All commands sorted by votes

All commands (14,187)

sorted by

get one field inside another that is delimited by space
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

cut -f2 file.txt | cut -d " " -f1

eastwind · 2010-03-15 08:01:02 4
Automatd ssh public key setup without ssh-copy-id

Some servers don't have ssh-copy-id, this works in those cases. It will ask for the destination server, this can be IP, hostname, or user@hostname if different from current user. Ssh keygen will let you know if a pubkey already exists on your system and you can opt to not overwrite it.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

echo 'Host or User@Host?:'; read newserver && ssh-keygen -N "" -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa ; ssh $newserver cat <~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ">>" ~/.ssh/authorized_keys ; ssh $newserver

alf · 2010-05-07 06:24:53 4
Get the /dev/disk/by-id fragment for a physical drive

This was tested on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise) LTS Server. It returns the name of the symlink within /dev/disk/by-id for the physical drive you specify. Change /dev/sda to the one you want, and replace ata- with scsi- or the appropriate type for your drive. I used this to pre-configure grub-pc during a non-interactive install because I had to tell it which disk to install grub on, and physical disks don't have a UUID such as that blkid provides.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id | egrep ata-.*`hdparm -i /dev/sda | grep SerialNo | sed 's/.*SerialNo=//' | tr -d "\n"`.*sda$ | sed -e 's/.*ata-/ata-/' -e 's|[ ].*||' | tr -d "\n"

wizonesolutions · 2013-01-07 10:20:25 6
bash / vim workflow

355 # from zsh-users 356 edit_command_line () { 357 # edit current line in $EDITOR 358 local tmpfile=${TMPPREFIX:-/tmp/zsh}ecl$$ 359 360 print -R - "$PREBUFFER$BUFFER" >$tmpfile 361 exec 362 ${VISUAL:-${EDITOR:-vi}} $tmpfile 363 zle kill-buffer 364 BUFFER=${"$( 365 CURSOR=$#BUFFER 366 367 command rm -f $tmpfile 368 zle redisplay 369 } 370 zle -N edit_command_line
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

zsh$ M-v

bucciarati · 2009-11-10 23:02:56 11
Random Cyanide and Happiness comics from explosm.net

Random Cyanide and Happiness comics from explosm.net. I use this command http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/3477/random-xkcd-comic and update it for explosm.net --edit : modification for *.jpeg files + guest authors
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

cyanide(){ display "$(wget -q http://explosm.net/comics/random/ -O - | grep -Po 'http://www.explosm.net/db/files/Comics/*/[^"]+(png|jpg|jpeg)')"; }

barbuk · 2011-02-14 15:12:13 5
Arguments too long
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

ls | grep ".txt$" | xargs -i WHATEVER_COMMAND {}

4Aiur · 2014-03-12 14:56:12 8
Takes a multi line df or bdf and turns it into just one line
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

bdf | awk '(NF<5){f=$1; next} (NF>5){f=$1} {print f, $2, $3, $NF}'

dcarlisle · 2009-02-15 22:54:52 11
Lists the size of certain file in every 10 seconds

This command produces the output of "du -sk testfile" in every 10 seconds. You can change the command to be whatever you want.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

while true ; do du -sk testfile ; sleep 10 ; done

Solaris · 2009-08-14 11:39:52 5
List files in tarballs

The magic is performed by the parameter -t Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
[alchandia@localhost Cacti]$ tar -tvzf cacti-iostat-1.3.tgz
drwxr-xr-x alchandia/users    0 2009-05-18 06:02:27 cacti-iostat-1.3/
drwxr-xr-x alchandia/users    0 2009-05-18 06:02:27 cacti-iostat-1.3/scripts/
-rwxr-xr-x alchandia/users 5087 2009-05-18 06:02:12 cacti-iostat-1.3/scripts/iostat.pl
```
-2

for F in $(find ./ -name "*.tgz") ; do tar -tvzf $F ; done

alchandia · 2009-11-11 00:50:52 3
List files with quotes around each filename

I had a file named " " (one space) and needed a way to see what the real filename was so I could remove it. sed to the rescue. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
"foo"
"bar "
" "
```
-2

ls | sed 's,$.*$,"\1",'

randy909 · 2010-08-17 14:27:27 4
sshdo, an alternative to sudo

Run program as root by SSH key forwarding instead of sudoers. Put this alias line in .bashrc or wherever you like. Alias arguments might need extra escaping. You might wonder about security. But you'd block out root login as much as possible of course. In sshd_config you put this: PermitRootLogin no Match Address 127.0.0.1 PermitRootLogin without-password
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

alias sshdo='ssh -q -t root@localhost -- cd $PWD \&\& sudo'

darkfader · 2010-10-20 22:33:22 8
start a nested awesome session

alternatives: xinit $(which gnome-awesome-session) with cat /usr/local/bin/gnome-awesome-session: #!/bin/bash exec gnome-session --session awesome "$@" following: http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Quickly_Setting_up_Awesome_with_Gnome note: in ubuntu 12.10 a probable Xephyr recent bug rejects keybd option ... Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
an "awesome" session ;)
```
-2

xinit $(which awesome) -- /usr/bin/Xephyr :5 -once -fullscreen -ac -keybd "ephyr,,,xkbmodel=pc105,xkblayout=it,xkbrules=evdev,xkboption="

hute37 · 2012-11-03 00:54:33 4
Have a random

To install on centos 6.2 for Centos auto accept: yum install fortune* -y yum install cowsay* -y Removed the -f command as I dont know how, but it works without it. Almost the same but one folder higher =).
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

fortune | cowsay $(ls/usr/share/cowsay | shuf -n1)

cablegunmaster · 2014-10-23 10:09:44 9
Shuffles your songs. Using mplayer. But with no output.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

mplayer -shuffle $HOME/music/* $HOME/Dropbox/Music/*/* $HOME/Dropbox/Music/*/*/* etc. >> /dev/null 2>&1

TheShadowFog · 2011-11-10 20:48:45 3
Batch resize images (overwriting)

Resize all png in the current folder. Warning: no copy. Make sure you have a copy of the originals
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

for f in *.png; do convert $f -resize 852x480 $f; done

egeoffray · 2013-12-15 11:28:07 12
Make alert if host is 'dead' or not reachable

Every 20 minutes ping host with IP address 192.168.0.14. If it's not 'alive' or not reachable, then display something eye-catching (here xeyes) on the desktop. Hint for newbies: edit crontab with crontab -e
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

10,30,50 * * * * ping -q -c1 -w3 192.168.0.14 | grep '1 received' - || env DISPLAY=:0 xeyes

knoppix5 · 2012-02-06 09:40:11 3
Extract .daa files with PowerISO

.daa is a non-standard disk image format that can not be read by any other program. This is how you can extract the files though. PowerISO binary for Linux: http://www.poweriso.com/poweriso-1.3.tar.gz "This is a free utility for linux which can extract, list, and convert image files (including ISO, BIN, DAA, and other formats). Type " poweriso -? " for detailed usage information. File Size: 278KB"
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

./poweriso extract $USER/file.daa / -od $USER/file_extracted

brettalton · 2009-02-15 23:19:40 10
Scan for viruses

Scan for viruses, recursively and print only infected files, with bell sound. Clamscan is part of clamav package. Tested on Debian.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

clamscan -ir --bell ~user/

servermanaged · 2009-05-21 13:09:31 30
Get My Public IP Address
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

curl http://whatismyip.org

j_melis · 2010-10-21 10:10:00 3
Undo

Undo (sh, bash, tcsh)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

[Ctrl+u]

PhillipNordwall · 2010-11-19 20:27:42 6
Edit all "text" files (exclude binary and directories) in the current directory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

ls . | xargs file | grep text | sed "s/$.*$:.*/\1/" | xargs gedit

matthewbauer · 2010-02-08 02:06:40 6
List alive hosts in specific subnet
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

for i in 192.168.1.{1..254} ; do if ping -c1 -w1 $i &>/dev/null; then echo $i alive; fi; done

wiburg · 2010-06-12 18:38:36 3
git log -n 1 -p FILENAME| head -n 1 | awk -F " " '{print $2}'
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

git last commit on a file.

joeyrobert · 2010-11-19 23:17:13 4
Real full backup copy of /etc folder
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-2

tar -cf - /etc | tar -xf - -C </destination/folder>

vtrone · 2011-10-06 19:31:58 3
Get the date for the last Saturday of a given month

This is a little trickier than finding the last Sunday, because you know the last Sunday is in the first position of the last line. The trick is to use the NF less than or equal to 7 so it picks up all the lines then grep out any empty lines. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
28
```
-2

cal 04 2012 | awk 'NF <= 7 { print $7 }' | grep -v "^$" | tail -1

javidjamae · 2012-05-03 16:57:45 764
‹ First < 520 521 522 523 524 > Last ›

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

Get a BOFH excuse

Gets a BOFH excuse from the BOFH excuse server (towel.blinkenlights.nl port 666), and passes it through sed and tr to get rid of telnet connection stuff.

add static arp entry to default gateway, arp poison protection

Alert visually until any key is pressed

Reset hosed terminal,

stty sane resets the tty to basic usable function. The ^J is a newline -- sometimes CR/LF interpretation is broken so use the ^J explicitly.

Get a BOFH excuse

Almost same output with fewer typing... OP had a great idea : BOFH !!!

bash: hotkey to put current commandline to text-editor

* in bash-shell You can capture the current commandline to a text-editor: * simply press: CTRL+x+e * Your current commandline will pe put into Your default text-editor (export EDITOR=vim)

Extract title from HTML files

Case Insensitive! and Works even if the "<title>...</title>" spans over multiple line. Simple! :-)

Selecting a random file/folder of a folder

random file from files in directory

MP3 player

I tried a few curses based mp3 players for playing back choir practice songs for my wife. Unfortunately none of the ones I tried were capable of scrubbing a track. Firefox saves the day.

Disable the ping response

It really disables all ICMP responses not only the ping one. If you want to enable it you can use: $ sudo -s "echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all"

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:

» all commands
» commands with 3 up-votes (commandlinefu3)
» commands with 10 up-votes (commandlinefu10)

All commands (14,187) the last day the last week the last month all time sorted by date votes

What's this?

Check These Out

Stay in the loop…

All commands (14,187)

sorted by