Commands using command sorted by votes

Commands using command (55)

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Make anything more awesome

Pipe any command through figlet to make the output more awesome. Example: ls | figlet Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
_          _ _                            _     _ 
| |__   ___| | | ___   __      _____  _ __| | __| |
| '_ \ / _ \ | |/ _ \  \ \ /\ / / _ \| '__| |/ _` |
| | | |  __/ | | (_) |  \ V  V / (_) | |  | | (_| |
|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___/    \_/\_/ \___/|_|  |_|\__,_|
```
26

command | figlet

isaacs · 2009-05-03 21:20:46 16
A child process which survives the parent's death (for sure)

Test scenario: * Open xterm (or konsole, ...) * Start xeyes with: ( xeyes & ) * Close the xterminal The xeyes process should be still running.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
25

( command & )

wiburg · 2011-01-07 19:06:30 22
Press ctrl+r in a bash shell and type a few letters of a previous command

In the sample output, I pressed ctrl+r and typed the letters las. I can't imagine how much typing this has saved me. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
(reverse-i-search)`las': last -a | head
```
15

^r in bash begins a reverse-search-history with command completion

abcde · 2009-02-19 18:17:54 35
This is how you should push a string in a command's stdin.

Don't do this: echo word | command Using a bash "here strings" and "here documents" look leeter than piping echo into the command. Also prevents subshell execution. Word is also expanded as usual.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
12

command <<< word

adeverteuil · 2012-02-29 03:14:54 11
Smart `cd`.. cd to the file directory if you try to cd to a file

This little function will smarten 'cd'. If you try to cd into a file (which I guess we all have done), it cd's into the directory of that file instead. I had to use nesten if's, to get cd to still work with 'cd' (to get to $HOME), 'cd -' (to get to last directory), and 'cd foo\ bar'. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
{ /root } # tail /var/log/messages
{ /root } # ... # ohh, I need to watch more logfiles
{ /root } # cd <alt+.> # to get last parameter
{ /var/log } # # Ready for action in the files folder
```
9

cd() { if [ -z "$1" ]; then command cd; else if [ -f "$1" ]; then command cd $(dirname "$1"); else command cd "$1"; fi; fi; }

xeor · 2010-04-23 19:17:43 7
log a command to console and to 2 files separately stdout and stderr
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

command > >(tee stdout.log) 2> >(tee stderr.log >&2)

bandie91 · 2011-10-20 15:08:33 6
Show running services (using systemctl)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

command systemctl --no-page --no-legend --plain -t service --state=running

Xk2c · 2016-04-30 10:35:05 18

I don't truly enjoy many commands more than this one, which I alias to be ps1.. Cool to be able to see the heirarchy and makes it clearer what need to be killed, and whats really going on. Show Sample Output

command ps -Hacl -F S -A f

AskApache · 2009-08-19 07:08:19 10

Display the output of a command from the first line until the first instance of a regular expression.

If BREs can be used, this sed version will also get the job done.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

command | sed -n '1,/regex/p'

putnamhill · 2009-12-22 15:04:38 11
Save a file you edited in vim without the needed permissions

Calls sudo tee like all the other lines, but also automatically reloads the file. Optionally you can add command Wq :execute ':W' | :q and command WQ :Wq to make quitting easier
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

command W :execute ':silent w !sudo tee % > /dev/null' | :edit!

unixmonkey26167 · 2011-10-06 20:37:54 8
New command with the last argument of the previous command.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

command !$

chrisindallas · 2009-02-25 14:00:24 11
Matrix Style

Same as the cool matrix style command ( http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/3652/matrix-style ), except replacing the printed character with randomness. The command mentioned is much faster and thus more true to the matrix. However, mine can be optimized, but I wasted ... i mean spent enough time on it already Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
echo -e "\e[32m"; while :; do for i in {1..16}; do r=`echo -e "\x$(echo $(($(($RANDOM % 26)) + $(echo $([[ $(($RANDOM % 3)) == 1 ]] && echo -n 48 || echo -n $([[ $(($RANDOM % 3)) == 2 ]] && echo -n 97 || echo -n 65))))) 16 o p | dc)"`; if [[ $(($RANDOM % 5)) == 1 ]]; then if [[ $(($RANDOM % 4)) == 1 ]]; then v+="\e[1m $r   "; else v+="\e[2m $r   "; fi; else v+="     "; fi; done; echo -e "$v"; v=""; done
```
6

check the sample output below, the command was too long :(

pykler · 2009-09-29 19:30:10 136
View files opened by a program on startup and shutdown

Run this before you run a command in order to see what the command does as it starts. The -c flag is useful here as the PID is unknown before startup. All config files, libraries, logs, ports, etc used by the command as it starts up, (and shuts down) will be captured at 1s intervals and written to a file. Useful for debugging etc. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
sudo lsof -rc httpd >> /tmp/FILE
```
6

sudo lsof -rc command >> /tmp/command.txt

zlemini · 2011-08-03 20:19:53 6
Runs a command without hangups.

The improvement is that you can re-attach to the screen at a later point.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

screen -d -m command &

unixmonkey10455 · 2010-06-22 18:24:22 4
Mac OS-X-> copy and paste things to and from the clipboard from the shell

Copies whatever is piped to the pbcopy command to the clipboard. pbpaste ... well pastes whats on the clipboard.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

command | pbcopy && pbpaste

vaporub · 2009-02-16 07:40:36 76

Output Detailed Process Tree for any User

An easy function to get a process tree listing (very detailed) for all the processes of any gived user. This function is also in my http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html Show Sample Output

psu(){ command ps -Hcl -F S f -u ${1:-$USER}; }

AskApache · 2009-11-13 06:10:33 5

Determine if a command is in your $PATH using POSIX

it is generally advised to avoid using which(1) whenever possible. which(1) is usually a csh(1) script, or sometimes a compiled binary. It's output is highly variable from operating system to operating system, so platform independent scripts could become quite complicated with the logic. On HP-UX 10.20, for example, it prints "no bash in /path /path /path ..."; on OpenBSD 4.1, it prints "bash: Command not found."; on Debian (3.1 through 5.0 at least) and SuSE, it prints nothing at all; on Red Hat 5.2, it prints "which: no bash in (/path:/path:...)"; on Red Hat 6.2, it writes the same message, but on standard error instead of standard output; and on Gentoo, it writes something on stderr. And given all these differences, it's still variable based on your shell. This is why POSIX is king. See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/081 for more ways on avoiding which(1). Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
/bin/bash
```
4

command -v bash

atoponce · 2011-09-26 10:17:41 19
Prefix every line with a timestamp

Useful to add a timestamp to every line printed to stdout. You can use `-Ins` instead of `-Iseconds` if you want more precision. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ make | while read line; do echo "[`date -Iseconds`] $line"; done
[2014-02-07T12:23:16+0000] clang -c -O2 -Wall -o foo.o foo.c
[2014-02-07T12:23:18+0000] clang -c -O2 -Wall -o main.o main.c
[2014-02-07T12:23:18+0000] clang -c -O2 -Wall -o rootfs.o rootfs.c
[2014-02-07T12:23:19+0000] clang -c -O2 -Wall -o utils.o utils.c
```
3

any command | while read line; do echo "[`date -Iseconds`] $line"; done

ayosec · 2014-02-07 22:27:29 8
Schedule Nice Background Commands That Won't Die on Logout - Alternative to nohup and at

Check out the usage of 'trap', you may not have seen this one much. This command provides a way to schedule commands at certain times by running them after sleep finishes sleeping. In the example 'sleep 2h' sleeps for 2 hours. What is cool about this command is that it uses the 'trap' builtin bash command to remove the SIGHUP trap that normally exits all processes started by the shell upon logout. The 'trap 1' command then restores the normal SIGHUP behaviour. It also uses the 'nice -n 19' command which causes the sleep process to be run with minimal CPU. Further, it runs all the commands within the 2nd parentheses in the background. This is sweet cuz you can fire off as many of these as you want. Very helpful for shell scripts.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

( trap '' 1; ( nice -n 19 sleep 2h && command rm -v -rf /garbage/ &>/dev/null && trap 1 ) & )

AskApache · 2009-10-10 04:43:44 7

Viewing Top Processes according to cpu, mem, swap size, etc.

I've wanted this for a long time, finally just sat down and came up with it. This shows you the sorted output of ps in a pretty format perfect for cron or startup scripts. You can sort by changing the k -vsz to k -pmem for example to sort by memory instead. If you want a function, here's one from my http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html aa_top_ps(){ local T N=${1:-10};T=${2:-vsz}; ps wwo pid,user,group,vsize:8,size:8,sz:6,rss:6,pmem:7,pcpu:7,time:7,wchan,sched=,stat,flags,comm,args k -${T} -A|sed -u "/^ *PID/d;${N}q"; } Show Sample Output

command ps wwo pid,user,group,vsize:8,size:8,sz:6,rss:6,pmem:7,pcpu:7,time:7,wchan,sched=,stat,flags,comm,args k -vsz -A|sed -u '/^ *PID/d;10q'

AskApache · 2010-05-18 18:41:38 7

Schedule a command while one is already running.

Useful when you have only one terminal session e.g. ssh. and want to queue up another command after the currently running has finished(in case if you forget to run that command). Originally used as ; python-updater when running emerge. When I have noticed that a package failed due to that command not run.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

a command is running... <^z> fg; scheduled_command

denysonique · 2010-07-28 19:25:19 4
5 Which Aliases

5 helpful aliases for using the which utility, specifically for the GNU which (2.16 tested) that is included in coreutils. Which is run first for a command. Same as type builtin minus verbosity alias which='{ command alias; command declare -f; } | command which --read-functions --read-alias' Which (a)lias alias whicha='command alias | command which --read-alias' Which (f)unction alias whichf='command declare -f | command which --read-functions' Which e(x)ecutable file in PATH alias whichx='command which' Which (all) alias, function, builtin, and files in PATH alias whichall='{ command alias; command declare -f; } | command which --read-functions --read-alias -a' # From my .bash_profile http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ which env
alias env='command printenv'

$ whichf env
env ()
{ 
    command env $@
}

$ whicha env
alias env='command printenv'

$ whichx env
/bin/env

$ whichall env
alias env='command printenv'
env ()
{ 
    command env $@
}
/bin/env
/usr/bin/env
```
2

alias whichall='{ command alias; command declare -f; } | command which --read-functions --read-alias -a'

AskApache · 2010-11-18 03:32:04 8

Display all shell functions set in the current shell environment

Uses the shell builtin `declare` with the '-f' flag to output only functions to grep out only the function names. You can use it as an alias or function like so: alias shfunctions="builtin declare -f | command grep --color=never -E '^[a-zA-Z_]+\ '" shfunctions () { builtin declare -f | command grep --color=never -E '^[a-zA-Z_]+\ '; } Show Sample Output

This is sample output - yours may be different.

Newlines () 
__expand_tilde_by_ref () 
__get_cword_at_cursor_by_ref () 
__load_completion () 
__ltrim_colon_completions () 
__parse_options () 
__reassemble_comp_words_by_ref () 
_adb () 
_allowed_groups () 
_allowed_users () 
_android () 
_arg_index () 
_available_interfaces () 
_before () 
_branch_completion () 
_cd () 
_cd_devices () 
_cdsitepackages_complete () 
_cdvirtualenv_complete () 
_cmp_opts () 
_command () 
_command_completion () 
_command_offset () 
_complete_as_root () 
_completion_loader () 
_configured_interfaces () 
_count_args () 
_dir_completion () 
_dvd_devices () 
_emulator () 
_expand () 
_expects_arg () 
_fastboot () 
_filedir () 
_filedir_xspec () 
_find_repo () 
_fstypes () 
_gen_comps () 
_get_comp_words_by_ref () 
_get_cword () 
_get_first_arg () 
_get_pword () 
_gids () 
_handle_options () 
_have () 
_included_ssh_config_files () 
_init_completion () 
_init_cur_prev () 
_installed_modules () 
_ip_addresses () 
_is_known_longopt () 
_is_known_shortopt () 
_is_long_option () 
_is_option () 
_is_repo_dir () 
_kernel_versions () 
_known_hosts () 
_known_hosts_real () 
_longopt () 
_lsvirtualenv_usage () 
_mac_addresses () 
_manifest_completion () 
_minimal () 
_modules () 
_ncpus () 
_no_completion () 
_parse_help () 
_parse_usage () 
_path_cmd_completion () 
_pci_ids () 
_pgids () 
_pids () 
_pnames () 
_project_completion () 
_quote_readline_by_ref () 
_rbenv () 
_realcommand () 
_repo () 
_repo_abandon () 
_repo_branch () 
_repo_branches () 
_repo_checkout () 
_repo_cherry_pick () 
_repo_diff () 
_repo_download () 
_repo_forall () 
_repo_grep () 
_repo_help () 
_repo_init () 
_repo_list () 
_repo_prune () 
_repo_rebase () 
_repo_selfupdate () 
_repo_smartsync () 
_repo_stage () 
_repo_start () 
_repo_status () 
_repo_sync () 
_repo_upload () 
_repo_version () 
_rl_enabled () 
_root_command () 
_service () 
_services () 
_shells () 
_signals () 
_split_longopt () 
_strip_colors () 
_sysvdirs () 
_terms () 
_tilde () 
_uids () 
_upvar () 
_upvars () 
_usb_ids () 
_user_at_host () 
_usergroup () 
_userland () 
_variables () 
_virtualenvs () 
_when_even () 
_when_first () 
_when_ix () 
_xfunc () 
_xinetd_services () 
allvirtualenv () 
asksure () 
boucle () 
boucle_fin () 
cdproject () 
cdsitepackages () 
cdvirtualenv () 
coline () 
confirme () 
cpvirtualenv () 
dequote () 
die () 
find () 
findg () 
findh () 
findr () 
forn () 
funtest () 
git () 
hgrep () 
htail () 
isVariableSet () 
iset () 
j () 
line () 
logload () 
lssitepackages () 
lsvirtualenv () 
lwl () 
mkflatdir () 
mkproject () 
mktmpenv () 
mkvirtualenv () 
oath () 
pac () 
pacUsage () 
pg () 
pkglog () 
proc () 
psearch () 
psg () 
quote () 
quote_readline () 
rbenv () 
redshift () 
reverseFiles () 
rmvirtualenv ()
setvirtualenvproject ()
showvirtualenv ()
sp ()
spacel ()
spacen ()
spacep ()
spaces ()
spacet ()
stderr ()
toggleglobalsitepackages ()
tychnelastlog ()
virtualenvwrapper ()
virtualenvwrapper_absolutepath ()
virtualenvwrapper_cd ()
virtualenvwrapper_derive_workon_home ()
virtualenvwrapper_expandpath ()
virtualenvwrapper_get_python_version ()
virtualenvwrapper_get_site_packages_dir ()
virtualenvwrapper_initialize ()
virtualenvwrapper_mkproject_help ()
virtualenvwrapper_mktemp ()
virtualenvwrapper_mkvirtualenv_help ()
virtualenvwrapper_run_hook ()
virtualenvwrapper_setup_tab_completion ()
virtualenvwrapper_show_workon_options ()
virtualenvwrapper_tempfile ()
virtualenvwrapper_verify_active_environment ()
virtualenvwrapper_verify_project_home ()
virtualenvwrapper_verify_resource ()
virtualenvwrapper_verify_virtualenv ()
virtualenvwrapper_verify_virtualenv_clone ()
virtualenvwrapper_verify_workon_environment ()
virtualenvwrapper_verify_workon_home ()
virtualenvwrapper_workon_help ()
what ()
wipeenv ()
workon ()

builtin declare -f | command grep --color=never -E '^[a-zA-Z_]+\ '

sciro · 2018-07-23 05:24:04 1079

apt-get via sudo

An apt-get wrapper function which will run the command via sudo, but will run it normally if you're only downloading source files. This was a bit of an excuse to show off the framework of cmd && echo true || echo false ...but as you can see, you must be careful about what is in the "true" block to make sure it executes without error, otherwise the "false" block will be executed. To allow the apt-get return code to pass through, you need to use a more normal if/else block: apt-get () { if [ "$1" = source ]; then command apt-get "$@"; else sudo apt-get "$@"; fi }
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

apt-get () { [ "$1" = source ] && (command apt-get "$@";true) || sudo apt-get "$@" }

mulad · 2009-02-19 04:17:24 12
Display the output of a command from the first line until the first instance of a regular expression.

Slightly simpler version of previous sed command that does the same thing. In this case, the output will stop at the command, and the entire command will be terminated as well, instead of proceeding through the whole file.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

command | sed '/regex/q'

taliver · 2009-12-29 14:52:41 4
1 2 3 >

What's this?

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stream a youtube video with mpv where $1 is the youtube link.

opens a new session with video stream

Convert CSV to JSON

Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

Are the two lines anagrams?

This works by reading in two lines of input, turning each into a list of one-character matches that are sorted and compared.

Install pip with Proxy

Installs pip packages defining a proxy

Compare two files side-by-side

I found out about this from Unix Power Tools, and thought it was pretty useful. Use the -w option to change the width of the output, and the -s option to suppress lines that are the same in both files.

Find common groups between two users

Updated according to flatcap's suggestion, thanks!

Download all files from podcast RSS feed

Neither of the others worked for me. This does.

Upgrading packages. Pacman can update all packages on the system with just one command. This could take quite a while depending on how up-to-date the system is. This command can synchronize the repository databases and update the system's packages.

Warning: Instead of immediately updating as soon as updates are available, users must recognize that due to the nature of Arch's rolling release approach, an update may have unforeseen consequences. This means that it is not wise to update if, for example, one is about to deliver an important presentation. Rather, update during free time and be prepared to deal with any problems that may arise. Pacman is a powerful package management tool, but it does not attempt to handle all corner cases. Read The Arch Way if this causes confusion. Users must be vigilant and take responsibility for maintaining their own system. When performing a system update, it is essential that users read all information output by pacman and use common sense. If a user-modified configuration file needs to be upgraded for a new version of a package, a .pacnew file will be created to avoid overwriting settings modified by the user. Pacman will prompt the user to merge them. These files require manual intervention from the user and it is good practice to handle them right after every package upgrade or removal. See Pacnew and Pacsave Files for more info. Tip: Remember that pacman's output is logged in /var/log/pacman.log.

Watch the progress of 'dd'

Pressing ctrl-t will display the progress

Remove annoying files from recently extracted zip archive

Inspired by http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/2573/remove-all-files-previously-extracted-from-a-tar.gz-file. .... yet for zip files

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Commands using command (55)

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