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clone directory structure
dir1 and all its subdirs and subdirs of subdirs ... but *no files* will be copied to dir2 (not even symbolic links of files will be made). To preserve ownerships & permissions: $ cp -Rps dir1 dir2 Yes, you can do it with $ rsync -a --include '*/' --exclude '*' /path/to/source /path/to/dest too, but I didn't test if this can handle attributes correctly (experiment rsync command yourself with --dry-run switch to avoid harming your file system) You must be in the parent directory of dir1 while executing this command (place dir2 where you will), else soft links of files in dir2 will be made. I couldn't find how to avoid this "limitation" (yet). Playing with recursive unlink command loop maybe? PS. Bash will complain, but the job will be done.

Generate list of words and their frequencies in a text file.

continuously print string as if being entered from the keyboard
Cycles continuously through a string printing each character with a random delay less than 1 second. First parameter is min, 2nd is max. Example: 1 3 means sleep random .1 to .3. Experiment with different values. The 3rd parameter is the string. The sleep will help with battery life/power consumption. $ cycle 1 3 $(openssl rand 100 | xxd -p) Fans of "The Shining" might get a kick out of this: $ cycle 1 4 ' All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.'

Hide files in ls, by adding support for .hidden files!
Sometimes I would like to see hidden files, prefix with a period, but some files or folders I never want to see (and really wish I could just remove all together).

Convert CSV to JSON
Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

Simplified video file renaming
I used this when I had a directory of movies from a camera. I wanted to watch a little of each movie, then rename it depending on what was in the movie. This did the trick for me.

Convert mysql database from latin1 to utf8
MySQL: CHARSET from latin1 to utf8

Remove a line from a file using sed (useful for updating known SSH server keys when they change)
For example, to remove line 5 from foo, type: vi +5d +wq foo

PRINT LINE the width of screen or specified using any char including Colors, Escapes and metachars
One of the first functions programmers learn is how to print a line. This is my 100% bash builtin function to do it, which makes it as optimal as a function can be. The COLUMNS environment variable is also set by bash (including bash resetting its value when you resize your term) so its very efficient. I like pretty-output in my shells and have experimented with several ways to output a line the width of the screen using a minimal amount of code. This is like version 9,000 lol. This function is what I use, though when using colors or other terminal features I create separate functions that call this one, since this is the lowest level type of function. It might be better named printl(), but since I use it so much it's more optimal to have the name contain less chars (both for my programming and for the internal workings). If you do use terminal escapes this will reset to default. $ tput sgr0 For implementation ideas, check my http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html

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