Questions tagged [utilities]
small programs used on the command line to do a specific job
4
votes
1answer
507 views
find VS GNU find
Consider some common *nix systems (say Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, Arch and Kali).
I use Linux since 2014 but always used find. I don't recall personally using GNU find, but from one example I've ...
0
votes
1answer
23 views
Why pdftops gives extra padding but pdf2ps doesn't?
I tried both pdftops and pdf2ps to convert a pdf figure(no text) into eps.
pdf2ps created a ps figure same to the original one, but the ps file produced by pdftops contains an extra white padding/...
3
votes
1answer
39 views
Which programs configure the network based on the settings in /etc/network/interfaces?
I have installed Stretch and I find that NetworkManager gets in my way more often than not, and I would rather familiarize myself with network interface administration at a lower level based on the ...
0
votes
0answers
47 views
Cannot build old versions of coreutils
I am working on a project where I need to gather statistics on Linux utilities. At the moment I am investigating coreutils, by looking at all commits on the official repository. I need to be able to ...
0
votes
0answers
23 views
send stdin to stderr for a time, then stop after timeout and discard: gnu textutils?
We have a very chatty application which says useful things during startup but then refuses to be quiet (useful logs are sent elsewhere). This interacts problematically with log rotation, snapshotting, ...
1
vote
1answer
42 views
Tell Tab and Space indented files apart
I was using the file command to gather information about some text files (well, XML files, but the XML info did not interest me), but there was one bit of information that I missed in the output: ...
-1
votes
1answer
530 views
How to find the DNS server configured in Ubuntu and networking tools in unix?
I have heard that DNS configuration can only be IP address and not host name. How do I configure DNS server in ubuntu machine.
If it should be IP address only then why this configuration shows the ...
1
vote
2answers
36 views
CLI: Editing binary strings
There's a nice CLI binutils utility for interpreting binary files, and outputting legible strings, in a cat-like fashion. It's called strings.
If you try to cat a binary file, you'll see a bunch of ...
0
votes
2answers
103 views
Is there any “base” Debian metapackage?
I've used Debian's Raspberry Pi image builder to create arm64 image, but the problem is it's too barebones. Are there any metapackages that installs useful tools, equivalent to Ubuntu's ubuntu-...
0
votes
2answers
70 views
Why does sort -k4nr and sort -k 4 -n -r give different results? [duplicate]
Here is my file, the first line is not part of it (the one with Fname ..)
Fname Lname Age Children
John Doe 61 2
Mary Jane 32 5
Delta Cross 30 5
Sui Ace 24 1
I want to sort this file ...
0
votes
2answers
135 views
Command similar to 'yes' but that outputs newlines?
Is there a Linux command similar to yes but one that outputs newlines? Something like
$ yes enter
That outputs
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Similar too how yes 'foo' outputs
foo
foo
foo
0
votes
1answer
32 views
How to get the information about the status of data receiving and sending in ethernet?
Is there any tools to get the information about status of data receiving and sending in Ethernet (Real-time information is better, GUI tools is better)?
The information includes:
sending and ...
0
votes
1answer
50 views
crunch wordlist generation with all combinations
I'm trying to generate a wordlist in order to use it to bruteforce my own Truecrypt container. I do know parts of the password, its built up using blocks of other known passwords to increase length, ...
0
votes
2answers
108 views
Is there a fp8 (Fast PAQ) compression utility for linux?
I'm trying to compress a large archive of similar JPG images. The best compression algorithm I've found so far is fp8. In this question I show my tests and ask for better options. But fp8 is the best ...
0
votes
1answer
13 views
Tool for easy file-update and restore
I am looking for a commandline-tool that provides me functionality for local udating single files. So I am not talking about remotely updating a bunch of servers. But update some files and have an ...
0
votes
0answers
25 views
Create a pseudoterminal
I can create plain FIFOs (named pipes) using mkfifo.
Is there a common utility that I can use to create pseudoterminals?
0
votes
2answers
479 views
Main difference between tr (translate) to sed and awk
AFAIC both sed and awk are general purpose text processing utilities with whom a user can get quite similar results, in a slightly different syntax:
With both, a user could add, replace/translate and ...
0
votes
1answer
35 views
Write scripts as stream-filters or parameter-only tools? [closed]
I'm writing a set of shell helper scripts - a kind of toolbox for simple data/text_files processing.
In it there will be some simple tools like, for example: dateToTimestamp or showParagraphHeads.
...
1
vote
0answers
14 views
What's the difference between these two calls to `du -sm`? [duplicate]
I have a directory that I want to find sizes on. When I run the two following commands, I get very different results. I expect the second to produce results like the first. Any ideas why?
$ for d in `...
15
votes
3answers
1k views
head eats extra characters
The following shell command was expected to print only odd lines of the input stream:
echo -e "aaa\nbbb\nccc\nddd\n" | (while true; do head -n 1; head -n 1 >/dev/null; done)
But instead it just ...
1
vote
2answers
74 views
Filter tasks scheduled for the future in Taskwarrior
My custom report in Taskwarrior is set to the following:
report.custom.filter=status:pending
I would like to change this so that tasks scheduled for the future are hidden until their start date. For ...
3
votes
2answers
220 views
Should I use mutually exclusive options on my command line tool?
Writing a CLI tool, I'm facing a conundrum.
The tool is supposed to detect faces in images and blur them automatically. However, sometimes only one of those things should be done to allow marking ...
1
vote
3answers
56 views
Take a command that modifies a file inline and make it accept stdin/stdout
Let's say I have a command foo that accepts a file and performs some transformation in that file (something similar to sed -i). And let's say that this command does not accept the classic "read from ...
1
vote
2answers
61 views
Command-line tool for determining validity of bracket term
I'm looking for a tool which automatically checks whether a LaTeX document is a correct bracket term.
It's very easy to write such a tool but before I do, I want to know whether one already exists.
...
2
votes
2answers
484 views
How to use globs/wildcards when the -C option is used in tar command?
My directory structure is as follows :
/home/workspace/build/
/home/workspace/js/jai.1.js
/home/workspace/js/jai.2.js
/home/workspace/js/jai.3.js
/home/workspace/js/jai.4.js
I want to tar all js ...
6
votes
3answers
834 views
tr analog for unicode characters?
I need internationalized utility that does the same thing as tr: gets character from stream and substitutes it with a corresponding character.
Not a particular case solution like lower-to-upper, but a ...
1
vote
3answers
425 views
How to transpose a text file on character basis
There are some tools like datamesh to transpose a matrix in a csv file, but I want to exchange rows and columns character based. So a file
abcde
fghij
klmn
opqrs
should become
afko
bglq
chmq
dinr
...
0
votes
1answer
257 views
How to perform argument parsing in C? [closed]
I am trying to write an utility that runs on linux Operating System. I am planning to develop it using C. I have lots of doubts striking me. I would like to ask some of it.
Questions 1:
How can I ...
-1
votes
2answers
436 views
What are the tools in /tools folder?
In the kernel source tree /tools, there are many submodules. What are the tools available in this folder? I know perf tool. What else are they? How to build them? Are they, by default, integrated into ...
2
votes
1answer
625 views
Taskwarrior: Recurring tasks that are due relative to the day of recurence
I would like to create a task in taskwarrior that repeats every day and is due every day or the day after. Is that possible?
Didn't find anything on the net or the documentation.
0
votes
1answer
333 views
Are there any cli tools for drawing graphics on the screen during an X session?
Are there any command line tools that can draw simple graphics on the screen, then be able to later clear/erase those drawn graphics?
It would be useful to highlight a section on the screen or ...
2
votes
1answer
141 views
How to override warning in Taskwarrior?
I have the following output whenever I issue task:
TASKRC override: /path/taskrc
TASKDATA override: /path/.task
It's because I put the config and data files in non-default external location ...
3
votes
3answers
295 views
How to add multiple tasks in one command on Taskwarrior?
How can I add multiple tasks in one command line on Taskwarrior?
I'd like to achieve something like:
task add task1 tag:tag1, task2 tag:tag2
I think there should be a delimiter to separate tasks.
1
vote
2answers
467 views
Use ffmpeg to get PCM/Red Book/CDDA without WAV headers?
I've got a side project going that requires files which are just the samples from uncompressed PCM audio. My plan was to first convert everything to WAV, then use my own scripts to strip off all the ...
1
vote
0answers
29 views
What's a good and free ER diagramming tool for Linux that is approachable via a web interface?
A web based ER diagramming tool.
One that you can install on Linux and afterwards approach it via a web interface.
Preferably Open source.
Optional: connectivity with the database.
44
votes
8answers
4k views
Why are POSIX mandatory utilities not built into the shell?
The purpose of this question is to answer a curiosity, not to solve a particular computing problem. The question is: Why are POSIX mandatory utilities not commonly built into shell implementations?
...
3
votes
1answer
93 views
Does a utility exist to show the output of a command in a GUI as well as to the console?
I'm thinking it would be similar to tee, except with a popup window instead of a file. Here is an example of what I mean:
echo "hello world" | tee file
Puts the output in the file and in the console ...
3
votes
1answer
53 views
Is there any tool that shows live changes to all files in the log folder?
I am currently debugging a weird problem on my server and therefore I am searching for a tool that is monitoring the standard log folder /var/log/. Any changes to the existing files should be printed ...
10
votes
4answers
3k views
Get line number from byte offset
Having byte offset for a file.
Is there a tool that gives line number for this byte?
Byte count starting with zero, as in: first byte is 0 not 1.
Line number starting with 1.
File can have both ...
5
votes
1answer
398 views
Tool to automatically extract sub-images that are inside an image: sub-images separated by whitespace
Is there a tool/script which can extract images (save them as separate image files) inside an image, each sub-image is separated by whitespace?
This:
Would result in 3x:
Image Source
4
votes
1answer
118 views
Comparing .wav samples from command line
As a part of our project we should classify sound samples (stored as .wav files). All sample is the same, just pure speech (like a Skype test call).
The process is the following:
a reference wav, ...
1
vote
4answers
587 views
Is there a shell command or utility for caching process output?
Hope this is the right place to ask.
Is there a unix tool that works similarly to this?
# invokes echo, saves to cache (using command with arguments as key), returns "hi"
cache 10 echo hi
# wait 2 ...
3
votes
0answers
100 views
Can you do url (percent) encoding with the recode terminal tool
You can use the recode tool to do html encoding and decoding like so:
recode html..ascii
Can you also do URL-Encoding (percent encoding) with it?
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Unix way to send/transmit raw Ethernet frame
I want to send raw Ethernet data, kind of like netcat for Ethernet instead of TCP. What is the simplest way to do this on Unix? So far it looks like I need to write my own tool.
15
votes
4answers
1k views
Is there a tool to find out the general state of the machine? [closed]
I am longing for a tool for linux that would give me a general idea what is happening on a machine. Example information I am looking for:
What daemons are installed (www, db, others)
Config locations ...
0
votes
2answers
449 views
Tool to replace block in a file
Most configuration management software tools have a way to replace a block in a file.
Example:
SaltStack: blockreplace
Ansible: blockinfile
I want exactly this, but without the overhead of these ...
0
votes
1answer
86 views
unix utility to merge files without space overhead (cat *.txt > merged.txt;rm *.txt in one step) [duplicate]
Is there a utility that dumps a file line by line to stdout and deletes those lines?
I have a number of large files that I want to merge via cat. Of course I could do
cat *.txt > merged.txt
...
1
vote
1answer
52 views
Modify xml uttribut value of an xml document by selector
I have an xml document containing an element witch I can select with stkconfig>Video[width]. So, I want to modify the value of this element.
There is a CLI utilities for this?
1
vote
1answer
1k views
A generic command to extract archive files [duplicate]
There are many archive formats: tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2, zip, rar, tar.xz and more. I would like to have a single command that would determine the type of archive I give to it as input and extract the ...
2
votes
2answers
645 views
Sorting and Grouping Domains and Subdomains
Is there a better way of sorting and grouping domains and subdomains together? For e.g., the file list containing
morefu.sub1.foo.com
www.foo.com
bar.foo.com
sub1.foo.com
fufu.isub1.foo.com
foofoo....
