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To have only unique lines in a file

Recursive grep of all c++ source under the current directory
I like this better than some of the alternatives using -exec, because if I want to change the string, it's right there at the end of the command line. That means less editing effort and more time to drink coffee.

use wget to check if a remote file exists
put your link [url] to check if exist the remote file

print a python-script (or any other code) with syntax-highlighting and no loss of indentation

A very simple and useful stopwatch
time read -sn1 (s:silent, n:number of characters. Press any character to stop)

Prefix every line with a timestamp

Function that counts recursively number of lines of all files in specified folders

Get contents from hosts, passwd, groups even if they're in DB/LDAP/other
getent allows to get the contents of several databases in their native file format even if they are not actually in /etc. For example, if you are using a LDAP or a DB to authenticate your users, you won't find their info by catting /etc/passwd, but "getent passwd" will concatenate /etc/passwd to the LDAP/DB.

check open ports without netstat or lsof

Expedient hard disk temprature and load cycle stats
This command is a great way to check to see if acpi is doing damage to your disks by agressivly parking the read arm and wearing down it's life. As you can see, mine has lost half its life. I'm sure this could be shortened though somehow. It will use smartctl to dump the stats and then grep out just the temperature and load cycles for the disk (a load cycle is when a the read arm comes out of park and wears on the drive).


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