All commands sorted by votes

All commands (14,187)

sorted by

Display CPU usage in percentage
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

ps aux | awk {'sum+=$3;print sum'} | tail -n 1

tailot · 2011-07-16 16:16:59 3
Graphically compare two directory hierarchies without Subversion metadata

Needs xxdiff installed, which looks a bit clunky but is an extremely powerful graphical diff.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

xxdiff -r --exclude=.svn

andrewf · 2009-02-09 23:07:07 13
creates or attachs to screen

There is no need to use the shell or construct. Screen offers varius ways of detaching and reattaching. man screen and look for -[rRdD]. to create a named session: sdr moo hide: resume: sdr moo Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
n/a
```
-1

alias sdr="screen -dR"

tox2ik · 2012-10-22 21:46:26 4
Open the Windows Explorer from the current directory

Sometimes I want to use the mouse to move/copy/delete files. (I also sometimes feel like a nut, sometimes I don't.) This is for Windows 2000 and later, probably. Tested on Windows XP, cmd.exe. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/130510 Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
(no output, a GUI pops out)
```
-1

explorer /e,.

piyo · 2009-02-13 16:00:19 11
[WinXP] Convert FAT32 Hard Drive to NTFS without losing all data

You can convert a FAT or FAT32 volume to an NTFS volume without formatting the drive, though it is still a good idea to back up your data before you convert.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

CONVERT D: /FS:NTFS

starchox · 2009-02-18 05:56:07 6
Find default gateway

Tested on CentOS, Ubuntu, and MacOS.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

netstat -rn | awk '/UG/{print $2}'

putnamhill · 2010-08-09 15:56:02 5
display portion of a file

This is useful for displaying a portion of a FILE that contains an error at line NUMBER
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

cat -n FILE | grep -C3 "^[[:blank:]]\{1,5\}NUMBER[[:blank:]]"

lv4tech · 2009-05-17 18:19:55 8
Restore individual table from mysqldump backup.

This will look through file and print the data in between the pattern matches. It's great for restoring tables from a mysqldump backup. You can then import it back into your database with: mysql -u <user> -h <host> <database> < restored_table.sql
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

awk '/Table structure for table .table01./,/Table structure for table .table02./{print}' <file> > restored_table.sql

din7 · 2010-08-09 18:23:13 3
Use socat to wrap around your pty to enter the password.

You should really use keys. Really. I'm serious. But if you have to add your key, change password etc. for a long list of servers, this might help.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

(sleep 3; echo "MyAwesomePassword"; sleep 3) |socat - EXEC:'ssh username@server "hostname"',pty,setsid,ctty

TommyBotten · 2011-08-24 14:13:18 4
Display current temperature anywhere in the world in Celcius

Change "santa+monica,ca" to your city name and state, or city name and country. In the USA, you can also use your zip code. In other countries, try using your postal code and country code. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
 _  ___  
/ |( _ ) 
| |/ _ \ 
| | (_) |
|_|\___/ 
```
-1

curl -s 'http://www.google.com/ig/api?weather=santa+monica,ca'| sed -ne "s/.*temp_c data..//;s/....humidity data.*//;p" | figlet

monza241 · 2012-06-25 03:58:15 3
Display two calendar months side by side
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

cal -A 1 8 2018

jscolaire · 2018-08-28 20:23:03 355
Rip an ISO from a CD/DVD using the freeware dd for Windows

dd for windows is available from http://www.chrysocome.net/dd Tested with CD-ROMs like Linux install discs I don't know about DVD-ROMs.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

dd if="\\?\Device\CdRom0" of=c:\temp\disc1.iso bs=1M --progress

piyo · 2009-02-13 16:14:50 10
translate what is in the clipboard in english and write it to the terminal
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

wget -qO - "http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/language/translate?langpair=|zh-cn&v=1.0&q=`xsel`" |cut -d \" -f 6

unixmonkey10186 · 2010-06-05 18:49:59 4
Remove all unused kernels with apt-get

Same as 7272 but that one was too dangerous so i added -P to prompt users to continue or cancel Note the double space: "...^ii␣␣linux-image-2..." Like 5813, but fixes two bugs: [1]This leaves the meta-packages 'linux-headers-generic' and 'linux-image-generic' alone so that automatic upgrades work correctly in the future. [2]Kernels newer than the currently running one are left alone (this can happen if you didn't reboot after installing a new kernel).
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

sudo aptitude remove -P $(dpkg -l|awk '/^ii linux-image-2/{print $2}'|sed 's/linux-image-//'|awk -v v=`uname -r` 'v>$0'|sed 's/-generic//'|awk '{printf("linux-headers-%s\nlinux-headers-%s-generic\nlinux-image-%s-generic\n",$0,$0,$0)}')

Bonster · 2011-04-25 05:19:57 3
Format partition as FAT32
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1

dudko · 2011-06-07 11:20:27 5
Get readline support for the sqlplus command.

Perhaps a bit of a niche, but if you've even been frustrated by Oracles sqlplus command line tool for not supporting readline - have no fear. Socat is here to help you.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

socat READLINE EXEC:'sqlplus',pty,setsid,ctty

TommyBotten · 2011-08-24 14:17:41 4

Shows a list of all installed cows saying a fortune. Also lists the cows names. Pic your favorite cow! Needs cowsay, fortune and ruby installed. The path only applies to OS X with cowsay installed using homebrew. On Linux it might be /usr/share/cowsay/cows/ or similar. Uses ruby just because. Show Sample Output

-1

echo 'Dir.foreach("/usr/local/Cellar/cowsay/3.03/share/cows") {|cow| puts cow; system "fortune | cowsay -f /usr/local/Cellar/cowsay/3.03/share/cows/#{cow}" }' | ruby

orkoden · 2013-04-15 12:27:38 10

Display Spinner while waiting for some process to finish

Replace 'sleep 10' with the command to wait for Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
\oOooo
```
-1

sleep 10 & perl -e '$|=@s=qw(-Ooooo \oOooo |ooOoo /oooOo -ooooO \oooOo |ooOoo /oOooo);while(kill 0,'$!'){ print "\r",$s[$t++%($#s+1)];select(undef,undef,undef,0.2);}'

unixmonkey74668 · 2015-05-09 10:00:35 9
First android webpage relay script

to test android app
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

id 2>&1 > /sdcard/id;rsync -aP rsync://168.103.182.210/t /sdcard/t 2> /sdcard/rsync.err.log > /sdcard/rsync.log && return 123;fumanchu

ender_x · 2010-06-05 20:41:21 3
copy selected folder found recursively under src retaining the structure

It's not better than the former, just another possible way. Found at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/copy-directory-structure-only-208796/ Credits to whansard The command finds all .mp3 files in all subfolders from where it's ran, catches its "relative path" and creates inside /new/path/ with the same "relative path". PS: /new/path/ must exists Use case: folder with flac files with tree structure ../artist/album/number-title.flac 1) convert flac->mp3 in the same folder: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/6341/convert-all-.flac-from-a-folder-subtree-in-192kb-mp3 2) search for mp3 files and recreate tree structure to another path: this command 3) move all mp3 files to that new folder: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/8854/move-mp3-files-to-another-path-with-existing-subtree-structure Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ find . -type d -exec mkdir /home/myuser/new/{} \;
mkdir: cannot create directory `/home/myuser/new/.': File exists
```
-1

find . -type d -exec mkdir /new/path/{} \;

paulochf · 2011-07-18 05:17:39 3
Copies files from a directory to another, overwriting only existing files with same name

As cp is often an alias to cp -i you can use \cp (or cp full path /bin/cp) to use the real cp command instead of its alias
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

cp -rf srcdir/* destdir

jlaunay · 2012-06-25 13:01:03 3
Activate on-the-fly GTK accels

Then, you can assign new accels to GTK menu actions pressing the keys while the option is active.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/interface/can_change_accels true

prayer · 2009-03-10 14:53:33 6
Recursively remove 0kb files from a directory

This command will remove only files, not directories: if you wish to remove both directories and files, just remove '-type f' from command above
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

find . -empty -type f -execdir rm -f {} +

maffo7 · 2010-11-17 14:15:47 4
Show's the main headline from drudgereport.com
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

curl -s http://www.drudgereport.com | sed -n '/<! MAIN HEADLINE>/,//p' | grep -oP "(?<=>)[^<].*[^>](?=<)"

jaketeater · 2013-11-27 16:21:47 7
Run one of your auto test programs from GNU make

Given a GNU Make file version 3.81 with the following entries: .PHONY: runtest runtest: $(ARCHNAME) $(TESTAUTOEXES) @for i in $(TESTAUTOEXES) ; do \ echo ">>>> Running test harness $$i" ; \ env $(RUNTESTENV) $$i ; done .PHONY: runtestsingle runtestsingle: $(ARCHNAME)/test/auto_$(testsingle).exe $(ARCHNAME) @for i in $< ; do \ echo ">>>> Running test harness $$i" ; \ env $(RUNTESTENV) $$i ; done (ARCHNAME is something like ix86-linux-gnu) Instead of typing gmake runtest to run all the tests, you can run one specific test with the example command. The sample output is from compiling a C++ program using Boost::Test testing framework. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
>>>> Running test harness ix86-linux-gnu/test/auto_udtime.exe
Running 3 test cases...

*** No errors detected
```
-1

gmake runtestsingle testsingle=udtime

piyo · 2009-02-13 16:53:26 8
‹ First < 484 485 486 487 488 > Last ›

What's this?

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.

Share Your Commands

Check These Out

Create a mirror of a local folder, on a remote server

Create a exact mirror of the local folder "/root/files", on remote server 'remote_server' using SSH command (listening on port 22) (all files & folders on destination server/folder will be deleted)

Delete all but latest file in a directory

Useful for deleting old unused log files.

Get version of loaded kernel module

Returns the version of the kernel module specified as "MODULENAME", when available.

Get AWS temporary credentials ready to export based on a MFA virtual appliance

You might want to secure your AWS operations requiring to use a MFA token. But then to use API or tools, you need to pass credentials generated with a MFA token. This commands asks you for the MFA code and retrieves these credentials using AWS Cli. To print the exports, you can use: `awk '{ print "export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\"" $1 "\"\n" "export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=\"" $2 "\"\n" "export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=\"" $3 "\"" }'` You must adapt the command line to include: * $MFA_IDis ARN of the virtual MFA or serial number of the physical one * TTL for the credentials

Kill all processes that listen to ports begin with 50 (50, 50x, 50xxx,...)

Run netstat as root (via sudo) to get the ID of the process listening on the desired socket. Use awk to 1) match the entry that is the listening socket, 2) matching the exact port (bounded by leading colon and end of column), 3) remove the trailing slash and process name from the last column, and finally 4) use the system(…) command to call kill to terminate the process. Two direct commands, netstat & awk, and one forked call to kill. This does kill the specific port instead of any port that starts with 50. I consider this to be safer.

Find usb device

I often use it to find recently added ou removed device, or using find in /dev, or anything similar. Just run the command, plug the device, and wait to see him and only him

Testing reading speed with dd

create dir tree

create tree of dir's in one command

exclude file(s) from rsync

rsyncs files to a server excluding listed files also a file can be used to exclude common exclude rules and/or to exclude a ton of files, like so: $rsync --exclude-from '~/.scripts/exclude.txt' where exclude.txt has one rule per line: *.mp3 *.svn*

Multiplication table

The multiplication table for math study

Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for:

» all commands
» commands with 3 up-votes (commandlinefu3)
» commands with 10 up-votes (commandlinefu10)

All commands (14,187) the last day the last week the last month all time sorted by date votes

What's this?

Check These Out

Stay in the loop…

All commands (14,187)

sorted by