Commands using tail (292)

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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.

Set file access control lists
The file myfile is owned by tom and has read and write permissions for tom. Group and other permissions are empty which make myfile readable and writable only by tom. setfacl enables user tom to give read permission to user john only. The command 'ls -l' shows a '+' sign telling us that file access control list has been setup for myfile.

Execute a command with a timeout
In this example the command "somecommand" will be executed and sent a SIGALARM signal if it runs for more than 10 seconds. It uses the perl alarm function. It's not 100% accurate on timing, but close enough. I found this really useful when executing scripts and commands that I knew might hang E.g. ones that connect to services that might not be running. Importantly this can be used within a sequential script. The command will not release control until either the command completes or the timeout is hit.

Automatically find and re-attach to a detached screen session
-RR option is used to resume the first appropriate detached screen session

List of commands you use most often

list files recursively by size

a simple bash one-liner to create php file and call php function

display contents of a file w/o any comments or blank lines

Determine space taken by files of certain type
Just how much space are those zillions of database logs taking up ? How much will you gain on a compression rate of say 80% ? This little line gives you a good start for your calculations.

guitar synthesizer in one line of C
outputs a f=220Hz guitar string sound (fifth string A) needs ALSA


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