Commands using printf sorted by votes

Commands using printf (206)

sorted by

Plot frequency distribution of words from files on a terminal.

Uses the dumb terminal option in gnuplot to plot a graph of frequencies. In this case, we are looking at a frequency analysis of words in all of the .c files. Show Sample Output

This is sample output - yours may be different.

$ cat *.c | { printf "se te du\nplot '-' t '' w dots\n"; tr '[[:upper:]]' '[[:lower:]]' | tr -s [[:punct:][:space:]] '\n' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -n 100 | awk '{print $1}END{print "e"}'; } | gnuplot

  60 .+-----+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+-----++
     +      +      +      +      +       +      +      +      +      +      +
     |                                                                      |
  50 ++                                                                    ++
     |                                                                      |
     |.                                                                     |
     |.                                                                     |
  40 ++                                                                    ++
     |                                                                      |
     | ..                                                                   |
  30 ++                                                                    ++
     |   .                                                                  |
     |                                                                      |
  20 ++  ..                                                                ++
     |     ..                                                               |
     |       ..                                                             |
     |         ...                                                          |
  10 ++           ....                                                     ++
     |                ...............                                       |
     +      +      +      +      +   .......................................+
   0 ++-----+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+-----++
     0      10     20     30     40      50     60     70     80     90    100

cat *.c | { printf "se te du\nplot '-' t '' w dots\n"; tr '[[:upper:]]' '[[:lower:]]' | tr -s [[:punct:][:space:]] '\n' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -n 100 | awk '{print $1}END{print "e"}'; } | gnuplot

taliver · 2009-11-20 14:53:26 7

Print a row of characters across the terminal

Pure Bash This will print a row of characters the width of the screen without using any external executables. In some cases, COLUMNS may not be set. Here is an alternative that uses tput to generate a default if that's the case. And it still avoids using tr. printf -v row "%${COLUMNS:-$(tput cols)}s"; echo ${row// /#} The only disadvantage to either one is that they create a variable. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
################################################################################
```
5

printf -v row "%${COLUMNS}s"; echo ${row// /#}

dennisw · 2010-04-13 21:56:46 3
Rename all (jpg) files written as 3 number in 4 numbers.

Useful if you have a list of images called 1 2 3 4 and so on, you can adapt it to rewrite it as 4 (in this example) 0-padded number. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
mv 799.jpg 0799.jpg
mv 800.jpg 0800.jpg
mv 801.jpg 0801.jpg
mv 802.jpg 0802.jpg
mv 803.jpg 0803.jpg
```
5

for i in ???.jpg; do mv $i $(printf %04d $(basename $i .jpg) ).jpg ; done

carlesso · 2010-11-18 23:48:41 3
full memcache client in under 255 chars (uses dd, sed and nc)

usage: mem memcache-command [arguments] where memcache-command might be: set add get[s] append prepend replace delete incr decr cas stats verbosity version notes: exptime argument is set to 0 (no expire) flags argument is set to 1 (arbitrary)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

mem(){ { case $1 in st*|[vgid]*) printf "%s " "$@";; *) dd if=$3 2>&1|sed '$!d;/^0/d;s/ .*//;s/^/'"$1"' '"$2"' 1 0 /; r '"$3"'' 2>/dev/null;;esac;printf "\r\nquit\r\n";}|nc -n 127.0.0.1 11211; }

argv · 2011-06-17 06:39:07 6
Graphically show percent of mount space used

Automatically drops mount points that have non-numeric sizes (e.g. /proc). Tested in bash on Linux and AIX. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
/                        ============= 13
/var                     ================== 18
/home                    ============================================ 44
/tmp                     == 2
/boot                    ====== 6
/dev/shm                  0
```
5

for m in `df -P | awk -F ' ' '{print $NF}' | sed -e "1d"`;do n=`df -P | grep "$m$" | awk -F ' ' '{print $5}' | cut -d% -f1`;i=0;if [[ $n =~ ^-?[0-9]+$ ]];then printf '%-25s' $m;while [ $i -lt $n ];do echo -n '=';let "i=$i+1";done;echo " $n";fi;done

drockney · 2013-07-29 20:12:39 6
Bitcoin Brainwallet Exponent Calculator

A bitcoin "brainwallet" is a secret passphrase you carry in your brain. The Bitcoin Brainwallet Exponent Calculator is one of three functions needed to calculate the bitcoin PRIVATE key. Roughly, the formula is exponent = sha256 (passphrase) Note that this is a bash function, which means you have to type its name to invoke it. You can check the accuracy of the results here http://brainwallet.org Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
> brainwallet_exponent "correct horse battery staple"
> c4bbcb1fbec99d65bf59d85c8cb62ee2db963f0fe106f483d9afa73bd4e39a8a

> echo -ne "correct horse battery staple" | sha256sum
> c4bbcb1fbec99d65bf59d85c8cb62ee2db963f0fe106f483d9afa73bd4e39a8a  -
```
5

function brainwallet_exponent () { printf %s "$1"|sha256sum|head -c 64; }

nixnax · 2014-02-18 01:49:09 27
List docker volumes by container
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

docker ps -a --format '{{ .ID }}' | xargs -I {} docker inspect -f '{{ .Name }}{{ printf "\n" }}{{ range .Mounts }}{{ printf "\n\t" }}{{ .Type }} {{ if eq .Type "bind" }}{{ .Source }}{{ end }}{{ .Name }} => {{ .Destination }}{{ end }}{{ printf "\n" }}' {}

expelledboy · 2018-10-31 18:20:26 516
Have a smile

Outputs utf-8 smileys Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
```
5

printf "$(awk 'BEGIN{c=127;while(c++<191){printf("\xf0\x9f\x98\\%s",sprintf("%o",c));}}')"

ichbins · 2022-04-06 12:10:37 447
remove all snapshots from all virtual machines in vmware esx

Old snapshots can cause problems. It's best to remove them when finished. I use this script to remove all snapshots. The "while read" command is necessary because my vm names contain spaces. The "time" command reports how long the process runs.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

time vmware-cmd -l | while read x; do printf "$x"; vmware-cmd "$x" removesnapshots; done

jcgam69 · 2009-02-26 18:51:29 9
Create AUTH PLAIN string to test SMTP AUTH session

I use this as an alias: alias authplain "printf '\!:1\0\!:1\0\!:2' | mmencode | tr -d '\n' | sed 's/^/AUTH PLAIN /'" then.. # authplain someuser@somedomain.com secretpassword AUTH PLAIN c29tZXVzZXJAc29tZWRvbWFpbi5jb20Ac29tZXVzZXJAc29tZWRvbWFpbi5jb20Ac2VjcmV0cGFzc3dvcmQ= # Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
AUTH PLAIN dmlsbGUAdmlsbGUAc2FsYXNhbmE=
```
4

printf '\!:1\0\!:1\0\!:2' | mmencode | tr -d '\n' | sed 's/^/AUTH PLAIN /'

vwal · 2009-08-04 05:04:50 4
Resize a Terminal Window

Replace 70 with the desired height. Replace 180 with the desired width. I put it in my bashrc, because by default my terminal is too small.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

printf "\e[8;70;180;t"

jearsh · 2010-01-07 05:58:16 38
bash-quine

this command prints itself out. it doesn't need to be stored in a file and it isn't as easy as echo $BASH_COMMAND for information on quines see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

s='s=\47%s\47; printf "$s" "$s"'; printf "$s" "$s"

fpunktk · 2010-05-09 16:52:58 9
Print number of mb of free ram

This will show the amount of physical RAM that is left unused by the system. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
13 MB
```
4

grep '^MemFree:' /proc/meminfo | awk '{ mem=($2)/(1024) ; printf "%0.0f MB\n", mem }'

dbbolton · 2010-06-30 18:33:29 3
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
Binary digits Matrix effect

Prints 0's and 1's in The Matrix style. You can easily modify to print 0-9 digits using $RANDOM %10 insted of %2.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

echo -e "\e[32m"; while :; do printf '%*c' $(($RANDOM % 30)) $(($RANDOM % 2)); done

fernandomerces · 2012-09-25 17:36:25 4
Print a row of characters the width of terminal

Unlike other methods that use pipes and exec software like tr or sed or subshells, this is an extremely fast way to print a line and will always be able to detect the terminal width or else defaults to 80. It uses bash builtins for printf and echo and works with printf that supports the non-POSIX `-v` option to store result to var instead of printing to stdout. Here it is in a function that lets you change the line character to use and the length with args, it also supports color escape sequences with the echo -e option. function L() { local l=; builtin printf -vl "%${2:-${COLUMNS:-`tput cols 2>&-||echo 80`}}s\n" && echo -e "${l// /${1:-=}}"; } With color: L "`tput setaf 3`=" 1. Use printf to store n space chars followed by a newline to an environment variable "l" where n is local environment variable from $COLUMNS if set, else it will use `tput cols` and if that fails it will default to 80. 2. If printf succeeds then echo `$l` that contains the chars, replacing all blank spaces with "-" (can be changed to anything you want). From: http://www.askapache.com/linux/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html http://www.askapache.com/linux/bash-power-prompt.html Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ L '<' 40
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

$ L '=';
================================================================================

$ L 'x';
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

$ L '-';
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$ L '~';
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

$ L '`';
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

$ L '>';
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

$ L '#';
################################################################################

$ L '@';
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
```
4

printf -vl "%${COLUMNS:-`tput cols 2>&-||echo 80`}s\n" && echo ${l// /-};

AskApache · 2016-09-25 10:37:20 15
Print a horizontal line

Replace the underscore with any other character. e.g. + or - or =
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

printf "%`tput cols`s"|sed "s/ /_/g"

houghi001 · 2018-11-12 19:44:16 551
Display rows and columns of random numbers with awk

Displays six rows and five columns of random numbers between 0 and 1. If you need only one column, you can dispense with the "for" loop. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
0.237788 0.291066 0.845814 0.152208 0.585537 
0.193475 0.810623 0.173531 0.484983 0.151863 
0.366957 0.491736 0.910094 0.265257 0.893188 
0.220351 0.631798 0.571077 0.332158 0.104455 
0.502931 0.567394 0.854165 0.040141 0.108022 
0.639396 0.013111 0.720184 0.101814 0.482945
```
3

seq 6 | awk '{for(x=1; x<=5; x++) {printf ("%f ", rand())}; printf ("\n")}'

kaan · 2009-03-24 21:33:38 5
make 100 directories with leading zero, 001...100, using bash3.X
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

mkdir $(printf '%03d\n' {1..100})

twfcc · 2009-08-14 11:35:43 4
formatting number with comma

it is not work with Cygwin's bash3.X. Test in Linux. use printf "%'f" number while it is floating point number Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
1,234,567
```
3

printf "%'d\n" 1234567

twfcc · 2009-08-15 14:48:56 5
Using column to format a directory listing

Using column to format a directory listing Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
PERMISSIONS  LINKS  OWNER  GROUP  SIZE        MONTH  DAY  HH:MM  PROG-NAME
-rw-r--r--   1      root   root   61167       12.    Nov  2008   120253snmp.log
-rw-r--r--   1      root   root   246313      6.     M?r  2008   120_43.log
-rw-r--r--   1      root   root   22947       14.    Mai  09:42  120discovery.log
```
3

(printf "PERMISSIONS LINKS OWNER GROUP SIZE MONTH DAY HH:MM PROG-NAME\n" \ ; ls -l | sed 1d) | column -t

opexxx · 2009-10-08 11:53:38 5
StopWatch, simple text, hh:mm:ss using Unix Time

Works on real time clock, unix time based, decrementing the actual time from initial time saved in an environment variable exported to child process inside watch Shows elapsed time from start of script in hh:mm:ss format Non afected by system slow down due to the use of date.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

export I=$(date +%s); watch -t -n 1 'T=$(date +%s);E=$(($T-$I));hours=$((E / 3600)) ; seconds=$((E % 3600)) ; minutes=$((seconds / 60)) ; seconds=$((seconds % 60)) ; echo $(printf "%02d:%02d:%02d" $hours $minutes $seconds)'

m33600 · 2009-10-23 07:31:44 8
urldecoding

My version uses printf and command substitution ($()) instead of echo -e and xargs, this is a few less chars, but not real substantive difference. Also supports lowercase hex letters and a backslash (\) will make it through unescaped Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
Hello%20World
gives
Hello World

\unescaped!
gives
\unescaped!
```
3

printf $(echo -n $1 | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g;s/$%$$[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]$/\\x\2/g')

infinull · 2009-11-25 04:27:39 415
Email someone if a web page has been updated.

A cronjob command line to email someone when a webpages homepage is updated.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

cd /some/empty/folder/website_diffs/sitename && wget -N http://domain.com/ 2>&1 |grep -q "o newer" || printf "Sites web page appears to have updated.\n\nSuggest you check it out.\n\n"|mail -s "Sites page updated." david@email.com

DaveQB · 2010-05-09 07:28:42 3
Binary clock

displays current time in "binary clock" format (loosely) inspired by: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/ "Decoding": 8421 .... - 1st hour digit: 0 *..* - 2nd hour digit: 9 (8+1) .*.. - 1st minutes digit: 4 *..* - 2nd minutes digit: 9 (8+1) Prompt-command version: PROMPT_COMMAND='echo "10 i 2 o $(date +"%H%M"|cut -b 1,2,3,4 --output-delimiter=" ") f"|dc|tac|xargs printf "%04d\n"|tr "01" ".*"' Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
....
....
.*..
...*
```
3

echo "10 i 2 o $(date +"%H%M"|cut -b 1,2,3,4 --output-delimiter=' ') f"|dc|tac|xargs printf "%04d\n"|tr "01" ".*"

unefunge · 2010-11-24 23:49:21 6
< 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

Which processes are listening on a specific port (e.g. port 80)

swap out "80" for your port of interest. Can use port number or named ports e.g. "http"

Convert a string to "Title Case"

Testing ftp server status

I must monitorize a couple of ftp servers every morning WITHOUT a port-scanner Instead of ftp'ing on 100 ftp servers manually to test their status I use this loop. It might be adaptable to other services, however it may require a 'logout' string instead of 'quit'. The file ftps.txt contains the full list of ftp servers to monitorize.

list block devices

Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.

function to compute what percentage of X is Y? Where percent/100 = X/Y => percent=100*X/Y

This function make it easy to compute X/Y as a percentage. The name "wpoxiy" is an acronym of "what percentage of X is Y"

Convert CSV to JSON

Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

Remove lines that contain a specific pattern($1) from file($2).

The -i option in sed allows in-place editing of the input file. Replace myexpression with any regular expression. /expr/d syntax means if the expression matches then delete the line. You can reverse the functionality to keep matching lines only by using: $ sed -i -n '/myexpression/p' /path/to/file.txt

Parse a quoted .csv file

The $2, $3, $4 fields are arbitrary but note that the first field starts from $2 and the last field is $NF-1. This is due to the fact that the leading and trailing quotes are treated as field delimiters.

Sprunge.us - CLI alternative to PasteBin.com

NAME sprunge: command line pastebin: SYNOPSIS | curl -F 'sprunge=

list block devices

Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.

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:

» all commands
» commands with 3 up-votes (commandlinefu3)
» commands with 10 up-votes (commandlinefu10)
» commands using printf

Commands using printf (206) the last day the last week the last month all time sorted by date votes

What's this?

Check These Out

Stay in the loop…

Commands using printf (206)

sorted by