I made this list of cool things you can do from shell especially for desktop users. They all work on my ubuntu and most of them generic (except maybe apt-get which works for debian based distrubtions). The list is not ordered or categorized. It’s really just a bunch of things a little different from the regular text manipulation one-liners. They are all useful, at least for me.

Note: if you copy-paste notice that wordpress screws the quotes, just use the regular double quotes wherever specified.

Make cd/dvd image copy
# dd if=/dev/cdrom bs=1024k of=my_cd.iso

Make cd/dvd image copy to remote computer
I use my old computer’s drive, mine got broken:
# dd if=/dev/cdrom bs=1024k | ssh remote_computer “cat > my_cd.iso”

Mount existing cd/dvd image copy (iso file)
# mkdir /tmp/my_cd
# sudo mount -t loop my_cd.iso /tmp/my_cd

When you finish don’t forget to:
# sudo umount /tmp/my_cd
# rmdir /tmp/my_cd

Use last parameter from last command with !$
# mkdir -p really/long/path/that/you/hate/typing
# cd !$

Find all files containing a certain text
Let’s say we want to find all files under /usr/include named “*.h” containing  _REGEX_H:
# find /usr/include -name “*.h” -exec grep -l “_REGEX_H” {} \;

Convert between character sets
Make sure you have “libc-bin” installed (sudo apt-get install libc-bin)
# curl -L http://www.idown.me | iconv -f windows-1255 -t utf-8

Read sent/received SMS from your jailbroken iphone
Make sure you have “sqlite3” installed (sudo apt-get install sqlite3)
# scp root@your_iphone_ip:/private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db .
# sqlite3 sms.db “select * from message”

Incrementally backup directory to external hard drive
Note: this command is dangerous as it will delete your destination dir. It’s good if you want 1:1 copy of directory and want to be able to sync only changes in future (file removal from source directory also considered change and will be replicated next time you execute). The –modify-window keeps files timestamps and useful when you sync from EXT2/3 filesystem to FAT32.
# rsync -rot –inplace –delete –progress –modify-window=2 source_dir destination_dir

Disable compiz window manager (without killing current desktop session)
# DISPLAY=$DISPLAY metacity –replace &

Enable compiz window manager (without killing current desktop session)
# DISPLAY=$DISPLAY compiz –replace &

Local port forwarding
We will listen on port 4545 and forward to local port 22 (ssh):
# mknod tmp_pipe p
# nc -kl 4545 0<tmp_pipe | nc localhost 22 1>tmp_pipe

Now you can try ssh localhost -p 4545. You can also forward to remote host, just replace localhost with the host you want.

Track your Dominos pizza order
Well, I’ve no idea if it works as it is for US citizens only, but you can check out the script here.