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Easily find latex package documentation
If the pdf/dvi/etc documentation for a latex package is already part of your local texmf tree, then texdoc will find and display it for you. If the documentation is not available on your system, it will bring up the package's webpage at CTAN to help you investigate.

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

List just the executable files (or directories) in current directory
Does an 'ls' on just the files and directories in the current directory with an execute bit turned on. This version will list directories. Just tack on "-type f" to the start of the find to omit listing directories and list only files.

Update Ping.fm status
Updates your Ping.fm status and websites supported by ping.fm (like twitter, facebook, and google talk).

Remind yourself every 15 minutes (repeated reminders)
Note: 1) -n option of watch accepts seconds 2) -t option of notify-send accepts milliseconds 3) All quotes stated in the given example are required if notification message is more than a word. 4) I couldn't get this to run in background (use of & at the end fails). Any suggestions/improvements welcome.

Repeat a portrait eight times so it can be cut out from a 6"x4" photo and used for visa or passport photos
Yes, You could do it in the GIMP or even use Inkscape to auto-align the clones, but the command line is so much easier. NOTE: The +clone and -clone options are just to shorten the command line instead of typing the same filename eight times. It might also speed up the montage by only processing the image once, but I'm not sure. "+clone" duplicates the previous image, the following two "-clone"s duplicate the first two and then the first four images. NOTE2: The -frame option is just so that I have some lines to cut along. BUG: I haven't bothered to calculate the exact geometry (width and height) of each image since that was not critical for the visa photos I need. If it matters for you, it should be easy enough to set using the -geometry flag near the end of the command. For example, if you have your DPI set to 600, you could use "-geometry 800x1200!" to make each subimage 1⅓ x 2 inches. You may want to use ImageMagick's "-density 600" option to put a flag in the JPEG file cuing the printer that it is a 600 DPI image. BUG2: ImageMagick does not autorotate images based on the EXIF information. Since the portrait photo was taken with the camera sideways, I made the JPEG rotate using jhead like so: jhead -autorot 2007-08-25-3685.jpg

This allows you to find a string on a set of files recursivly
The -r is for recursive, -F for fixed strings, --include='*.txt' identifies you want all txt files to be search any wildcard will apply, then the string you are looking for and the final * to ensure you go through all files and folders within the folder you execute it.

List files above a given threshold
List files above a given size threshold.

Follow tail by name (fix for rolling logs with tail -f)
If you use 'tail -f foo.txt' and it becomes temporarily moved/deleted (ie: log rolls over) then tail will not pick up on the new foo.txt and simply waits with no output. 'tail -F' allows you to follow the file by it's name, rather than a descriptor. If foo.txt disappears, tail will wait until the filename appears again and then continues tailing.

Perl oneliner to print access rights in octal format
This prints file access rights in octal - useful when "stat" is unavailable.


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