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quick input
Insert the last argument to the previous command

List just the executable files (or directories) in current directory
With zsh.

diff process output
Execute a process or list of commands in the given interval and output the difference in output.

Set laptop display brightness
Run as root. Path may vary depending on laptop model and video card (this was tested on an Acer laptop with ATI HD3200 video). $ cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness to discover the possible values for your display.

list files recursively by size

Extract the MBR ID of a device
Useful when you want to know the mbrid of a device - for the purpose of making it bootable. Certain hybridiso distros, for eg the OpenSUSE live ISO uses the mbrid to find the live media. Use this command to find out the mbrid of your USB drive and then edit the /grub/mbrid file to match it.

Search and replace in multiple files recursively
Replace "foo" with "bar" in all files in current directory recursively

display date of last time a process was started in `date` format
STARTED Mon Oct 18 04:02:01 2010

Install pip with Proxy
Installs pip packages defining a proxy

Is today the last day of the month?
Nice simple example of something we can do in bash.


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