Commands using read (340)

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scp a good script from host A which has no public access to host C, but with a hop by host B
middlehost allows ssh access from where you are but not securehost. Use nice ssh piping to simulate scp through A => B => C setting up the shell function if left as an exercise for the reader. ;-) Agent forwarding should avoid password typing.

Rapidly invoke an editor to write a long, complex, or tricky command
Allows you to edit your command using your chosen editor. Works in bash with "set -o vi".

Open Remote Desktop (RDP) from command line having a custom screen size
This example uses xfreerdp, which builds upon the development of rdesktop. This example usage will also send you the remote machine's sound.

give me back my sound card
for when a program is hogging the sound output. finds, and kills. add -9 to the end for wedged processes. add in 'grep ^program' after lsof to filter.

Remove all unused kernels with apt-get
This should do the same thing and is about 70 chars shorter.

Convert PNG to GIF
(relies on 'imagemagick') Convert all .png files to .gif. This can also go the other way if you reverse the file extensions in the command, e.g.: $ for file in *.gif; do convert "$file" "$(basename $file .gif).png"; done If the file is named 'example1.png' it will be named 'example1.gif' when it is complete.

list files in mtime order
Simple but useful; list files in the current directory in mtime order. Useful if you've been working on something and then take a day or two off.

Temporarily suspend and unsuspend a foreground job
Press ^Z, do what you need to do on the shell, then input % to resurrect the suspended job.

Clean your broken terminal
When some console full-screen program (minicom, vi, some installers) breaks down your terminal, try this command to revert all options to "sane" settings (sane is a built-in combo of a lot of stty options)

Renaming a file without overwiting an existing file name
Sometimes in a hurry you may move or copy a file using an already existent file name. If you aliased the cp and mv command with the -i option you are prompted for a confirmation before overwriting but if your aliases aren't there you will loose the target file! The -b option will force the mv command to check if the destination file already exists and if it is already there a backup copy with an ending ~ is created.


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