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Advanced python tracing
Trace python statement execution and syscalls invoked during that simultaneously

Install Linux Kernel Headers on Debian-based systems
Install the Linux kernel headers for currently running kernel version on Debian-based systems via apt-get

Make any command read line enabled (on *nix)
Enable readline even if the command line application is not using it.

Install pip with Proxy
Installs pip packages defining a proxy

Realtime apache hits per second
Change the cut range for hits per 10 sec, minute and so on... Grep can be used to filter on url or source IP.

split a file by a specific number of lines
Splits the file "my_file" every 500 lines. Will create files called xx01 xx02 and so on. You can change the prefix by using the -f option. Comes in handy for splitting logfiles for example. I am using it for feeding a logfile parser with smaller files instead of one big file (due to performance reasons)

Read random news on the internet
Access a random news web page on the internet. The Links browser can of course be replaced by Firefox or any modern graphical web browser.

intercept stdout/stderr of another process
similar to the previous command, but with more friendly output (tested on linux)

Backticks are evil
This is a simple example of using proper command nesting using $() over ``. There are a number of advantages of $() over backticks. First, they can be easily nested without escapes: $ program1 $(program2 $(program3 $(program4))) versus $ program1 `program2 \`program3 \`program4\`\`` Second, they're easier to read, then trying to decipher the difference between the backtick and the singlequote: `'. The only drawback $() suffers from is lack of total portability. If your script must be portable to the archaic Bourne shell, or old versions of the C-shell or Korn shell, then backticks are appropriate, otherwise, we should all get into the habit of $(). Your future script maintainers will thank you for producing cleaner code.

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


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