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Display or use a random file from current directory via a small bash one-liner
An other way to run it ( playing a random file ending with avi, flv or mpeg ) from a specified dir and a specified type of extension : making MOVIE array with a glob : $ MOVIE=( /PATH/TO/MY/FAVORITE/MOVIES/*.{avi,flv,mpeg} ) playing the random file from a random key from the array $ mplayer ${MOVIE[ RANDOM % ( ${#i[@]} + 1 ) ]]} I use only globs and a bash array. I use GNU bash, version 3.2.48

Grep by paragraph instead of by line.
This is a command that I find myself using all the time. It works like regular grep, but returns the paragraph containing the search pattern instead of just the line. It operates on files or standard input. $ grepp or $ | grepp

pimp text output e.g. "Linux rocks!" to look nice

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"

List of services sorted by boot order in Redhat-based systems

Launch a command from a manpage
Launch a command from within a manpage, vim style. This is rather trivial, but can be very useful to try out the functions described in a manpage without actually quitting it (or switching to another console/screen/...).

list block devices
Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.

vi a remote file with port
If you are running sshd on different port use above this command to edit/view remote file with vi/vim. In above example I am using port 12345.

Advanced python tracing
Trace python statement execution and syscalls invoked during that simultaneously

Create a tar archive with all files of a certain type found in present dir and subdirs
Note: the tar archive must not exist in order to create it. If exists it will only be updated and no already existent files in present search will still remain in the tar archive. The update option has to be used instead of create because the command tar may be executed more than once depending on the number of arguments that find throws. You can see maximum number of arguments with 'getconf ARG_MAX'


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