The empty file /forcefsck causes the file system check fsck to be run next time you boot up, after which it will be removed. This works too: sudo >/forcefsck

This has helped me numerous times trying to find either log files or tmp files that get created after execution of a command. And really eye opening as to how active a given process really is. Play around with -anewer, -cnewer & -newerXY Show Sample Output

Forces the -i flag on the rm command when using a wildcard delete. Show Sample Output

Sometimes I need to create a directory of files to operate on to test out some commandlinefu I am cooking up. The main thing is the range ({1..N}) expansion.

This requires the command-line print extension (see #2861 for more details). I use it to make up complex images with formatted text using CSS and whatnot. It's a lot slicker than imagemagick for certain things. Now imagine using a local webserver with PHP and a database to generate the images. Oh, the possibilities...

I'm annoyed by the boilerplate "don't login unless you are supposed messages in our environment" - this shuts them up.

This uses the "command-line print" plugin for Firefox (http://torisugari.googlepages.com/commandlineprint2). This same plugin can also produce PNGs. On *nix, the file must exist; therefore the touch bit in front. Also, firefox seems to ignore saved user preferences when "printing" this way (margins, header, footer, etc.), so I had to tweak my ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/prefs.js file by hand. Yup, that's *prefs.js* not user.js - apparently, firefox ignores my user.js file too...

This is great for looking for files that have been updated recently. Logs especially or monitoring what files were added during an install.

Create a file with actual date as filename Show Sample Output

Also with optional message: echo "no login for you" > /etc/nologin (This doesn't affect your current X session - you're already logged in!)

atime and mtime timestamps of $FILE2 is changed according to the ones of $FILE1. If $FILE2 doesn't exist is created. Show Sample Output

touch a dummy file with the specified date, then use find with -anewer .

tstouch takes two arguments: a filename containing a timestamp, and an extended regular expression with the parenthesized section matching a timestamp of the form YYYYMMDDhhmm or YYYYMMDDhhmm.ss. It then touches the file with that timestamp. Show Sample Output

Copy this function to command line, press 'Enter' 'f'' 'Enter' to execute (sentence on the left written only for newbies). Hint 'e|x|v|1..9' in front of displayed last modified file name means: "Press 'e' for edit,'x' for execute,'v' for view or a digit-key '1..9' to touch one file from the recent files list to be last modified" and suggested (hidden files are listed too, else remove 'a' from 'ls -tarp' statement if not intended). If you find this function useful you can then rename it if needed and append or include into your ~/.bashrc config script. With the command . ~/.bashrc the function then can be made immediately available. In the body of the function modifications can be made, i.e. replaced joe editor command or added new option into case statement, for example 'o) exo-open $h;;' command for opening file with default application - or something else (here could not be added since the function would exceed 255 chars). To cancel execution of function started is no need to press Ctrl-C - if the mind changed and want to leave simple Enter-press is enough. Once defined, this function can with typeset -f f command be displayed in easy readable form Show Sample Output

-a for access time, -m for modification time, -c do not create any files, -t timestamp

Increase the modification date for the files selected with the find command.

Show Sample Output

This will create, in the current directory, a file called 'pk.pem' containing an unencrypted 2048-bit RSA private key and a file called 'cert.pem' containing a certificate signed by 'pk.pem'. The private key file will have mode 600. !!ATTENTION!! ==> this command will overwrite both files if present.

Example above will recursively find files in current directory created/modified in 2010.