Commands by unixmonkey10719 (1)

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Show the date of easter
ncal -e shows the date of Easter this year. ncal -e YYYY shows the date of Easter in a given year. ncal -o works the same way, but for Orthodox dates.

a function to find the fastest free DNS server
Uses GNU Parallel.

list block devices
Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.

Function that outputs dots every second until command completes
Very useful in shell scripts because you can run a task nicely in the background using job-control and output progress until it completes. Here's an example of how I use it in backup scripts to run gpg in the background to encrypt an archive file (which I create in this same way). $! is the process ID of the last run command, which is saved here as the variable PI, then sleeper is called with the process id of the gpg task (PI), and sleeper is also specified to output : instead of the default . every 3 seconds instead of the default 1. So a shorter version would be sleeper $!; The wait is also used here, though it may not be needed on your system. $ echo ">>> ENCRYPTING SQL BACKUP" $ gpg --output archive.tgz.asc --encrypt archive.tgz 1>/dev/null & $ PI=$!; sleeper $PI ":" 3; wait $PI && rm archive.tgz &>/dev/null Previously to get around the $! not always being available, I would instead check for the existance of the process ID by checking if the directory /proc/$PID existed, but not everyone uses proc anymore. That version is currently the one at http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html but I plan on upgrading to this new version soon.

check open ports without netstat or lsof

See system users

Rename .JPG to .jpg recursively
This command is useful for renaming a clipart, pic gallery or your photo collection. It will only change the big caps to small ones (on the extension).

Save the Top 2500 commands from commandlinefu to a single text file

convert from decimal to hexadecimal

Stream your desktop to a remote machine.
This allows you to stream your desktop using vlc to another computer, in this case, 192.168.1.2 on your local network. If you have vlc installed, your all set to try this out. To view your own desktop, just run "vlc screen://" For more info, see http://nerdlogger.com/2008/01/08/stream-your-linuxwindowsmac-desktop-as-video-using-vlc/

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