All commands (14,187)

What's this?

commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.

Share Your Commands


Check These Out

Diff XML files
Diffs two xml files by formatting them first using xmllint and then invoking diff. Usage: diffxml XMLFile1 XMLFile2

Tracklist reaplace backspace to '-'
Requires perl 5.14 or greater

Get names of files in /dev, a USB device is attached to
This command lists the names of your USB devices connected and what file in /dev they are using. It's pretty useful if you don't have an automount option in your desktop or you don't have any graphical enviroment.

Update program providing a functionality on Debian
On Debian systems, choose which command provides java. Works for all alternatives listed in /etc/alternatives.

check open ports without netstat or lsof

Merge PDFs with Ghostscript wrapped in a function
This is an expansion on a previous entry, which I've wrapped in a function and placed in my profile. The "$@" is a positional parameter, much like "$*", but the parameters are passed on intact, without interpretation or expansion; so you can simply call the function like this: mergepdf * This will output a merged PDF of all PDFs in the current directory. Alternatively, you can simply list them like so: mergepdf 00.pdf 01.pdf 02.pdf ... N.B. Passing a wildcard will merge all PDFs in the current directory in name order, e.g. 00.pdf 01.pdf aa.pdf ab.pdf

Set laptop display brightness
Run as root. Path may vary depending on laptop model and video card (this was tested on an Acer laptop with ATI HD3200 video). $ cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness to discover the possible values for your display.

Bash function that saves bash functions to file from shell session
The simpler, 1-arg version is save_function(){ { date +"# %F.%T $1; declare -f "$1";}| tee -a ~/.bash_functions; }`

Upload folder to imageshack.us (forum)
Each file in the current folder is uploaded to imageshack.us If the folder contains other filetypes change: $for files in * to: $for files in *.jpg (to upload ONLY .jpg files) Additionally you can try (results may vary): $for files in *.jpg *.png The output URL is encased with BB image tags for use in a forum.

hanukkah colored bash prompt
blue and yellow colored bash prompt for a Hanukkah celebration on your box


Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for: