only for sudo-style systems. Use this construct instead of I/O re-directors ``>'' or ``>>'' because sudo only elevates the commands and *not* the re-directors. ***warning: remember that the `tee` command will clobber file contents unless it is given the ``-a'' argument Also, for extra security, the "left" command is still run unprivileged. Show Sample Output

Yes, it's useless.

Display the amount of memory used by all the httpd processes. Great in case you are being Slashdoted!

Only tested on Linux Ubunty Hardy. Works when file names have spaces. The "-maxdepth 2" limits the find search to the current directory and the next one deeper in this example. This was faster on my system because find was searching every directory before the current directory without the -maxdepth option. Almost as fast as locate when used as above. Must use double quotes around pattern to handle spaces in file names. -print0 is used in combination with xargs -0. Those are zeros not "O"s. For xargs, -I is used to replace the following "{}" with the incoming file-list items from find. Echo just prints to the command line what is happening with mv. mv needs "{}" again so it knows what you are moving from. Then end with the move destination. Some other versions may only require one "{}" in the move command and not after the -I, however this is what worked for me on Ubuntu 8.04. Some like to use -type f in the find command to limit the type. Show Sample Output

#Usage: watch timeinsecond "command" Show Sample Output

This never gets old Show Sample Output

I usually have 5 or more ssh connections to various servers, and putting this command in my .bash_profile file makes my putty window or x terminal window title change to this easily recognizable and descriptive text. Includes the username, group, server hostname, where I am connecting from (for SSH tunneling), which device pts, current server load, and how many processes are running. You can also use this for your PROMPT_COMMAND variable, which updates the window title to the current values each time you exec a command. I prefix running this in my .bash_profile with [[ ! -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] && which makes sure it only does this when connecting via SSH with a TTY. Here's some rougher examples from http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html # If set, the value is executed as a command prior to issuing each primary prompt. #H=$((hostname || uname -n) 2>/dev/null | sed 1q);W=$(whoami) #export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${W}@${H}:${PWD/#$HOME/~} ${SSH_TTY/\/dev\//} [`uptime|sed -e "s/.*: \([^,]*\).*/\1/" -e "s/ //g"`]\007"' #PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;`id -un`:`id -gn`@`hostname||uname -n 2>/dev/null|sed 1q` `command who -m|sed -e "s%^.* \(pts/[0-9]*\).*(\(.*\))%[\1] (\2)%g"` [`uptime|sed -e "s/.*: \([^,]*\).*/\1/" -e "s/ //g"` / `command ps aux|wc -l`]\007"' #[[ -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] || export PROMPT_COMMAND #[[ -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] && [[ -f /dev/stdout ]] && SSH_TTY=/dev/stdout And here's a simple function example for setting the title: function set_window_title(){ echo -e "\033]0; ${1:-$USER@$HOST - $SHLVL} \007"; } Show Sample Output

With this form you dont need to cut out target directory using grep/sed/etc.

Convert some decimal numbers to binary numbers. You could also build a general base-converter: function convBase { echo "ibase=$1; obase=$2; $3" | bc; } then you could write function decToBun { convBase 10 2 $1; } Show Sample Output

Set up X forwarding in PuTTY, with X display location set to :0.0 Launch PuTTY ssh session. Launch Xming. Make sure that display is set to :0.0 (this is default). echo "I'm going to paste this into WINDERS XP" | xsel -i will insert the string into the windows cut and paste buffer. Thanks to Dennis Williamson at stackoverflow.com for sharing...

Check if you have 64bit by looking for "lm" in cpuinfo. lm stands for "long mem". This can also be used without being root.

To do hex to binary: echo 'ibase=16; obase=2; 16*16' | bc # prints: 111100100 To do 16*16 from decimal to hex: echo 'ibase=10; obase=16; 16*16' | bc # prints: 100 You get the idea... Alternatively, run bc in interactive mode (see man page) Show Sample Output

just a bit simpler

Very handy way to perform a host scan if you don't have nmap,ncat,nc ...or other tools installed locally. When executing a command on a /dev/tcp/$host/$port pseudo-device file, Bash opens a TCP connection to the associated socket and UDP connection when using /dev/udp/$host/$port.A simlpe way to get servers banner is to run this command "cat < /dev/tcp/localhost/25" , here you will get mail server's banner. NOTE: Bash, as packaged for Debian, does not support using the /dev/tcp and /dev/udp pseudo-device it's not enabled by default Because bash in Debian is compiled with ?disable-net-redirections. Show Sample Output

Searches for web radio by submitted keyword and returns the station name and the link for listing . May be enhanced to read user's selection and submit it to mplayer. Show Sample Output

Checks if a web page has changed. Put it into cron to check periodically. Change http://www.page.de/test.html and mail@mail.de for your needs.

[ 2000 -ge "$(free -m | awk '/buffers.cache:/ {print $4}')" ] returns true if less than 2000 MB of RAM are available, so adjust this number to your needs. [ $(echo "$(uptime | awk '{print $10}' | sed -e 's/,$//' -e 's/,/./') >= $(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo)" | bc) -eq 1 ] returns true if the current machine load is at least equal to the number of CPUs. If either of the tests returns true we wait 10 seconds and check again. If both tests return false, i.e. 2GB are available and machine load falls below number of CPUs, we start our command and save it's output in a text file. The ( ( ... ) & ) construct lets the command run in background even if we log out. See http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/3115/ .

The simplest way to do it. Works for me, at least. (Why are the variables being set?)

you could save the code between if and fi to a shell script named smiley.sh with the first argument as and then do a smiley.sh to see if the command succeeded. a bit needless but who cares ;) Show Sample Output

Like 7171, but fixed typo, uses fewer variables, and even more cryptic! Show Sample Output

Run as root. Path may vary depending on laptop model and video card (this was tested on an Acer laptop with ATI HD3200 video). cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness to discover the possible values for your display.

Configures screen to always display the clock in the last line (has to be configured only once). After that you not only have got the possibility to detach sessions and run them in background, but also have got a nice clock permanently on your screen.

I created this so I could send myself an email alert when a long-running job was finished, e.g., my_long_job.exe ; quickemail my_long_job.exe has finished