Commands using alias (240)


  • 57
    alias 'ps?'='ps ax | grep '
    fzero · 2009-02-05 13:36:37 44
  • sorts the files by integer megabytes, which should be enough to (interactively) find the space wasters. Now you can dush for the above output, dush -n 3 for only the 3 biggest files and so on. It's always a good idea to have this line in your .profile or .bashrc Show Sample Output


    29
    alias dush="du -sm *|sort -n|tail"
    funky · 2010-03-26 10:18:57 15
  • Run the alias command, then issue ps aux | head and resize your terminal window (putty/console/hyperterm/xterm/etc) then issue the same command and you'll understand. ${LINES:-`tput lines 2>/dev/null||echo -n 12`} Insructs the shell that if LINES is not set or null to use the output from `tput lines` ( ncurses based terminal access ) to get the number of lines in your terminal. But furthermore, in case that doesn't work either, it will default to using the deafault of 12 (-2 = 10). The default for HEAD is to output the first 10 lines, this alias changes the default to output the first x lines instead, where x is the number of lines currently displayed on your terminal - 2. The -2 is there so that the top line displayed is the command you ran that used HEAD, ie the prompt. Depending on whether your PS1 and/or PROMPT_COMMAND output more than 1 line (mine is 3) you will want to increase from -2. So with my prompt being the following, I need -7, or - 5 if I only want to display the commandline at the top. ( https://www.askapache.com/linux/bash-power-prompt/ ) 275MB/748MB [7995:7993 - 0:186] 06:26:49 Thu Apr 08 [askapache@n1-backbone5:/dev/pts/0 +1] ~ In most shells the LINES variable is created automatically at login and updated when the terminal is resized (28 linux, 23/20 others for SIGWINCH) to contain the number of vertical lines that can fit in your terminal window. Because the alias doesn't hard-code the current LINES but relys on the $LINES variable, this is a dynamic alias that will always work on a tty device. Show Sample Output


    27
    alias head='head -n $((${LINES:-`tput lines 2>/dev/null||echo -n 12`} - 2))'
    AskApache · 2010-04-08 22:37:06 14
  • This makes an alias for a command named 'busy'. The 'busy' command opens a random file in /usr/include to a random line with vim. Drop this in your .bash_aliases and make sure that file is initialized in your .bashrc.


    23
    alias busy='my_file=$(find /usr/include -type f | sort -R | head -n 1); my_len=$(wc -l $my_file | awk "{print $1}"); let "r = $RANDOM % $my_len" 2>/dev/null; vim +$r $my_file'
    busybee · 2010-03-09 21:48:41 19
  • If you have used bash for any scripting, you've used the date command alot. It's perfect for using as a way to create filename's dynamically within aliases,functions, and commands like below.. This is actually an update to my first alias, since a few commenters (below) had good observations on what was wrong with my first command. # creating a date-based ssh-key for askapache.github.com ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/`date +git-$USER@$HOSTNAME-%m-%d-%g` -C 'webmaster@askapache.com' # /home/gpl/.ssh/git-gplnet@askapache.github.com-04-22-10 # create a tar+gzip backup of the current directory tar -czf $(date +$HOME/.backups/%m-%d-%g-%R-`sed -u 's/\//#/g' <<< $PWD`.tgz) . # tar -czf /home/gpl/.backups/04-22-10-01:13-#home#gpl#.rr#src.tgz . I personally find myself having to reference date --help quite a bit as a result. So this nice alias saves me a lot of time. This is one bdash mofo. Works in sh and bash (posix), but will likely need to be changed for other shells due to the parameter substitution going on.. Just extend the sed command, I prefer sed to pretty much everything anyways.. but it's always preferable to put in the extra effort to go for as much builtin use as you can. Otherwise it's not a top one-liner, it's a lazyboy recliner. Here's the old version: alias dateh='date --help|sed "/^ *%%/,/^ *%Z/!d;s/ \+/ /g"|while read l;do date "+ %${l/% */}_${l/% */}_${l#* }";done|column -s_ -t' This trick from my [ http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html bash_profile ] Show Sample Output


    21
    alias dateh='date --help|sed -n "/^ *%%/,/^ *%Z/p"|while read l;do F=${l/% */}; date +%$F:"|'"'"'${F//%n/ }'"'"'|${l#* }";done|sed "s/\ *|\ */|/g" |column -s "|" -t'
    AskApache · 2010-04-21 01:22:18 16
  • If you are already running screen then you often want to start a command in a fresh window. You use this alias by typing 's whatever' from your command line and 'whatever' starts running in a new window. Good with interactive commands like info, vim, and nethack.


    19
    alias s='screen -X screen'; s top; s vi; s man ls;
    jonty · 2009-02-05 13:47:14 38
  • I often need to add a timestamp to a file, but I never seem to remember the exact format string that has to be passed to the date command to get a compact datetime string like 20090220T231410 (i.e yyyymmddThhmmss, the ISO 8601 format popular outside the US) Show Sample Output


    12
    alias timestamp='date "+%Y%m%dT%H%M%S"'
    olifante · 2009-02-20 23:18:30 10
  • rot13 maps a..mn..z (A..MN..Z) to n..za..m (n..za..m) and so does this alias.


    10
    alias rot13="tr '[A-Za-z]' '[N-ZA-Mn-za-m]'"
    penpen · 2009-03-30 19:08:49 9
  • I always add this to my .profile rc so I can do things like: "vim *.c" and the files are opened in tabs.


    10
    alias vim="vim -p"
    tommed · 2010-12-30 22:53:33 10

  • 10
    alias rot13="tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M"
    mathias · 2011-03-17 11:21:19 4
  • Console screensaver.


    10
    alias screensaver='for ((;;)); do echo -ne "\033[$((1+RANDOM%LINES));$((1+RANDOM%COLUMNS))H\033[$((RANDOM%2));3$((RANDOM%8))m$((RANDOM%10))"; sleep 0.1 ; done'
    lkj · 2011-03-24 16:58:14 14

  • 9
    alias lvim="vim -c \"normal '0\""
    lowkey · 2009-03-16 15:41:00 6
  • Alias two dots to move to parent directory. Put it into your .bashrc or .profile file. Show Sample Output


    9
    alias ..='cd ..'
    eimantas · 2009-03-20 09:57:28 8
  • Makes it easy to add keys to new ppa sources entries in apt sources.list Now to add the key for the chromium-daily ppa: launchpadkey 4E5E17B5 Show Sample Output


    9
    alias launchpadkey="sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys"
    azeey · 2009-06-17 12:02:27 10
  • Put this in your ~/.bashrc file (or the equivalent) If you use vim a lot, this alias will be immediately obvious. Your brain will thank you.


    9
    alias ':q'='exit'
    tobiasboon · 2009-09-05 17:59:50 13
  • Note: you'll want to set up pub-key ssh auth. Gives you a quick means of changing volume/tracks/etc for rhythmbox on a remote machine. E.g.: rc --next # Play next track rc --print-playing # Grab the name rc --volume-down rc --help


    9
    alias rc='ssh ${MEDIAPCHOSTNAME} env DISPLAY=:0.0 rhythmbox-client --no-start'
    rhythmx · 2010-01-17 19:43:43 6
  • This is an alias you can add to your .bashrc file to get notified when a job you run in a terminal is done. example of use sleep 20; alert Source:http://www.webupd8.org/2010/07/get-notified-when-job-you-run-in.html


    9
    alias alert='notify-send -i /usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/apps/gnome-terminal.png "[$?] $(history|tail -n1|sed -e '\''s/^\s*[0-9]\+\s*//;s/;\s*alert$//'\'')"'
    pkiller · 2010-09-12 02:54:40 60
  • example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- user@ubuntu:~/workspace/SVN/haystak-repos/trunk/internal/src$ addpi -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that directory is in the list of fast access directories. You can switch to it anytime like this: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- user@ubuntu:~$ pi internal` user@ubuntu:~/workspace/SVN/haystak-repos/trunk/internal/src$ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note the backquote ( the symbol that shares its key with ~ in the keyboard ) pi will switch you to that directory. To see the list of all fast access directories you have to say "cat ~/.pi"


    8
    alias pi='`cat ~/.pi | grep ' ; alias addpi='echo "cd `pwd`" >> ~/.pi'
    senthil · 2009-02-05 15:46:59 30
  • Sometimes I just want to run a command quietly but all that keyboard shifting makes my fingers hurt. This little function does the job eg.: if shh type less; then PAGER=less; fi


    8
    silent(){ $@ > /dev/null 2>&1; }; alias shh=silent
    bhepple · 2010-01-04 01:01:03 15
  • This is freaking sweet!!! Here is the full alias, (I didn't want to cause display problems on commandlinefu.com's homepage): alias tarred='( ( D=`builtin pwd`; F=$(date +$HOME/`sed "s,[/ ],#,g" <<< ${D/${HOME}/}`#-%F.tgz); S=$SECONDS; tar --ignore-failed-read --transform "s,^${D%/*},`date +${D%/*}.%F`,S" -czPf "$"F "$D" && logger -s "Tarred $D to $F in $(($SECONDS-$S)) seconds" ) & )' Creates a .tgz archive of whatever directory it is run from, in the background, detached from current shell so if you logout it will still complete. Also, you can run this as many times as you want, if the archive .tgz already exists, it just moves it to a numbered backup '--backup=numbered'. The coolest part of this is the transformation performed by tar and sed so that the archive file names are automatically created, and when you extract the archive file it is completely safe thanks to the transform command. If you archive lets say /home/tombdigger/new-stuff-to-backup/ it will create the archive /home/#home#tombdigger#new-stuff-to-backup#-2010-11-18.tgz Then when you extract it, like tar -xvzf #home#tombdigger#new-stuff-to-backup#-2010-11-18.tgz instead of overwriting an existing /home/tombdigger/new-stuff-to-backup/ directory, it will extract to /home/tombdigger/new-stuff-to-backup.2010-11-18/ Basically, the tar archive filename is the PWD with all '/' replaced with '#', and the date is appended to the name so that multiple archives are easily managed. This example saves all archives to your $HOME/archive-name.tgz, but I have a $BKDIR variable with my backup location for each shell user, so I just replaced HOME with BKDIR in the alias. So when I ran this in /opt/askapache/SOURCE/lockfile-progs-0.1.11/ the archive was created at /askapache-bk/#opt#askapache#SOURCE#lockfile-progs-0.1.11#-2010-11-18.tgz Upon completion, uses the universal logger tool to output its completion to syslog and stderr (printed to your terminal), just remove that part if you don't want it, or just remove the '-s ' option from logger to keep the logs only in syslog and not on your terminal. Here's how my syslog server recorded this.. 2010-11-18T00:44:13-05:00 gravedigger.askapache.com (127.0.0.5) [user] [notice] (logger:) Tarred /opt/askapache/SOURCE/lockfile-progs-0.1.11 to /askapache-bk/tarred/#opt#SOURCE#lockfile-progs-0.1.11#-2010-11-18.tgz in 4 seconds Caveats Really this is very robust and foolproof, the only issues I ever have with it (I've been using this for years on my web servers) is if you run it in a directory and then a file changes in that directory, you get a warning message and your archive might have a problem for the changed file. This happens when running this in a logs directory, a temp dir, etc.. That's the only issue I've ever had, really nothing more than a heads up. Advanced: This is a simple alias, and very useful as it works on basically every linux box with semi-current tar and GNU coreutils, bash, and sed.. But if you want to customize it or pass parameters (like a dir to backup instead of pwd), check out this function I use.. this is what I created the alias from BTW, replacing my aa_status function with logger, and adding $SECONDS runtime instead of using tar's --totals function tarred () { local GZIP='--fast' PWD=${1:-`pwd`} F=$(date +${BKDIR}/%m-%d-%g-%H%M-`sed -u 's/[\/\ ]/#/g' [[ ! -r "$PWD" ]] && echo "Bad permissions for $PWD" 1>&2 && return 2; ( ( tar --totals --ignore-failed-read --transform "s@^${PWD%/*}@`date +${PWD%/*}.%m-%d-%g`@S" -czPf $F $PWD && aa_status "Completed Tarp of $PWD to $F" ) & ) } #From my .bash_profile http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html Show Sample Output


    8
    alias tarred='( ( D=`builtin pwd`; F=$(date +$HOME/`sed "s,[/ ],#,g" <<< ${D/${HOME}/}`#-%F.tgz); tar --ignore-failed-read --transform "s,^${D%/*},`date +${D%/*}.%F`,S" -czPf "$F" "$D" &>/dev/null ) & )'
    AskApache · 2010-11-18 06:24:34 2
  • I got really tired of having tree always show me tons of .svn and .git stuff that I don't care about. With this alias, "tree" uses pretty colors, snazzy line graphics, and ignores any source control and package mumbojumbo. (Customize the *.*.package glob, of course.) Show Sample Output


    7
    alias tree="tree -CAFa -I 'CVS|*.*.package|.svn|.git' --dirsfirst"
    isaacs · 2009-03-27 05:13:39 8
  • This will create a permanent alias to colorize the search pattern in your grep output


    7
    echo alias grep=\'grep --color=auto\' >> ~/.bashrc ; . ~/.bashrc
    0x2142 · 2009-07-05 07:44:13 7
  • Would create a file with a meaningful title. Dedicated to John Cons, who is annoying us users. Merry Christmas!!! Show Sample Output


    7
    alias Z=base64&&Z=dG91Y2ggUExFQVNFX1NUT1BfQU5OT1lJTkdfQ09NTUFORExJTkVGVV9VU0VSUwo=&&$(echo $Z|Z -d)
    rodolfoap · 2010-12-24 14:29:19 18
  • When setting up a new aliases file, or having creating a new file.. About every time after editing an aliases file, I source it. This alias makes editing alias a bit easier and they are useful right away. Note if the source failed, it will not echo "aliases sourced". Sub in vi for your favorite editor, or alter for ksh, sh, etc.


    7
    alias va='vi ~/.aliases; source ~/.aliases && echo "aliases sourced"'
    greggster · 2011-03-10 06:41:37 5
  • use vim like less command pager but with color highlighting = pretty :p also u can use /usr/share/vim/vim73/macros/less.sh


    7
    alias vless='/usr/share/vim/vimcurrent/macros/less.sh'
    Bonster · 2012-04-28 23:01:25 5
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