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Girish Venkatachalam
Girish Venkatachalam

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50 interesting Linux command lines

  1. Convert CRLF terminated files to just CR 
$ dos2unix file.txt
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  1. Check if JSON is valid 
$ json_verify < file.json
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  1. Same as above but prints out nicely. 
$ jq < file.json
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  1. Get rid of duplicate spaces occuring together 
 $ tr -s ' ' < file.txt
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  1. Send mail from command line 
$ mutt -s hi foo@yahoo.com < /tmp/mail.txt
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  1. Move in bulk based on patterns 
$ mmv -v '*' '#1.jpg'
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  1. Use interactive file deletion DOS style (midnight commander DOS style UI) 
$ mc
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  1. Fancy list files (show dirs with /) 
$ ls -F
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  1. Show a file with line numbers 
 $ cat -n file.txt
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  1. Use cut to split fields 
 $ echo 1:2:3 | cut -d: -f2
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  1. Edit file in place and do search and replace 
 $ perl -pi -e 's/old/new/' file.txt
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  1. Same as above but not in place 
 $ sed -e 's/old/new/' file.txt > new.txt
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  1. Spidermonkey (interactive js shell) 
$ js
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$ node
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  1. Simple video to audio conversion 
 $ ffmpeg -i file.mp4 song.mp3
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  1. Download youtube video to disk 
 $ youtube-dl https://youtu.be/XXXX
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  1. Same as above, faster 
 $ yt-dlp https://youtu.be/XXX
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  1. Show progress bar or ETA with pipeviewer 
 $ cat file.tgz | pv | tar zxpf
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  1. Play gif animation 
 $ mplayer file.gif
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  1. View image 
 $ qiv file.jpg
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  1. Same as above 
 $ qview file.webp
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  1. Same as above 
 $ xloadimage file.png
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  1. Same as above 
 $ display file.png
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  1. Nice PDF viewer 
 $ mupdf file.pdf
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  1. Fire up a web server using current dir 
 $ http-server
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  1. Fire up web server to interpret markdown files 
 $ grip
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  1. Do a simple file upload to FTP or HTTP 
 $ curl -T file.input ftp://remote/dir/A
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  1. Do a fast download breaking file into chunks and fetch using multiple TCP connections 
 $ axel <URL>
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  1. Figure out common lines 
 $ comm file.txt file2.txt
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  1. Compare binary files 
 $ diff a.bin b.bin
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  1. Printout SHA256 fingerprint 
 $ openssl dgst sha256 < file.txt
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  1. Same as above. 
sha256sum < file.txt
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  1. Always import fresh into git repo 
 $ find . -name .git | xargs rm -rf
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  1. Hear same song repeatedly 
 $ mplayer favsong.mp3 -loop 0
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  1. Watch video with vol boost, 0,9 for +,- 
 $ mplayer -softvol -softvol-max 1000 file.mp4
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  1. Listen to Internet radio on command line 
 $ mplayer <shoutcast url>
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  1. Resize image with ImageMagick 
 $ convert file.png -resize 500x500! small.png
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  1. Find out width and height 
 $ identify favicon.ico
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  1. Tell the length of media 
 $ mplayer -identify -frames 0 <media>
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  1. Nuke everthing in mp3 after 90 seconds 
 $ ffmpeg  -i file.mp3 -to 90 out.mp3
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  1. Get rid of first 30 seconds. 
 $ ffmpeg -i file.mp3 -ss 30 out.mp3
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  1. Convert a postscript file to PDF 
 $ ps2pdf14 file.ps
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  1. Create webp from png or jpg 
 $ cwebp file.png -o file.webp
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  1. Change image format 
 $ convert file.jpg file.png
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  1. Copy file.txt to paste buffer 
 $ cat file.txt| xsel
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  1. Take screenshot from command line 
 $ import f.png
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  1. Scour entire file system for files 
 $ locate file
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  1. Look for pattern recursively and ignore case 
 $ grep -ir pat dir/
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  1. Get rid of newline whilst printing 
 $ echo -n text
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  1. Batch top output 
 top -b
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  1. Show speed of download/upload 
$ ifstat
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