Linux Ask! is a Q & A web site specific for Linux related questions. Questions are collected, answered and audited by experienced Linux users.
Extract a bzipped tar file
Answer:
Normally tar is combined with gzip as the most common usage, however, sometimes people use bzip2 instead for maximum compression rate. File in such format usually have the file name like: program.tar.bz2
To extract it using a single command:
# tar -jxvf program.tar.bz2
The key is the argument - j
A simple stop watch
Answer:
In Linux, you can use a simple command to count the time.
# time read [press Ctrl+D to stop]
real 0m0.967s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m0.000sExtract tarball from Internet with saving first
Answer:
You can extract a tarball from Internet with saving first, just use the command below:
# wget -qO - 'http://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.21.2.tar.gz' | tar zxvf -
Monitor a directory for file modification
Answer:
You have a directory to monitor, you want to know which files inside is currently changing.
Try the following magic command:
# watch -d -n 2 'df; ls -FlAt;'
When a file is changed, it will be highlighted.
Determine file type using the file command
Answer:
If you want to determine file type, you can try the file command:
# file /usr/share/perl5/Time/Zone.pm
/usr/share/perl5/Time/Zone.pm: Perl5 module source text
# file /usr/share/vim/vim72/doc/usr_90.txt
/usr/share/vim/vim72/doc/usr_90.txt: ASCII English text
