All commands (14,187)

  • Extremely useful to maintain backups if you're using Dropbox. This mirrors the entire directory structure and places symlinks in each to the original file. Instead of copying over the data again to the ~/Dropbox folder creating a symbolic link tree is much more sensible in terms of space usage. This has to be supplemented by another script that removes dead symlinks in the Dropbox folder which point to files that have been moved/removed. find -L ./ -type l -delete And then removing empty directories find ./ -type d -exec rmdir 2>/dev/null {} \; **Actually after some finding I found lndir which creates symbolic trees but it wasn't in the Arch repos so.. ;)


    0
    find /home/user/doc/ -type d -printf "mkdir -vp '/home/user/Dropbox%p'\n" -o -type f -printf "ln -vs '%p' '/home/user/Dropbox%p'\n" | sh
    jnash · 2009-03-29 09:25:12 23
  • Nice interface for an info page.


    1
    yelp info:foo
    renich · 2009-03-29 07:14:48 7
  • A great way of viewing some man page while using gnome.


    3
    yelp man:foo
    renich · 2009-03-29 07:13:44 8
  • This requires that your sudo not prompt for a password, as sftp cannot allocate the terminal necessary to ask.


    0
    sftp -s "sudo /usr/lib/sftp-server" user@host
    mrtheplague · 2009-03-29 07:02:58 6
  • Might be more useful if you were able to print it in Days HH:MM:SS format as: perl -e '@p=gmtime(234234);printf("%d Days %02d:%02d:%02ds\n",@p[7,2,1,0]);' But I'm not exactly sure how to replace the 234234 with the output of the countdown time. (Having some problems with nested quoting/command substitution). Help would be appreciated :)


    0
    watch --no-title -d -n 1 'echo `date -d "next Thursday" +%s` "-" `date +%s` | bc -l'
    jnash · 2009-03-29 06:53:09 9

  • 3
    dscacheutil -flushcache
    oarmas · 2009-03-29 06:17:32 5
  • Several times, I find myself hitting my up arrow, and changing the search term. Unfortunately, I find myself wasting too much time typing: grep kernel /var/log/messages Redirecting STDIN allows me to put the search term at the end so I less cursor movement to change what I'm searching for: < /var/log/messages grep kernel If you're using the emacs keyboard binding, then after you press your up arrow, press CTRL+w to erase the word. If this has already been submitted, I couldn't find it with the search utility.


    15
    < /path/to/file.txt grep foo
    atoponce · 2009-03-29 02:43:40 16
  • On Fedora clean the boot directory; erase older kernel


    1
    rpm -q kernel-2* | grep -v $(uname -r) | xargs yum erase -y
    Nick · 2009-03-28 21:41:15 11
  • Here is a command line to run on your server if you think your server is under attack. It prints our a list of open connections to your server and sorts them by amount. BSD Version: netstat -na |awk '{print $5}' |cut -d "." -f1,2,3,4 |sort |uniq -c |sort -nr Show Sample Output


    14
    netstat -ntu | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n
    tiagofischer · 2009-03-28 21:02:26 73
  • This command is useful when you want to install the same packages on another fresh OS install for example. To do that, use: sudo dpkg --set-selections < LIST_FILE Show Sample Output


    11
    dpkg --get-selections > LIST_FILE
    o6291408 · 2009-03-28 17:45:29 12
  • Update a Mandriva Linux system with any pending updates. This command needs to be run with root privilege. Using the "--force" option answers "yes" to any interactive prompts thus allowing the updates to be left unattended to completion. NB if there is an update for glibc and/or a new kernel then the system would need to be rebooted for these to take effect. A prerequisite for running "urpmi --auto-update" is to have correctly defined urpmi media sources (which can be done by visiting http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/). If there are no new updates the the message "Packages are up to date" is shown. Show Sample Output


    0
    urpmi --auto-update --force # apply all pending updates (Mandriva Linux)
    mpb · 2009-03-28 14:59:26 8
  • I find this terribly useful for grepping through a file, looking for just a block of text. There's "grep -A # pattern file.txt" to see a specific number of lines following your pattern, but what if you want to see the whole block? Say, the output of "dmidecode" (as root): dmidecode | awk '/Battery/,/^$/' Will show me everything following the battery block up to the next block of text. Again, I find this extremely useful when I want to see whole blocks of text based on a pattern, and I don't care to see the rest of the data in output. This could be used against the '/etc/securetty/user' file on Unix to find the block of a specific user. It could be used against VirtualHosts or Directories on Apache to find specific definitions. The scenarios go on for any text formatted in a block fashion. Very handy.


    94
    awk '/start_pattern/,/stop_pattern/' file.txt
    atoponce · 2009-03-28 14:28:59 26
  • Packages: gmailfs fuse-utils libfuse2 gvfs-fuse Config files: /etc/gmailfs/gmailfs.conf; ~/.gmailfs.conf (make a copy from the another one) Unmount: fusermount -u /mount/path/ /etc/fstab (Optional): none /mount/path/ gmailfs noauto,user[,username=USERNAME,password=PASSWORD,fsname=VOLUME] 0 0 NOTES: - The options between [] are optional since they already setuped on the config files. - The '-p' flag shows a prompt for the password entry. - It's necessary to add the user to the 'fuse' group. You can do that with: sudo chgrp fuse /dev/fuse and sudo usermod -a -G fuse USER - The volume name is not needed but highly recommended to avoid file corruption. Also choose a non-trivial name. - Google doesn't approve the use of Gmail account other than e-mail purposes. So, I recommend the creation of a new account for this.


    5
    mount.gmailfs none /mount/path/ [-o username=USERNAME[,password=PASSWORD][,fsname=VOLUME]] [-p]
    o6291408 · 2009-03-28 13:00:47 5
  • Perform a dns zone transfer (if is allowed on target dns server) and print result.


    0
    host -la domain.com
    servermanaged · 2009-03-28 12:15:16 5
  • See: "man pwgen" for full details. Some Linux distros may not have pwgen included in the base distribution so you maye have to install it (eg in Mandriva Linux: "urpmi pwgen"). Show Sample Output


    6
    pwgen
    mpb · 2009-03-28 11:43:21 5
  • To install a theme use: sudo firefox -install-global-theme /path/to/theme You can get the .xpi or .jar file from the versions history on the add-on/theme page. NOTE: may not work in your system (Debian-based is an example).


    17
    sudo firefox -install-global-extension /path/to/add-on
    o6291408 · 2009-03-28 11:11:12 9
  • Not so useful. Just a cool feature.


    7
    mplayer -vo aa <video file>
    o6291408 · 2009-03-28 10:01:56 9
  • The download content part. NOTE: the '-c' seems to not work very well and the download stuck at 99% sometimes. Just finish wget with no problem. Also, the download may restart after complete. You can also cancel. I don't know if it is a wget or Rapidshare glitch since I don't have problems with Megaupload, for example. UPDATE: as pointed by roebek the restart glitch can be solved by the "-t 1" option. Thanks a lot.


    6
    wget -c -t 1 --load-cookies ~/.cookies/rapidshare <URL>
    o6291408 · 2009-03-28 09:13:35 5
  • In order to do that, first you need to save a cookie file with your account info. These commands do it (maybe you need to create the '.cookies' dir before). Also, you need to check the "Direct downloads" option on the Premium Zone >> Settings tab. You need to do this once (as long you maintain the file or your Rapidshare Premium account).


    4
    wget --save-cookies ~/.cookies/rapidshare --post-data "login=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD" -O - https://ssl.rapidshare.com/cgi-bin/premiumzone.cgi > /dev/null
    o6291408 · 2009-03-28 09:12:02 7
  • A great password generation tool. http://www.adel.nursat.kz/apg/ Show Sample Output


    3
    apg -a 0 -n 10
    renich · 2009-03-28 08:52:59 8
  • Within vi allow to empty a text file in one shot


    3
    :1,$d
    acirulli · 2009-03-28 02:28:19 12
  • The vi key sequence !}command will send the file contents from the cursor to the next blank line as STDOUT to the command specified and replace that sequence of file lines with the output of the command. For example: sorting a block of data - !}sort The sequence !{command will do the same but "upwards" (from the current position towards the start of the file. Show Sample Output


    12
    !}sort
    mpb · 2009-03-28 00:18:39 11

  • -13
    chmod +x FILES
    colinpj · 2009-03-27 23:28:40 5

  • -4
    sudo chmod -R g=u-w,g+X *
    mudiarto · 2009-03-27 23:27:12 5
  • head by default displays first ten lines of its output. Use 'head -nXX' to display the XX largest files


    -4
    ls -Sl * | head
    colinpj · 2009-03-27 23:20:32 7
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Change user within ssh session retaining the current MIT cookie for X-forwarding
When you remotely log in like "ssh -X userA:host" and become a different user with "su UserB", X-forwarding will not work anymore since /home/UserB/.Xauthority does not exist. This will use UserA's information stored in .Xauthority for UserB to enable X-forwarding. Watch http://prefetch.net/blog/index.php/2008/04/05/respect-my-xauthority/ for details.

Open Remote Desktop (RDP) from command line and connect local resources
The above command will open a Remote Desktop connection from command line, authenticate using default username and password (great for virtual machines; in the exampe above it's administrator:password), create a shared folder between your machine and the other machine and configure resolution to best fit your desktop (I don't like full screen because it make the desktop panels to disappear). The command will run in the background, and expect to receive parameters. You should enter hostname or IP address as a parameter to the command, and can also override the defaults parameters with your own.

High resolution video screen recording
$ gorecord foo.mp4 I've tried all of the screen recorders available for Linux and this is easily the best. xvidcap segfaults; VNC is too much hassle. There are alternatives of this command already here that I am just too lazy to reply to. Messing with the frames per second option, -r, 25 seems to be the best. Any lower and the video will look like a flipbook, if it records at all - -r 10 won't - any faster is the same, oddly enough. Edit: CLF doesn't like my long command to add audio, so here it is in the description. $ goaddaudio() ${ $if [ $# != 3 ]; then $ echo 'goaddaudio < audio > < src video > < dst video >' $ return $ fi $ $ f=goaddaudio$RANDOM $ ffmpeg -i "$2" &> $f $ d=$( grep Duration $f | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d ',' ) && $ rm $f && $ ffmpeg -i "$1" -i "$2" -r 25 -ab 192k -ar 44100 -sameq -t $d "$3" $}

Remove job from crontab by commandline
The "-u USER" is optional if root user is used

Do quick arithmetic on numbers from STDIN with any formatting using a perl one liner.
Good for summing the numbers embedded in text - a food journal entry for example with calories listed per food where you want the total calories. Use this to monitor and keep a total on anything that ouputs numbers.

Create the oauth token required for a Twitter stream feed
This is the THIRD in a set of five commands. See my other commands for the previous two. This step creates the oauth 1.0 token as explained in http://oauth.net/core/1.0/ The token is required for a Twitter filtered stream feed (and almost all Twitter API calls) This token is simply an encrypted version of your base string. The encryption key used is your hmac. The last part of the command scans the Base64 token string for '+', '/', and '=' characters and converts them to percentage-hex escape codes. (URI-escapeing). This is also a good example of where the $() syntax of Bash command substitution fails, while the backtick form ` works - the right parenthesis in the case statement causes a syntax error if you try to use the $() syntax here. See my previous two commands step1 and step2 to see how the base string variable $b and hmac variable $hmac are generated.

count how many times a string appears in a (source code) tree
grep -o puts each occurrence in a separate line

Mount directories in different locations
Like symlinked directories, you can mount a directory at a different location. For example mounting a directory from one location in to the http root without having to make your program follow symlinks or change permissions when reading.

Lookup hostname for IP address

Find the package that installed a command


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