'

voyeg3r · 2009-09-02 11:46:17 3
free swap

free swap
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

free -b | grep "Swap:" | sed 's/ * / /g' | cut -d ' ' -f2

opexxx · 2009-09-02 07:16:34 39
to see about php configure

see about php install configure Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
/usr/bin/php -i | grep configure
```
1

$php_dir/bin/php -i | grep configure

Yousri · 2009-09-02 06:44:12 3
Cleanup firefox's database.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
18

find ~/.mozilla/firefox/ -type f -name "*.sqlite" -exec sqlite3 {} VACUUM \;

grokskookum · 2009-09-01 21:45:46 10
dig this
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

for dnsREC in $(curl -s http://www.iana.org/assignments/dns-parameters |grep -Eo ^[A-Z\.]+\ |sed 's/TYPE//'); do echo -n "$dnsREC " && dig +short $dnsREC IANA.ORG; done

commandlinefu · 2009-09-01 03:11:18 3
Reinstall Grub
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sda1

theIndianMaiden · 2009-09-01 02:06:28 16
find files containing text

I find this format easier to read if your going through lots of files. This way you can open the file in any editor and easily review the file
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

grep -lir "sometext" * > sometext_found_in.log

shaiss · 2009-08-31 23:48:45 3
‹ First < 454 455 456 457 458 > Last ›

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

Moving large number of files

if you want to move with command mv large list of files than you would get following error /bin/mv: Argument list too long alternavite with exec: find /source/directory -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -name '*' -exec mv {} /target/directory \;

extracts 64 bytes of random digits from random lines out of /dev/random sent to stdio

Use this the next time you need to come up with a reasonably random bitstring, like for a WPA/WPA2 PSK or something. Takes a continuous stream of bytes coming from /dev/urandom, runs it through od(1), picking a random field ($0 and $1 excluded) from a random line and then prints it.

for all who don't have the watch command

#Usage: watch timeinsecond "command"

Exit shell faster

Use ^D instead of exit. Also ^D ends input stream when you use terminal for typing into standard input.

Get AWS temporary credentials ready to export based on a MFA virtual appliance

You might want to secure your AWS operations requiring to use a MFA token. But then to use API or tools, you need to pass credentials generated with a MFA token. This commands asks you for the MFA code and retrieves these credentials using AWS Cli. To print the exports, you can use: `awk '{ print "export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\"" $1 "\"\n" "export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=\"" $2 "\"\n" "export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=\"" $3 "\"" }'` You must adapt the command line to include: * $MFA_IDis ARN of the virtual MFA or serial number of the physical one * TTL for the credentials

Get first Git commit hash

git log --format=%H | tail -1 doesn't work anymore

Convert JSON to YAML

remove hostname from known_hosts

Get acurate memory usage of a Process in MegaBytes

Check your unread Gmail from the command line

notice what happens when there is more than one unread message in a thread... also people please dont hardcode the password when you use curl. Leave it out and curl will ask you when it runs. Please...?

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:

» all commands
» commands with 3 up-votes (commandlinefu3)
» commands with 10 up-votes (commandlinefu10)

All commands (14,187) the last day the last week the last month all time sorted by date votes

What's this?

Check These Out

Stay in the loop…

All commands (14,187)

sorted by