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for all who don't have the watch command
#Usage: watch timeinsecond "command"

List open TCP/UDP ports

Automagically update grub.conf labels after installing a new kernel
I like to label my grub boot options with the correct kernel version/build. After building and installing a new kernel with "make install" I had to edit my grub.conf by hand. To avoid this, I've decided to write this little command line to: 1. read the version/build part of the filename to which the kernel symlinks point 2. replace the first label lines of grub.conf grub.conf label lines must be in this format: Latest [{name}-{version/build}] Old [{name}-{version/build}] only the {version/build} part is substituted. For instance: title Latest [GNU/Linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r10.201003] would turn to title Latest [GNU/Linux-2.6.32-gentoo-r7.201004]"

Display Motherboard Info

Display _something_ when an X app fails
When you run an X program from a terminal you can see any errors. But when it's run from another X program (eg from a menu item, from your fluxbox 'keys' file etc) it might just die and you see nothing (except perhaps in .xsession-errors). Instead, launch it via this command and you'll see the termination status, stderr and stdout. eg: "xlaunch firefox" or "xlaunch 'echo stdout; echo stderr >&2; false'": 'echo stdout; echo stderr >&2; false' failed with error 1 STDERR: stderr STDOUT: stdout

Show a Package Version on Debian based distribution
if you don't want to show string "version?, then use awk or cut filter it: apt-cache show pkgname | grep -i "version:" | awk '{ print $2 }' we can also use regex to search many packages and show their versions: apt-cache search pkgregex | grep -i "version:"

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"

route add default gateway

Backup with versioning
Apart from an exact copy of your recent contents, also keep all earlier versions of files and folders that were modified or deleted. Inspired by EVACopy http://evacopy.sourceforge.net

Uniquely (sort of) color text so you can see changes
Colorify colors input by converting the text to a number and then performing modulo 7 on it. This resulting number is used as the color escape code. This can be used to color the results of commands with complex outputs (like "482279054165371") so if any of the digits change, there's a good chance the color will change too. I say good chance because there's only 7 unique colors here, so assuming you were watching random numbers, there would be a 6/7 chance that the color would change when the number changed. This should really only be used to help quickly identify when things change, but should not be the only thing relied upon to positively assert that an output has not changed.


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