Commands using file sorted by votes

Commands using file (166)

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Grab a list of MP3s out of Firefox's cache

Ever gone to a site that has an MP3 embedded into a pesky flash player, but no download link? Well, this one-liner will yank the names of those tunes straight out of FF's cache in a nice, easy to read list. What you do with them after that is *ahem* no concern of mine. ;) Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
4CF25EB3d01
```
4

for i in `ls ~/.mozilla/firefox/*/Cache`; do file $i | grep -i mpeg | awk '{print $1}' | sed s/.$//; done

BoxingOctopus · 2010-04-11 23:14:18 7

Sort on multiple dis-contiguous keys/fields (can even specify key number/field from the end)

Notes: 1) -n-1 means sort key is the last field 2) -l is important if each separate record is on a new line (usually so for text files) 3) -j tells msort not to create log file (msort.log) in the working directory 4) may need to install msort package. 5) msort does lot more. Check man msort Show Sample Output

file /bin/* | msort -j -l -n-1 -n2 2> /dev/null

b_t · 2010-10-05 00:37:33 4

Monitor a file with tail with timestamps added

Should be a bit more portable since echo -e/n and date's -Ins are not. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
....
2010-11-24 05:46:58+0000        ##########
2010-11-24 05:46:59+0000        #  EOF   #
2010-11-24 05:46:59+0000        ##########
```
4

tail -f file | while read line; do printf "$(date -u '+%F %T%z')\t$line\n"; done

derekschrock · 2010-11-24 05:50:12 4
Copy all shared libraries for a binary to directory

When working with jailed environments you need to copy all the shared libraries to your jail environment. This is done by running ldd on a binary which needs to run inside the jail. This command will use the output from ldd to automatically copy the shared libraries to a folder of your choice. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
# ldd /bin/bash | grep "=> /" | awk '{print $3}' | xargs -I '{}' cp -v '{}' test/
`/lib/libncurses.so.5' -> `test/libncurses.so.5'
`/lib/i686/cmov/libdl.so.2' -> `test/libdl.so.2'
`/lib/i686/cmov/libc.so.6' -> `test/libc.so.6'
```
4

ldd file | grep "=> /" | awk '{print $3}' | xargs -I '{}' cp -v '{}' /destination

rickard2 · 2012-02-11 17:50:10 11
Convert PDF to JPG

Without the bashisms and unnecessary sed dependency. Substitutions quoted so that filenames with whitespace will be handled correctly.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

for file in *.pdf; do convert -verbose -colorspace RGB -resize 800 -interlace none -density 300 -quality 80 "$file" "${file//.pdf/.jpg}"; done

malathion · 2014-06-19 15:52:42 7
Massive change of file extension (bash)

Using bash parameters expansion
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

for file in *.txt; do mv "${file%.txt}{.txt,.xml}"; done

rgawenda · 2020-01-23 08:54:34 129
improve copy file over ssh showing progress

You set the file/dirname transfer variable, in the end point you set the path destination, this command uses pipe view to show progress, compress the file outut and takes account to change the ssh cipher. Support dirnames with spaces. Merged ideas and comments by http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/4379/copy-working-directory-and-compress-it-on-the-fly-while-showing-progress and http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/3177/move-a-lot-of-files-over-ssh Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
112MB 0:00:12 [8.78MB/s] [==============>     ] 96%
```
3

file='path to file'; tar -cf - "$file" | pv -s $(du -sb "$file" | awk '{print $1}') | gzip -c | ssh -c blowfish user@host tar -zxf - -C /opt/games

starchox · 2010-01-19 16:02:45 37
Extract all 7zip files in current directory taking filename spaces into account
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

for file in *.7z; do 7zr e "$file"; done

jmcantrell · 2010-01-22 18:42:20 11
Monitor a file with tail with timestamps added
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

tail -f file |xargs -IX printf "$(date -u)\t%s\n" X

unefunge · 2010-11-25 11:23:13 5
sed edit-in-place using -a option instead of -i option (no tmp file created)

does the -i option open a tmp file? this method does not.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

sedi(){ case $# in [01]|[3-9])echo usage: sedi sed-cmds file ;;2)sed -a ''"$1"';H;$!d;g;' $2 |sed -a '/^$/d;w '"$2"'' ;;esac;}

argv · 2011-07-27 02:36:53 3
Create backup copy of file, adding suffix of the date of the file modification (NOT today's date)

When I go to change a configuration file I always like to make a backup first. You can use "cp -p" to preserve the modification time, but it gets confusing to have file.prev, file.prev2, etc. So I like to add a YYMMDD suffix that shows when the file was last changed. "stat -c %Y" gives you the modification time in epoch seconds, then "date -d @" converts that to whatever format you specify in your "+format" string. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
# ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 31  2018 file
# cp -p file file.$(date -d @$(stat -c '%Y' file) "+%y%m%d")
 ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 31  2018 file
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 31  2018 file.181231
 
```
3

cp file file.$(date -d @$(stat -c '%Y' file) "+%y%m%d")

dmmst19 · 2019-07-18 18:09:09 152
Create backup copy of file, adding suffix of the date of the file modification (NOT today's date)

If your `date` command has `-r` option, you don't need `stat`
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

cp file{,.$(date -r file "+%y%m%d")}

brx75x · 2019-09-19 09:42:38 164
Split and join with split and cat.

`split -b 1k file` splits files into 1k chunks. Rejoin them with `cat x* > file`.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

split -b 1k file ; cat x* > file

abcde · 2009-02-08 23:10:18 10
Join a folder full of split files

If you use newsgroups then you'll have come across split files before. Joining together a whole batch of them can be a pain so this will do the whole folder in one. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
file.avi.001
file.avi.002
file.avi.003
file.avi.004
another.avi.001
another.avi.002
another.avi.003
another.avi.004
another.avi.005
another.avi.006
more.avi.001
more.avi.002
more.avi.003
more.avi.004
more.avi.005

becomes:

file.avi
another.avi
more.avi
```
2

for file in *.001; do NAME=`echo $file | cut -d. -f1,2`; cat "$NAME."[0-9][0-9][0-9] > "$NAME"; done

jaymzcd · 2009-07-29 10:04:26 6
Detect encoding of a text file

This command gives you the charset of a text file, which would be handy if you have no idea of the encoding. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
file -i data.sql
data.sql: text/x-c charset=iso-8859-1
```
2

file -i <textfile>

juvenn · 2009-09-08 01:33:19 4

Make directories for and mount all iso files in a folder

Show Sample Output

for file in *.iso; do mkdir `basename $file | awk -F. '{print $1}'`; sudo mount -t iso9660 -o loop $file `basename $file | awk -F. '{print $1}'`; done

jaymzcd · 2009-10-17 20:07:31 4

Convert multiple flac files to mp3

make sure that flac and lame are installed sudo apt-get install lame flac
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

for file in *.flac; do $(flac -cd "$file" | lame -h - "${file%.flac}.mp3"); done

schmiddim · 2010-03-08 13:37:25 9
Grab a list of MP3s out of Firefox's cache

Grab a list of MP3s (with full path) out of Firefox's cache Ever gone to a site that has an MP3 embedded into a pesky flash player, but no download link? Well, this one-liner will yank the *full path* of those tunes straight out of FF's cache in a clean list. Shorter and Intuitive version of the command submitted by (TuxOtaku) Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
/home/sata/.mozilla/firefox/xmr8lfrq.default/Cache/FD44AC63d01
/home/sata/.mozilla/firefox/xmr8lfrq.default/Cache/C4C20071d01
/home/sata/.mozilla/firefox/xmr8lfrq.default/Cache/CD40802Cd01
```
2

find ~/.mozilla/firefox/*/Cache -exec file {} \; | awk -F ': ' 'tolower($2)~/mpeg/{print $1}'

sata · 2010-04-19 06:59:55 3
Recursively remove all files in a CVS directory

This will search all directories and ignore the CVS ones. Then it will search all files in the resulting directories and act on them.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

for dir in $(find -type d ! -name CVS); do for file in $(find $dir -maxdepth 1 -type f); do rm $file; cvs delete $file; done; done

ubersoldat · 2010-04-27 16:03:33 9
Extract IPv4 addressess from file

Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
83.233.165.56
92.123.73.25
92.123.73.57
92.123.73.8
95.100.117.11
```
2

grep -Eo $[0-9]\{1,3\}[\.]$\{3\}[0-9] file | sort | uniq

rubenmoran · 2010-05-23 11:23:57 4
Count accesses per domain

count the times a domain appears on a file which lines are URLs in the form http://domain/resource. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
6 www.domain.one.com
11 www.domain.two.com
3 www.otherdomain.com
2 www.domainfour.es
```
2

cut -d'/' -f3 file | sort | uniq -c

rubenmoran · 2010-05-23 16:02:51 8
Download a file securely via a remote SSH server

This command will download $file via server. I've used this when FTP was broken at the office and I needed to download some software packages.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

file=ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v2.6/gimp-2.6.10.tar.bz2; ssh server "wget $file -O -" > $PWD/${file##*/}

michaelmior · 2010-08-02 15:59:45 5
scroll file one line at a time (w/only UNIX base utilities)

usage examples ls largedir |rd lynx -dump largewebsite.com |rd rd < largelogfile
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

rd(){ while read a ;do printf "$a\n";sleep ${1-1};done ;} # usage: rd < file ; or ... | rd

argv · 2010-10-03 04:16:03 3
Annotate tail -f with timestamps

Uses the command ts in order to add a timestamp on each line. This command is provided in the moreutils package on Debian, and you may need libtime-duration-perl to be able to format the date.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

tail -f file | ts '%H:%M:%.S'

Vagrant · 2012-03-02 11:15:29 4
find which of the zip files contains the file you're searching for

This command find which of your zip (or jar) files (when you have lots of them) contains a file you're searching for. It's useful when you have a lot of zip (or jar) files and need to know in which of them the file is archived. It's most common with .jar files when you have to know which of the .jar files contains the java class you need. To find in jar files, you must change "zip" to "jar" in the "find" command. The [internal file name] must be changed to the file name you're searching that is archived into one of the zip/jar files. Before run this command you must step into the directory that contains the zip or jar files.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

find . -iname '*.zip' | while read file; do unzip -l "$file" | grep -q [internal file name] && echo $file; done

ricardofunke · 2012-03-23 18:08:35 10
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Format partition with ext4 but without a journal

For slow flash memory (cheap thumb drive), ext4 is the fastest stable file system for all use cases with no relevant exception: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/7208/1 Since we can usually dispense with the benefits of a journal for this type of storage, this is a way to achieve the least awful I/O-speed. Disabling the journal for an existing ext4 partition can be achieved using $ tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdXN Note that it is often recommended to format removable flash media with ext2, due to the lack of a journal. ext4 has many advantages over ext2 even without the journal, with much better speed as one of the consequences. So the only usecase for ext2 would be compatibility with very old software.

Convert a Python interactive session to a python script

Used to copy and paste a terminal buffer of a python interactive session into an editor

Get information on your graphics card on linux (such as graphics memory size)

Loop is needed if you have more then one card.

Dump a configuration file without comments or whitespace...

A short, *easy-er* to remember command for stripping whitespace and comments from a config file, (or any file for that matter). Remember regex as: slash, space, star. pound, slash, bar. pointy-hat, dollar. (or "caret, dollar" if you must) :-P

sendEmail - easiest commandline way to send e-mail

Recursively Find Images, Convert to JPEGS and Delete

Simple command to convert a large number of images into jpeg-format. Will delete originals after conversion.

DVD ripping with ffmpeg

To rip DVD movie to ogg format using ffmpeg, follow these steps. 1) find the vob files on the mounted video DVD in VIDEO_TS that stores the movie itself. There would be a few other VOB files that stores splash screen or special features, the vob files for the movie itself can be identified by its superior size. You can verify these vob files by playing them directly with a player (e.g. mplayer) 2) concatenate all such vob files, pipe to ffmpeg 3) calculate the video size and crop size. The ogg video size must be multiple of 16 on both width and height, this is inherit limitation of theora codec. In my case I took 512x384. The -vcodec parameter is necessary because ffmpeg doesn't support theora by itself. -acodec is necessary otherwise ffmpeg uses flac by default.

Download all images from a 4chan thread

First (and only) argument should be a 4chan thread URL.

Check every URL redirect (HTTP status codes 301/302) with curl

curl -sLkIv --stderr - https://t.co/2rQjHfptZ8 -s: silences the output when piped to a different command -L: follow every redirect -k: ignores certificate errors -I: just request the headers -v: be verbose --stderr - : redirect stderr to stdout https://t.co/2rQjHfptZ8: URL to check for redirects piped to grep -i location: -i: grep target text ignoring case location: : greps every string containing "location:" piped to awk {'print $3'} prints the third column in every string piped to sed '/^$/d' removes blank lines

Stream and copy a video from lan

Requires a listening port on HOST eg. "cat movie.mp4 | nc -l 1356 " (cat movie.mp4 | nc -l PORT) Useful if you're impatient and want to watch a movie immediately and download it at the same time without using extra bandwidth. You can't seek (it'll crash and kill the stream) but you can pause it.

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Commands using file (166)

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