Commands using command (55)

  • Make anything more awesome

    Pipe any command through figlet to make the output more awesome. Example: ls | figlet Show Sample Output


    25
    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.


    25
    ( command & )
    wiburg · 2011-01-07 19:06:30 21
  • 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


    15
    ^r in bash begins a reverse-search-history with command completion
    abcde · 2009-02-19 18:17:54 19
  • 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.


    12
    command <<< word
    adeverteuil · 2012-02-29 03:14:54 10
  • 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


    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 6
  • log a command to console and to 2 files separately stdout and stderr


    9
    command > >(tee stdout.log) 2> >(tee stderr.log >&2)
    bandie91 · 2011-10-20 15:08:33 5
  • Show running services (using systemctl)


    9
    command systemctl --no-page --no-legend --plain -t service --state=running
    Xk2c · 2016-04-30 10:35:05 18
  • View Processeses like a fu, fu

    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


    8
    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.


    7
    command | sed -n '1,/regex/p'
    putnamhill · 2009-12-22 15:04:38 10
  • 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


    7
    command W :execute ':silent w !sudo tee % > /dev/null' | :edit!
    unixmonkey26167 · 2011-10-06 20:37:54 7
  • New command with the last argument of the previous command.


    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


    6
    check the sample output below, the command was too long :(
    pykler · 2009-09-29 19:30:10 135
  • 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


    6
    sudo lsof -rc command >> /tmp/command.txt
    zlemini · 2011-08-03 20:19:53 5
  • Runs a command without hangups.

    The improvement is that you can re-attach to the screen at a later point.


    5
    screen -d -m command &
    unixmonkey10455 · 2010-06-22 18:24:22 3
  • 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.


    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


    4
    psu(){ command ps -Hcl -F S f -u ${1:-$USER}; }
    AskApache · 2009-11-13 06:10:33 4
  • 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


    4
    command -v bash
    atoponce · 2011-09-26 10:17:41 17
  • 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


    3
    any command | while read line; do echo "[`date -Iseconds`] $line"; done
    ayosec · 2014-02-07 22:27:29 7
  • 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.


    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


    2
    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 6
  • 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.


    2
    a command is running... <^z> fg; scheduled_command
    denysonique · 2010-07-28 19:25:19 3
  • 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


    2
    alias whichall='{ command alias; command declare -f; } | command which --read-functions --read-alias -a'
    AskApache · 2010-11-18 03:32:04 7
  • 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


    2
    builtin declare -f | command grep --color=never -E '^[a-zA-Z_]+\ \(\)'
    sciro · 2018-07-23 05:24:04 1000
  • 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 }


    1
    apt-get () { [ "$1" = source ] && (command apt-get "$@";true) || sudo apt-get "$@" }
    mulad · 2009-02-19 04:17:24 6
  • 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.


    1
    command | sed '/regex/q'
    taliver · 2009-12-29 14:52:41 3
  •  1 2 3 > 

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

easily find megabyte eating files or directories
This is easy to type if you are looking for a few (hundred) "missing" megabytes (and don't mind the occasional K slipping in)... A variation without false positives and also finding gigabytes (but - depending on your keyboard setup - more painful to type): $du -hs *|grep -P '^(\d|,)+(M|G)'|sort -n (NOTE: you might want to replace the ',' according to your locale!) Don't forget that you can modify the globbing as needed! (e.g. '.[^\.]* *' to include hidden files and directories (w/ bash)) in its core similar to: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/706/show-sorted-list-of-files-with-sizes-more-than-1mb-in-the-current-dir

Delete Empty Directories
Deletes empty directories and prints an error if directory is not empty.

Make ls output better visible on dark terminals in bash
Sometimes you have a situation where you cannot properly see the ls output when you are using a terminal w/a dark background. Usually bash has ls aliased to use colors, and you can easily get ls to use the default foreground color via simply unaliasing the command.

display the hover text of the most recent xkcd
I look at xkcd in my news reader, but it displays the image's title attribute only for a few seconds which makes reading the longer ones more challenging. So I use this to display it in my console.

Google Spell Checker
I took matthewbauer's cool one-liner and rewrote it as a shell function that returns all the suggestions or outputs "OK" if it doesn't find anything wrong. It should work on ksh, zsh, and bash. Users that don't have tee can leave that part off like this: $spellcheck(){ typeset y=$@;curl -sd "$y" https://google.com/tbproxy/spell|sed -n '/s="[1-9]"/{s/]*>/ /g;s/\t/ /g;s/ *\(.*\)/Suggestions: \1\n/g;p}';}

Checks throughput between two nodes
This will show the throughput between two nodes. Thanks to szboardstretcher, who posted it here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-networking-3/quick-and-easy-way-to-measure-throughput-between-two-nodes-868998/

Find all files containing a word
shorter :p

Perpetual calendar
Gets any date since today. Other examples of recognized expressions are "2 years 4 days ago", "7 months" (in the future), "next Sunday", "yesterday", "tomorrow", etc.

Both view and pipe the file without saving to disk
This is a cool trick to view the contents of the file on /dev/pts/0 (or whatever terminal you're using), and also send the contents of that file to another program by way of an unnamed pipe. All the while, you've not bothered saving any extra data to disk, like you might be tempted to do with sed or grep to filter output.

Trick find -exec option to execute alias
An alias cannot be executed as command in a find -exec line. This form will trick the command line and let you do the job.

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: