Useful Commandline Commands on Unix

Question

As there is a windows version of this question, I decided to open a community wiki for the same question under unix, linux, and the like.

I'll be updating this list with the answers:

• bash: exec 3<> /dev/tcp/localhost/80 # Redirect to port 80 of localhost
• find: search for files in a directory hierarchy
• htop: interactive process viewer, similar to top
• xargs: build and execute command lines from standard input
• tmux: detachable, re-attachable command line sessions
• apropo: find relevant man pages
• vmstat: See the state of your system

Websites:

• commandlinefu.com
• serverfault.com

Keyboard shortcuts: - Ctrl T (BSD specific): send SIGINFO to a running program - Magic SesRq key (Linux specific): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

Solution 1

Try commandlinefu.com.

Solution 2

'screen' - allows for detachable, re-attachable command line sessions. Made extra shiny with screen-profiles (default in Ubuntu 9.04), and byobu in 10.04

Solution 3

Slight dupe:

Hidden Features of Linux

Hidden Features of Linux

Solution 4

find. Extremely useful in combination with xargs.

Solution 5

Using 'ack' as a replacement for grep/find+xargs+grep: www.betterthangrep.com

View more solutions

Comments

[Gareth]

See @Andrew Hodgson's response.

[Álvaro]

Yeah, actually I see it.

[Álvaro]

yeah, I didn't find it

[Matthew Flaschen]

But also on its own.

[BJladu4]

The use of -exec in find makes xargs useless most of the time.

[lunchmeat317]

I know that bash uses emacs style by default, but is it actually possible to have it use vi commands? I'd love that, but I'm not sure how it'd work. (Edit: I just realized how old this is....but ah well. Legit question.)