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clear current line

split a file by a specific number of lines
Splits the file "my_file" every 500 lines. Will create files called xx01 xx02 and so on. You can change the prefix by using the -f option. Comes in handy for splitting logfiles for example. I am using it for feeding a logfile parser with smaller files instead of one big file (due to performance reasons)

Generate random password
Generates password consisting of alphanumeric characters, defaults to 16 characters unless argument given.

Find name of package which installed a given shell command
Some command names are very different from the name of the package that installed them. Sometimes, you may want to find out the name of the package that provided a command on a system, so that you can install it on another system.

Kill XMMS for a cron job

List all symbolic links in current directory that matches regexp
Perl alternative to list symlinks with a clumsy regexp filter: place the regex instead of he example 'libxml' and end it with a wildchar to see the results (previous cd on dir). Is it possible change the '-l' test for '-d' and it will search for directories. [Same applies for -x and -X. See $(perldoc -f -x) for more tests]. I use it quite often when dealing with shared libraries...

The Hidden PS
While going through the source code for the well known ps command, I read about some interesting things.. Namely, that there are a bunch of different fields that ps can try and enumerate for you. These are fields I was not able to find in the man pages, documentation, only in the source. Here is a longer function that goes through each of the formats recognized by the ps on your machine, executes it, and then prompts you whether you would like to add it or not. Adding it simply adds it to an array that is then printed when you ctrl-c or at the end of the function run. This lets you save your favorite ones and then see the command to put in your .bash_profile like mine at : http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html Note that I had to do the exec method below in order to pause with read. t () { local r l a P f=/tmp/ps c='command ps wwo pid:6,user:8,vsize:8,comm:20' IFS=' '; trap 'exec 66

List subfolders from largest to smallest with sizes in human readable form

Bulk renames with find, sed and a little escaping
This command is a more flexible than my previous submission. It will work with spaces however suuuuper hacky and ugly. Source: http://www.unix.com/shell-programming-scripting/146173-find-rename-files-using-find-mv-sed.html

Create a Multi-Part Archive Without Proprietary Junkware
Leave it to a proprietary software vendor to turn a cheap and easy parlor trick into a selling point. "Hey guys, why don't we turn our _collection of multiple files_ into a *collection of multiple files*!!" Extract the ^above with this: $ cat pics.tar.gz.??? | tar xzv ^extract on any Unix - no need to install junkware! (If you must make proprietary software, at least make it do something *new*) if [ -e windows ]; then use 7-Zip


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