Console / shell tips & tricks

[carambola5]

Yes, we all know how to alias stuff in /etc/profile or ~/.bashrc or whatever. Some favorites of (seemingly) everyone are:

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alias ls='ls --color'
alias sl='ls --color'

The list is brief, but that's where the rest of this thread comes into play: What are some quick little console (if you want X-tricks, start another thread, please!) tricks that you employ?

Here are some of mine:
script called "remote" that can optionally take in an argument. If there is an argument, it's a nickname for an ssh server. If there is no argument, list the predefined ssh servers and pick from the menu. This is useful if you like to forward ports often.
alias rm='rm -f' I'm feeling lucky


EDIT: Title was "quick console tricks" --pjp

[nitro322]

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alias 2000='su -c "lilo -R 2000" && reboot'

reboot to Windows 2000 without the LILO prompt
2000 = the lilo name for my Windows 2000 entry

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alias c='clear'
alias md='mkdir'
alias rd='rmdir'
alias dir='ls -Alh --color | more'

I'm lazy

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alias gpm='sudo /etc/init.d/gpm start'
alias halt='sudo /sbin/halt'
alias reboot='sudo /sbin/reboot'
alias renet='sudo /etc/init.d/net.eth0 restart'

more various shortcuts to save me time

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alias kernel_comp='cd /usr/src/linux/ && cp .config .. && make clean && make mrproper && cp ../.config . && make menuconfig && make dep && make bzImage modules modules_install && cp System.map /boot/System.map-020916 && cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-020916 && lilo && echo "finished"'

who's your daddy?

I guess that's just about it. I also run my console at 1024x768 resolution with 8-bit color, which gives me a LOT more room to work, in addition to being purtier. If you haven't noticed, the left and right windows keys on your keyboard will change you to the virtual terminal to the left and right of your current one. Nice.

[dioxmat]

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alias kernel_comp='cd /usr/src/linux/ && cp .config .. && make clean && make mrproper && cp ../.config . && make menuconfig && make dep && make bzImage modules modules_install && cp System.map /boot/System.map-020916 && cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-020916 && lilo && echo "finished"'

who's your daddy? :wink:

nah, you forgot to evaluate the time it took :)

[fmalabre]

reboot to Windows 2000 without the LILO prompt

Can we do the same thing with Grub?

[pjp]

I could've sworn I'd seen it done somewhere, but I'm not finding it.

[rojaro]

there is no such function in grub and there are just two "halfway methods" which work ... well just half the way ...

1. is to use multiple menu.lst files and a shellscript which exchanges the config files (which is pretty easy to implement)

2. use a shellscript which changes the "default"-parameter in the menu.lst file using sed (imho the nicer way). this shellscript should reset the menu.lst to the real default when called without parameters and you could add it to /etc/conf.d/localstart to change the parameter back to default automatically on next linuxboot ...

sure you'll see why this is only a halfway solution ...

[edit: ... just filed a feature request at their bugzilla]

[NickDaFish]

alias ls='ls --color'

YES! Many thanks! I've been trying to work out how to make bash do that for AGES! It's default in RedHat and I've been missing it ever since I went over to Gentoo... Too many other things to figure out first so I never go to it.

BTW Does anyone know how to get my Home key to work with in a PuTTY SSH session? I think it's something to do with inputrc..... I have Ctrl-a to get me by for now but I'd it would be nice to get my keyboard to work as advertised

[carambola5]

(Using lynx while bootstrapping, so I don't know how this'll turn out.)

I forgot one very key alias in my first post:

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alias pico='nano -w'

And life just became much easier. : )

[phong]

I have lots of aliases to save myself some typing, many are either from DOS or even from .bat files I made in the DOS days for the same purpose:

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alias vi='vim -o -X'
alias vim='vim -o -X'
alias vimdiff='vimdiff -X'
alias dir='ls --color -Flh'
alias dirh='ls --color -Flah'
alias di='dir' # my most common command line typo is hitting enter before 'r' in dir
alias r=''
alias cls='clear' # actually, I usually just hit ctrl-l
alias x='exit'
alias rd='rmdir'
alias md='mkdir'
alias h='history'
alias mo='more'
alias le='less'
alias ks='kfmclient exec' # like the windows "start" command
alias nc='mc'

alias cd/='cd /'
alias cd..='cd ..'
alias cd...='cd ../..'
alias cd....='cd ../../..'
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ../..'
alias ....='cd ../../..'

[tactless]

Not really a "trick", but here's something I put in my bashrc:

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fortune

Great way to start the day [/code]

[wbsoft]

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nd() { test -d "$1" || mkdir "$1" && cd "$1" ; }
alias o="less -iMS"
nX()
{
  for i in `seq 0 9`
  do
    if [ ! -e "/tmp/.X${i}-lock" ] ; then
      XFree86 ":$i" -query localhost &
      break
    fi
  done
}

the last one, nX, starts a new X login on a new display. (You should add localhost to /etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess)

[squanto]

I read somewhere how to customize bash, with like the full current directory path, the time, and a whole bunch of other things. Any one want to give me a quick heads up to an article on how to do this?
I think it fits in with neat things to do with customizing your shell.

thanks!

[carlivar]

I read somewhere how to customize bash, with like the full current directory path, the time, and a whole bunch of other things. Any one want to give me a quick heads up to an article on how to do this?

Go here for a very nice thread with many bash prompt examples.

Carl

[squanto]

I read somewhere how to customize bash, with like the full current directory path, the time, and a whole bunch of other things. Any one want to give me a quick heads up to an article on how to do this?

Go here for a very nice thread with many bash prompt examples.

Carl

Hey, thanks!
I read an article about customizing bash in CPU mag, but misplaced the article.
I don't like how gnome's term doesn't list anything.
as for my aliases: alias sshserver="ssh my.server.name.edu"
so I can ssh into my game server (modified obviously)

Andrew

[NiklasH]

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nd() { test -d "$1" || mkdir "$1" && cd "$1" ; }
alias o="less -iMS"
nX()
{
  for i in `seq 0 9`
  do
    if [ ! -e "/tmp/.X${i}-lock" ] ; then
      XFree86 ":$i" -query localhost &
      break
    fi
  done
}

the last one, nX, starts a new X login on a new display. (You should add localhost to /etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess)

I can't get this to work...
The nX function starts a new X window, but I get no login prompt (gdm, in my case).
Am I doing something wrong? I tried to add just 'localhost' in Xaccess. Should I add something more? I also tried to add CHOOSER localhost, but that didn't work either.
Maybe I'm just stupid... But I would really like this to work, so any help is very appreciated!

[klieber]

I find it remarkable how many people don't use the history command. That, combined with the '!n' to re-issue a frequently-used command saves me tons and tons of time.

man history if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

--kurt

[carambola5]

I definitely do not claim to be a proficient bash programmer. But hey, it works. I call it 'remote':

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#!/bin/bash
SERVERS="CAE CS Quit"
ENGR="cae.my_u.edu"
COMPSCI="cs.my_u.edu"
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	select serv in $SERVERS; do
		if [ "$serv" = "CAE" ]; then
			ssh $ENGR
			exit
		elif [ "$serv" = "CS" ]; then
			ssh $COMPSCI
			exit
		elif [ "$serv" = "Quit" ]; then
			exit
		else
			echo bad option
			echo 
		fi
	done
else
	if [ "$1" = "cae" ]; then
		ssh $ENGR
	elif [ "$1" = "cs" ]; then
		ssh $COMPSCI
	else
		echo Bad argument.  Servers are cs or cae
		echo eg:  remote cae
	fi
fi

[carambola5]

screenie:

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#!/bin/bash
PICPATH=$HOME/pictures/screenshots
INDEX=`cat $PICPATH/index.dat`
import -window root $PICPATH/ss$INDEX.png
echo $(($INDEX + 1)) > $PICPATH/index.dat

I mapped this to my printscreen key through .fluxbox/keys

[H-Pi]

nice thread!

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alias es='emerge -s'
alias ep='emerge -p'
alias ue='ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge'

Ihated to type ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86, and didn't want to put it in my make.conf so made an alias for it, and then thought: why not es and ep too?

I find it remarkable how many people don't use the history command.

I just use the tab, page-up and page-down buttons, they take away the need of an 'history'

[red_over_blue]

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alias recal='history | grep'

You can then just type

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!955

Supposing 955 was the line you wanted to execute again. I also like using ctrl-l for clear (screen) and ctrl-d to log-out.

[sa]

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alias play-dvd='xine --auto-play -s dvd'
xnest='Xnest -auth .Xauthority_blah -full -sync -name "Xnest :1" -fp `xset -q | grep fonts` :1'

[frew]

Wow, history really is useful...Can't beleive I've never seen it before.

I know this is useless but I like it: (btw, you have to emerge cowsay first)

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date +%l:%M| cowsay

I can't think of anything else at the moment...

Oh yeah, and put that in the begginging of .bashrc

[zojas]

I use history substitution a lot. not only '!!' to repeat the last command, !23 to repeat command number 23, and !c to repeat the last command which started with 'c', but you can also use '!$' to get the last word from the previous command. so say you wanted to check for a package in the mask file, then edit it:

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grep kde /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask
vim +/kde !$

before I started using etc-update I used to do this a lot:

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diff net.eth0 ._cfg000.net.eth0
mv !$ !^

(!^ means the first argument of the previous command)

also !* means all the arguments from the previous command (without the program name)

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diff net.eth0 ._cfg000.net.eth0
vim -o !*

also I make an alias called 'h' for the word 'history'

[Empty_One]

dumb question, but how is the hisory better than just cycling through the list with the up arrow? Seems like you would have to read thru the list anyway

[zojas]

with history you see it all at once. the eye travels faster than the fingers! try it, once you do it a few times you'll see.