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Show one line summaries of all DEB packages installed on Ubuntu based on pattern search
I sometimes want to know what packages are installed on my Ubuntu system. I still haven't figured out how to use aptitude effectively, so this is the next best thing. This allows finding by name. The grep '^ii' limits the display to only installed packages. If this is not specified, then it includes listing of non-installed packages as well.

Recursive replace of directory and file names in the current directory.
no grep, no perl, no pipe. even better in zsh/bash4: $ for i in **/*oldname*; do "mv $i ${i/oldname/newname/}"; done No find, no grep, no perl, no pipe

Get a Bulleted List of SVN Commits By a User for a Specifc Day (Daily Work Log)
* Replace USERNAME with the desired svn username * Replace the first YYYY-MM-DD with the date you want to get the log (this starts at the midnight event that starts this date) * Replace the second YYYY-MM-DD with the date after you want to get the log (this will end the log scan on midnight of the previous day) Example, if I want the log for December 10, 2010, I would put {2010-12-10}:{2010-12-11}

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

Generate a sequence of numbers.

Position the cursor under the current directory line
In case you're like me and like your commands to start on clean lines, especially when you're deep into a 10-level directory tree. This can be added to .bashrc.

Dump dvd from a different machine onto this one.
You can use this to directly dump from machine A (with dvd drive) to machine B (without dvd drive) . I used this to copy dvd using my friend's machine to my netbook. Above command is to be issued on machine B. Advantages : 1) No wasting time dumping first to machine A and then copying to Machine B. 2) You dont need to use space on Machine A. In fact, this will work even when Machine A doesnt have enough hdd space to dump the DVD. Use -C ssh option on slow networks (enables compression). you can replace "dd if=/dev/dvd" with any ripping command as long as it spews the iso to stdout.

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

Set access and modification timestamps of a file using another one as reference
atime and mtime timestamps of $FILE2 is changed according to the ones of $FILE1. If $FILE2 doesn't exist is created.

Another Matrix Style Implementation


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