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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.

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Empty a file
Immediately make a file empty. This even works if the file is still being written to. Great for cleaning up huge log files!

backup with mysqldump a really big mysql database to a remote machine over ssh
backup big mysql db to remote machine over ssh. "--skip-opt" option is needed when you can?t allocate full database in ram.

Erase to factory a pendrive, disk or memory card, and watch the progress

Colored SVN diff
Simple way to achieve a colored SVN diff

List the size (in human readable form) of all sub folders from the current location
Tested on MacOS and GNU/Linux. It works in dirs containing files starting with '-'. It runs 'du' only once. It sorts according to size. It treats 1K=1000 (and not 1024)

Pull up remote desktop for other than gnome/kde eg fluxbox
If the remote doesn't export its desktop (eg fluxbox, blackbox etc) then you need to run a x11vnc server there and a vncviewer at the local end. This command does the lot for you - it assumes that you can 'ssh' to the box without a password and that x11vnc is installed at the remote end.

Display which distro is installed
Works on nearly all linux distros

Sort files in folders alphabetically
Creates one letter folders in the current directory and moves files with corresponding initial in the folder.

total text files in current dir

Stop Flash from tracking everything you do.
Brute force way to block all LSO cookies on a Linux system with the non-free Flash browser plugin. Works just fine for my needs. Enjoy.


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