First, there is one that I learned recently myself. This trick is ingenious!
One of the most challenging things to explain is why this doesn’t work (when the outfile is write-restricted to root):
sudo command > outfile
This will fail because when the shell tries to open outfile, it is not running as root - and thus does not have access. Solving this problem is not simple because of the shell’s quoting mechanisms and when it opens (and doesn’t) the file in question.
However, there is a simple solution that I’d never considered before:
sudo command | sudo tee outfile
This takes care of all the problems involved - and if the command itself is not restricted to root, then the first sudo isn’t necessray either.
Another thing that can be seen often in shell scripts is something like the following:
cmd >> $logfile
cmd2 >> $logfile
cmd3 >> $logfile
print “New stuff….” >> $logfile
This entire section can be replaced like this:
( cmd
cmd2
cmd3
print “New stuff….” ) >> $logfile
In the first example, the $logfile is opened four times - and many situations would include many more than just that. The last only opens $logfile once.
Another tip - this time in the find command. A sequence like this:
find dir1 -mtime +1 -type f
find dir2 -mtime +1 -type f
find dir3 -mtime +1 -type f
…can be replaced by a much more succinct command, like so:
find dir1 dir2 dir3 -mtime +1 -type f
Thus, instead of three process invocations, there is just one.
One more tip: if you find yourself with a .tar.gz file (or whatever) and want to unpack it somewhere else, you don’t have to move the file at all. If you utilize this general sequence, the archive can be anywhere and the unpacked data can go anywhere. Assume that the working directory contains the archive, and the unpacking is to be done in another directory (such as /tmp):
gunzip -c myfile.tar.gz | ( cd /tmp ; tar xvf - )
Using the parenthesis allows you to change the working directory temporarily, and thus to utilize the tar command in a different directory. Inversely, if you were in this same situation but were located in the /tmp directory (and unpacking the archive located in your home directory) - you can do this:
( cd $HOME; gunzip -c myfile.tar.gz ) | tar xvf -
Why not: yet one more tip. Let’s say you want to go to this directory:
/etc/supercalifragilistic/expialidocious/atrocious!/
Rather than having to type that in (and try and get the spelling right!) use something like this to get there:
cd /etc/super*/expi*/atro*/
First, these will match the appropriate directories (assuming there is only one that matches all wildcards). However, with the final slash character in place, that means that only directories that begin with “atro” will be matched - files will not. Nifty, eh?
What’s more, once you’ve gotten to that directory with the nasty name - you can switch to another then back simply:
cd /etc/foo
cd -
That last command switches back to the previous directory - the very long-named directory mentioned before, all compressed down to a single character.
