Commands using alias (240)

  • Print one . instead of each line

    If you're running a command with a lot of output, this serves as a simple progress indicator. This avoids the need to use `/dev/null` for silencing. It works for any command that outputs lines, updates live (`fflush` avoids buffering), and is simple to understand. Show Sample Output


    7
    alias ...="awk '{fflush(); printf \".\"}' && echo \"\""
    lgarron · 2014-02-22 22:20:22 15
  • Quick case-insenstive partial filename search

    This is a simple command, but extremely useful. It's a quick way to search the file names in the current directory for a substring. Normally people use "ls *term*" but that requires the stars and is not case insensitive. Color (for both ls and grep) is an added bonus.


    6
    alias lg='ls --color=always | grep --color=always -i'
    kFiddle · 2009-04-11 23:15:12 8
  • Look for IPv4 address in files.

    It finds a SNMP OID too :-( Show Sample Output


    5
    alias ip4grep "grep -E '([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}'"
    azumakuniyuki · 2009-02-09 15:08:16 11
  • print all network interfaces' names and IPv4 addresses

    ifconfig can't properly display interface's name longer 9 symbols,also it can't show IPs added thru ip command, so 'ip' should be used instead. This alias properly shows long names, bond interfaces and all interface aliases. loopback interface is ignored, since its IP is obvious Show Sample Output


    5
    alias ips='ip a | awk '\''/inet /&&!/ lo/{print $NF,$2}'\'' | column -t'
    zolden · 2010-03-06 20:33:04 3
  • Get a list of all TODO/FIXME tasks left to be done in your project

    Place this in your .bashrc (or run it once) to set the `tasks` alias. Next time you enter `tasks` into a terminal, it will give you a list of all TODO and FIXME comments in the current directory and child directories, giving you a quick overview of what you still have to do!


    5
    alias tasks='grep --exclude-dir=.git -rEI "TODO|FIXME" . 2>/dev/null'
    joepie91 · 2013-10-17 16:40:10 28
  • Simple colourized JSON formatting for BASH

    Leave out pygmentize or `pip install pygments` first. Show Sample Output


    5
    alias pp='python -mjson.tool|pygmentize -l js'
    wires · 2014-05-22 10:29:44 11
  • A nice command for summarising repeated information


    4
    alias counts=sort | uniq -c | sort -nr
    porges · 2009-02-05 08:24:02 519
  • list files with last modified at the end


    4
    alias lrt='ls -lart'
    lhb · 2009-02-16 11:19:29 119
  • Short and sweet output from dig(1)

    Turn off almost all of dig's output except for what you'd see in a zone file. This can also be put into ~/.digrc. Show Sample Output


    4
    alias ds='dig +noauthority +noadditional +noqr +nostats +noidentify +nocmd +noquestion +nocomments'
    SaintAardvark · 2009-02-19 17:32:56 4
  • get a desktop notification from the terminal

    tired of switching to the console to check if some command has finished yet? if notify-send does not work on your box try this one... e.g. rsync -av -e /usr/bin/lsh $HOME slowconnection.bar:/mnt/backup ; z (now fire up X, do something useful, get notified if this stuff has finished).


    4
    alias z='zenity --info --text="You will not believe it, but your command has finished now! :-)" --display :0.0'
    bubo · 2009-08-03 16:38:29 6
  • Define an alias with a correct completion

    In Bash, when defining an alias, one usually loses the completion related to the function used in that alias (that completion is usually defined in /etc/bash_completion using the complete builtin). It's easy to reuse the work done for that completion in order to have smart completion for our alias. That's what is done by this command line (that's only an example but it may be very easy to reuse). Note 1 : You can use given command line in a loop "for old in apt-get apt-cache" if you want to define aliases like that for many commands. Note 2 : You can put the output of the command directly in your .bashrc file (after the ". /etc/bash_completion") to always have the alias and its completion Show Sample Output


    4
    old='apt-get'; new="su-${old}"; command="sudo ${old}"; alias "${new}=${command}"; $( complete | sed -n "s/${old}$/${new}/p" ); alias ${new}; complete -p ${new}
    Josay · 2009-08-10 00:15:05 4
  • shell function to make gnu info act like man.

    I use this alias in my bashrc. The --vi-keys option makes info use vi-like and less-like key bindings.


    4
    alias info='info --vi-keys'
    eightmillion · 2010-02-16 16:35:17 4
  • Debug SSH at the Maximum Verbosity Level

    When debugging an ssh connection either to optimize your settings ie compression, ciphers, or more commonly for debugging an issue connecting, this alias comes in real handy as it's not easy to remember the '-o LogLevel=DEBUG3' argument, which adds a boost of debugging info not available with -vvv alone. Especially useful are the FD info, and the setup negotiation to create a cleaner, faster connection. Show Sample Output


    4
    alias sshv='ssh -vvv -o LogLevel=DEBUG3'
    AskApache · 2010-10-30 11:23:52 4
  • An alias to re-run last command with sudo. Similar to "sudo !!"

    I didn't come up with this myself, but I always add this to my .bash_aliases file. It's essentially the same idea as running "sudo !!" except it's much easier to type. (You can't just alias "sudo !!", it doesn't really work for reasons I don't understand.) "fc" is a shell built-in for editing and re-running previous commands. The -l flag tells it to display the line rather than edit it, and the -n command tells it to omit the line number. -1 tells it to print the previous line. For more detail: help fc


    4
    alias please='sudo $(fc -ln -1)'
    suspenderguy · 2018-06-13 20:20:19 249
  • ring the bell


    3
    alias beep='echo -en "\007"'
    adavies42 · 2009-02-05 10:14:24 33
  • rot13 simple substitution cipher via command line

    E.g. Useful for hiding spoilers in reviews, etc. Show Sample Output


    3
    alias rot13='perl -pe "y/A-Za-z/N-ZA-Mn-za-m/;"'
    abcde · 2009-02-06 14:22:43 13
  • show all programs connected or listening on a network port

    Use the aliased command 'nsl'


    3
    alias nsl 'netstat -f inet | grep -v CLOSE_WAIT | cut -c-6,21-94 | tail +2'
    mnikhil · 2009-02-07 18:54:12 10
  • Print stack trace of a core file without needing to enter gdb interactively

    The pstack command prints a stack trace of running processes without needing to attach a debugger, but what about core files? The answer, of course, is to use this command. Usage: gdbbt program corefile


    3
    alias gdbbt="gdb -q -n -ex bt -batch"
    TeacherTiger · 2009-11-10 22:56:59 658
  • Burn a directory of mp3s to an audio cd.

    This uses mpg123 to convert the files to wav before burning, but you can use mplayer or mencoder or ffmpeg or lame with the --decode option, or whatever you like.


    3
    alias burnaudiocd='mkdir ./temp && for i in *.[Mm][Pp]3;do mpg123 -w "./temp/${i%%.*}.wav" "$i";done;cdrecord -pad ./temp/* && rm -r ./temp'
    eightmillion · 2009-11-21 19:57:18 3
  • Command to Show a List of Special Characters for bash prompt (PS1)

    I use this command (PS1) to show a list bash prompt's special characters. I tested it against A flavor of Red Hat Linux and Mac OS X Show Sample Output


    3
    alias PS1="man bash | sed -n '/ASCII bell/,/end a sequence/p'"
    haivu · 2010-01-15 23:39:28 3
  • kills rapidly spawning processes that spawn faster than you can repeat the killall command

    if you dont want to alias also then you can do killall rapidly_spawning_process ; !! ; !! ; !!


    3
    alias a=" killall rapidly_spawning_process"; a; a; a;
    raj77_in · 2010-05-20 02:33:28 3
  • View advanced Sort options, Quick Reference Help Alias

    Once you get into advanced/optimized scripts, functions, or cli usage, you will use the sort command alot. The options are difficult to master/memorize however, and when you use sort commands as much as I do (some examples below), it's useful to have the help available with a simple alias. I love this alias as I never seem to remember all the options for sort, and I use sort like crazy (much better than uniq for example). # Sorts by file permissions find . -maxdepth 1 -printf '%.5m %10M %p\n' | sort -k1 -r -g -bS 20% 00761 drwxrw---x ./tmp 00755 drwxr-xr-x . 00701 drwx-----x ./askapache-m 00644 -rw-r--r-- ./.htaccess # Shows uniq history fast history 1000 | sed 's/^[0-9 ]*//' | sort -fubdS 50% exec bash -lxv export TERM=putty-256color Taken from my http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html Show Sample Output


    3
    alias sorth='sort --help|sed -n "/^ *-[^-]/s/^ *\(-[^ ]* -[^ ]*\) *\(.*\)/\1:\2/p"|column -ts":"'
    AskApache · 2010-06-10 21:30:31 9
  • sudo for entire line (including pipes and redirects)

    USAGE: $ sudor your command This command uses a dirty hack with history, so be sure you not turned it off. WARNING! This command behavior differ from other commands. It more like text macro, so you shouldn't use it in subshells, non-interactive sessions, other functions/aliases and so on. You shouldn't pipe into sudor (any string that prefixes sudor will be removed), but if you really want, use this commands: proceed_sudo () { sudor_command="`HISTTIMEFORMAT=\"\" history 1 | sed -r -e 's/^.*?sudor//' -e 's/\"/\\\"/g'`" ; pre_sudor_command="`history 1 | cut -d ' ' -f 5- | sed -r -e 's/sudor.*$//' -e 's/\"/\\\"/g'`"; if [ -n "${pre_sudor_command/ */}" ] ; then eval "${pre_sudor_command%| *}" | sudo sh -c "$sudor_command"; else sudo sh -c "$sudor_command" ;fi ;}; alias sudor="proceed_sudo # "


    3
    proceed_sudo () { sudor_command="`HISTTIMEFORMAT=\"\" history 1 | sed -r -e 's/^.*?sudor//' -e 's/\"/\\\"/g'`" ; sudo sh -c "$sudor_command"; }; alias sudor="proceed_sudo # "
    mechmind · 2010-06-29 14:56:29 5
  • Alias for lazy tmux create/reattach

    If a tmux session is already running attach it, otherwise create a new one. Useful if you often forget about running tmuxes (or just don't care)


    3
    alias ltmux="if tmux has; then tmux attach; else tmux new; fi"
    tensorpudding · 2010-07-19 01:27:47 5
  • Bash alias for creating screen session containing IRSSI, named irssi, while checking if existing session is created

    Bash alias for easy irssi within screen, attempts to attach to existing irssi session, if one exists, otherwise creates one - Including wipe for when system reboots and leaves "dead" session.


    3
    alias irssi="screen -wipe; screen -A -U -x -R -S irssi irssi"
    djsmiley2k · 2010-12-15 09:10:53 3
  •  < 1 2 3 4 >  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

Automagically update grub.conf labels after installing a new kernel
I like to label my grub boot options with the correct kernel version/build. After building and installing a new kernel with "make install" I had to edit my grub.conf by hand. To avoid this, I've decided to write this little command line to: 1. read the version/build part of the filename to which the kernel symlinks point 2. replace the first label lines of grub.conf grub.conf label lines must be in this format: Latest [{name}-{version/build}] Old [{name}-{version/build}] only the {version/build} part is substituted. For instance: title Latest [GNU/Linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r10.201003] would turn to title Latest [GNU/Linux-2.6.32-gentoo-r7.201004]"

list files recursively by size

Mount a partition from within a complete disk dump
Suppose you made a backup of your hard disk with dd: dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/disk/backup.img This command enables you to mount a partition from inside this image, so you can access your files directly. Substitute PARTITION=1 with the number of the partition you want to mount (returned from sfdisk -d yourfile.img).

Make a directory named with the current date
Create a directory named with the current date in ISO 8601 format (yyyy-mm-dd). Useful for storing backups by date. The --iso switch may only work with GNU date, can use format string argument for other date versions.

Show webcam output
Show the webcam output with mplayer.

Destroy all disks on system simultaneously
This command will use the fdisk utility to find all block devices on your system, and overwrite them with data from the /dev/urandom non-blocking random number generator. CAUTION: This will irrevocably erase EVERY SINGLE physical block storage device visible to the fdisk utility, including plugged USB devices, RAID sets, LVM, etc.

Let's make screen and ssh-agent friends
When you start screen as `ssh-agent screen`, agent will die after detatch. If you don't want to take care about files when stored agent's pid/socket/etc, you have to use this command.

ssh autocomplete
Autocomplete from .ssh/config

Directory bookmarks
pushd and popd are your friends, but sometimes they're just incompatible with the way one works... Two shell functions: bm bookmarkname - "bookmarks" the current directory, just 'cd $BMbookmarkname' to return to it. forget bookmarkname - unsets the 'bookmarkname' variable. It isn't mandatory, they cease to exist when the session ends.

Catch a proccess from a user and strace it.
It sits there in a loop waiting for a proccess from that user to spawn. When it does it will attach strace to it

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: