Commands using echo (1,545)

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Creates a 'path' command that always prints the full path to any file
The command creates an alias called 'path', so it's useful to add it to your .profile or .bash_profile. The path command then prints the full path of any file, directory, or list of files given. Soft links will be resolved to their true location. This is especially useful if you use scp often to copy files across systems. Now rather then using pwd to get a directory, and then doing a separate cut and paste to get a file's name, you can just type 'path file' and get the full path in one operation.

How to run X without any graphics hardware
This starts an X server using Xvfb(1) (no graphics hardware required), then starts a VNC server on the display. Change :1 if there's a conflict with an existing display, and change 800x600x24 to suit your tastes (24 is the bit depth, 800x600 is the size). This command obviously requires X be installed, and also x11vnc(1); both are available via your favourite package manager. You can also use another VNC server of your choosing, as long as DISPLAY is set to the display of Xvfb(1). To change your desktop environment (the default is twm(1), which is rather fail), you can add it to your ~/.xinitrc file (see the startx(1) manpage for details).

Visualizing system performance data

Use wget to download one page and all it's requisites for offline viewing

Kills a process that is locking a file.
Useful when you're trying to unmount a volume and other sticky situations where a rogue process is annoying the hell out of you.

Getting the ip address of eth0

defragment files
Thanks to flatcap for optimizing this command. This command takes advantage of the ext4 filesystem's resistance to fragmentation. By using this command, files that were previously fragmented will be copied / deleted / pasted essentially giving the filesystem another chance at saving the file contiguously. ( unlike FAT / NTFS, the *nix filesystem always try to save a file without fragmenting it ) My command only effects the home directory and only those files with your R/W (read / write ) permissions. There are two issues with this command: 1. it really won't help, it works, but linux doesn't suffer much (if any ) fragmentation and even fragmented files have fast I/O 2. it doesn't discriminate between fragmented and non-fragmented files, so a large ~/ directory with no fragments will take almost as long as an equally sized fragmented ~/ directory The benefits i managed to work into the command: 1. it only defragments files under 16mb, because a large file with fragments isn't as noticeable as a small file that's fragmented, and copy/ delete/ paste of large files would take too long 2. it gives a nice countdown in the terminal so you know how far how much progress is being made and just like other defragmenters you can stop at any time ( use ctrl+c ) 3. fast! i can defrag my ~/ directory in 11 seconds thanks to the ramdrive powering the command's temporary storage bottom line: 1. its only an experiment, safe ( i've used it several times for testing ), but probably not very effective ( unless you somehow have a fragmentation problem on linux ). might be a placebo for recent windows converts looking for a defrag utility on linux and won't accept no for an answer 2. it's my first commandlinefu command

Generate White Noise
This command will generate white noise through your speakers (assuming you have sound enabled). It's good for staying focused, privacy, coping with tinnitus, etc. I use it to test that the sound works.

list files recursively by size

Function to output an ASCII character given its decimal equivalent


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