Commands using write (21)

  • This command creates and burns a gapless audio CD with 99 tracks. Each track is a 30 second sine wave, the first is 1 Hz, the second 2 Hz, and so on, up to 99 Hz. This is useful for testing audio systems (how low can your bass go?) and for creating the constant vibrations needed to make non-Newtonian fluids (like cornstarch and water) crawl around. Note, this temporarily creates 500MB of .cdda files in the current directory. If you don't use the "rm" at the end of the command, you can burn more disks using cdrdao write cdrdao.toc Prerequisites: a blank CD-R in /dev/cdrw, sox (http://sox.sourceforge.net/), and cdrdao (http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/). I'm also assuming a recent version of bash for the brace expansion (which just looks nicer than using seq(1), but isn't necessary). Show Sample Output


    24
    (echo CD_DA; for f in {01..99}; do echo "$f Hz">&2; sox -nt cdda -r44100 -c2 $f.cdda synth 30 sine $f; echo TRACK AUDIO; echo FILE \"$f.cdda\" 0; done) > cdrdao.toc && cdrdao write cdrdao.toc && rm ??.cdda cdrdao.toc
    hackerb9 · 2009-11-17 06:23:42 2
  • Depending on the TERM, the terminfo version, ncurses version, etc.. you may be using a varied assortment of terminal escape codes. With this command you can easily find out exactly what is going on.. This is terminal escape zen! ( 2>&2 strace -f -F -e write -s 1000 sh -c 'echo -e "initc\nis2\ncnorm\nrmso\nsgr0" | tput -S' 2>&1 ) | grep -o '"\\[^"]*"' --color=always "\33]4;%p1%d;rgb:%p2%{255}%*%{1000}%/%2.2X/%p3%{255}%*%{1000}%/%2.2X/%p4%{255}%*%{1000}%/%2.2X\33\\\33[!p\33[?3;4l\33[4l\33>\33[?12l\33[?25h\33[27m\33(B\33[m" Lets say you want to find out what you need to echo in order to get the text to blink.. echo -e "`tput blink`This will blink`tput sgr0` This wont" Now you can use this function instead of calling tput (tput is much smarter for portable code because it works differently depending on the current TERM, and tput -T anyterm works too.) to turn that echo into a much faster executing code. tput queries files, opens files, etc.. but echo is very strait and narrow. So now you can do this: echo -e "\33[5mThis will blink\33(B\33[m This wont" More at http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html Show Sample Output


    3
    termtrace(){( strace -s 1000 -e write tput $@ 2>&2 2>&1 ) | grep -o '"[^"]*"';}
    AskApache · 2010-03-17 08:53:41 0
  • In Mac OS X, pressing Command+H will hide an application. While that application's windows vanish, there is no other visual feedback, meaning there is no immediate distinction between an application running with no windows open and a hidden application. This command turns hidden applications' icons transparent, providing a clear and obvious distinction. Change YES to NO to restore the previous functionality.


    1
    defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
    Vulpine · 2009-02-15 22:13:35 0
  • Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) introduced a new, 3D, reflective Dock. For those of us who prefer the Dock to be a little less distracting, this command is the answer. The Dock will be rendered in the same style as when pinned to the left- or right-hand side of the screen. Replace YES with NO to restore the 3D Dock.


    1
    defaults write com.apple.Dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock
    Vulpine · 2009-02-17 23:01:58 0
  • Hides all Files and Folders on the MacOS Desktop. To show files and folders, type "true" instead of "false". "Finder" at the end is case sensitive, "finder" doesn’t work


    1
    defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false;killall Finder
    vranx · 2019-10-18 12:13:56 0
  • Dashboard is OS X utility application. When you hit F12, Dashboard springs forward, dimming the background, some people have claimed memory or performance problems. In my case, I just don't use it, there may be other reasons you?d rather not have Dashboard available. Change YES to NO to restore the previous functionality.


    0
    defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES; killall Dock
    starchox · 2009-02-17 23:22:24 0

  • 0
    write user anytext
    mahendra · 2009-02-27 18:58:36 0
  • Swap TRUE with FALSE to turn it off again. Note: Finder must be relaunched afterwards to see the effect. For example like this: killall Finder && open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app


    0
    defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
    Svish · 2009-03-09 13:55:31 0
  • This command will use the short username (ie: bsmith) instead of the full (or long) name (ie: Bob Smith), by default in the network authentication dialog, ie: when connecting to servers. Resulting in one less step/time saved. Simply change the boolean value to "NO" (ie: "... -bool NO") to revert to the system's default behavior.


    0
    defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.NetworkAuthorization UseShortName -bool YES
    offworlder · 2009-12-01 05:39:36 0
  • Enables widgets to be placed onto the desktop. Click and hold the widget and press F12 to drag it onto the desktop. Repeat the process again to drag a widget back onto the dashboard. You may need to log off or restart for it to take effect.


    0
    defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
    rpavlick · 2010-03-30 22:50:27 0
  • Change the file location in the second half of the string to the exact file location of your chosen picture.


    0
    defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture "/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/vortex.png"
    rpavlick · 2010-03-30 22:52:19 0

  • 0
    defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
    rpavlick · 2010-10-06 13:19:41 0
  • Insert an additional (moveable) spacer on the left side of the Dock in Mac OS X


    0
    defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock
    ratonovitch · 2011-07-26 02:03:29 2
  • Insert an additional (moveable) spacer on the right side of the Dock in Mac OS X


    0
    defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock
    ratonovitch · 2011-07-26 02:05:17 0
  • In Mac OS X, by default, you have to click the mouse on a Terminal window before you can type in it. You can change this behavior to mimic the X11 behavior of focusing on the window on mouseover.


    0
    defaults write com.apple.terminal FocusFollowsMouse -string YES
    ratonovitch · 2011-07-26 02:15:04 0

  • 0
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
    JimFriend · 2014-05-17 22:00:23 0
  • Pressing a key will now repeat normally, instead of bringing up the accent/more options menu.


    0
    defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
    JimFriend · 2014-06-06 17:46:36 0
  • pts/33 is variable you can do before you send message to on which pts the user is following ssh youraccount@192.168.1.168 who


    0
    ssh youraccount@192.168.1.168 write toUsername pts/33
    aysadk · 2017-07-27 10:25:38 0
  • In Mac OS 9, the "New Folder" keyboard shortcut was Command+N, but in Mac OS X this was changed to "New Finder Window" instead, with "New Folder" taking the more awkward shortcut of Command+Shift+N. This command reverses their mappings.


    -1
    defaults write com.apple.finder NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict 'New Finder Window' '@$N' 'New Folder' '@N'; killall Finder
    Vulpine · 2009-02-17 23:20:53 0
  • When you press "cmd+n" in TextMate, you can have "HTML" language as default document format... You can also define other languages too. You need to know the UUID of your language bundle.


    -1
    defaults write com.macromates.textmate OakDefaultLanguage 17994EC8-6B1D-11D9-AC3A-000D93589AF6
    vigo · 2009-10-20 07:10:34 1
  • Starts a bunch of background jobs to write random garbage to everyone else's terminals. The "\n" in IFS should be an actual newline, but I can't put that in the command. Show Sample Output


    -1
    tmpIFS=IFS; IFS='\n'; users=`who | awk '{print $1}'`; for u in users; do; write $u < /dev/urandom &; done; IFS=tmpIFS
    tbodt · 2014-02-12 23:36:40 0

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

Print text string vertically, one character per line.

Use AWS CLI and JQ to get a list of instances sorted by launch time
Use the AWS CLI tools to generate a list instances, then pipe them to JQ to show only their launch time and instance id. Finally use sort to bring them out in runtime order. Find all those instances you launched months ago and have forgotten about.

Convert CSV to JSON
Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

A nice way to show git commit history, with easy to read revision numbers instead of the default hash

Deleting / Ignoring lines from the top of a file
Output lines starting at line 2.

uniq for unsorted data

Go to the Nth line of file

trace http requests with tshark
trace http requests on the specified interface. uses the amazing tshark tool (http://www.wireshark.org/docs/man-pages/tshark.html)

Test your total disk IO capacity, regardless of caching, to find out how fast the TRUE speed of your disks are
Depending on the speed of you system, amount of RAM, and amount of free disk space, you can find out practically how fast your disks really are. When it completes, take the number of MB copied, and divide by the line showing the "real" number of seconds. In the sample output, the cached value shows a write speed of 178MB/s, which is unrealistic, while the calculated value using the output and the number of seconds shows it to be more like 35MB/s, which is feasible.

Get your external IP address with a random commandlinefu.com command
There's been so many ways submitted to get your external IP address that I decided we all need a command that will just go pick a random one from the list and run it. This gets a list of "Get your external IP" commands from commanlinefu.com and selects a random one to run. It will run the command and print out which command it used. This is not a serious entry, but it was a learning exercise for me writing it. My personal favourite is "curl icanhazip.com". I really don't think we need any other ways to do this, but if more come you can make use of them with this command ;o). Here's a more useful command that always gets the top voted "External IP" command, but it's not so much fun: $ eval $(curl -s http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/matching/external/ZXh0ZXJuYWw=/sort-by-votes/plaintext|sed -n '/^# Get your external IP address$/{n;p;q}')


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: