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Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS
Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

clean up syntax and de-obfuscate perl script
the command show can be run in vim, here is the same thing on the command line $ cat script.pl | perl -MO=Deparse | perltidy

Use top to monitor only all processes with the same name fragment 'foo'
Like command 10870, but no need for sed

Normalize volume output in MPlayer
Works really well for playing DVDs, which have the volume turned way down for some reason. The `2' method is better IMHO because it will adjust to changing loud/soft parts. If you want to add it to your ~/.mplayer/config: # format: volnorm[=method:target] # method: # 1: use single sample (default) # 2: multiple samples # target: # default is 0.25 af-add=volnorm=2:0.75

Monitor a file with tail with timestamps added
Should be a bit more portable since echo -e/n and date's -Ins are not.

When feeling down, this command helps
$ sudo apt-get install sl $ man sl

ThePirateBay.org torrent search
usage: tpb searchterm example: tpb the matrix trilogy This searches for torrents from thepiratebay and displays the top results in reverse order, so the 1st result is at the bottom instead of the top -- which is better for command line users

A simple X11 tea timer
wrapping the snippet in $( )& puts the whole thing in the background so you don't tie up your login session.

Use socat to emulate an SMTP mail SERVER
Lots of scripts show you how to use socat to send an email to an SMTP server; this command actually emulates an SMTP server! It assumes the client is only sending to one recipient, and it's not at all smart, but it'll capture the email into a log file and the client will stop retrying. I used this to diagnose what emails were being sent by cron and subsequently discarded, but you can use it for all sorts of things.


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