The command-line interface (CLI) is a way of interacting with the system and software by typing text commands into a terminal.
11
votes
3answers
33k views
How-to copy the contents of a folder to another folder in a different directory using terminal
I would be happy if someone can bring an example syntax for the problem above.
Thank you in advance.
11
votes
4answers
12k views
Where to declare environment variables?
What are correct places for:
Global environment variables meant to affect all users?
User-specific environment variables?
11
votes
4answers
6k views
How can I have multiple terminal sessions through one single SSH connection?
I have an Ubuntu server edition running and I can SSH into it to perform various tasks. What I'd like is the ability to SSH into my server kick off a server application and then switch to another ...
11
votes
5answers
15k views
What terminal-based network speed tests are available?
I'm looking to find a way to test my internet speed at home through ssh. Does anyone know a terminal app that can give me calculations similar info to speedtest.net?
It would also be really cool ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
How do you open a command line?
I want to set up trim for my OCZ VERTEX 4 SSD, but I have no idea how to do this even after reading the instructions.
How do you even access the command line or run option to put the commands into ...
11
votes
2answers
8k views
How do I restart /shutdown from a terminal?
How to shutdown the Ubuntu installed system and restart it by using terminal ?
11
votes
1answer
8k views
youtube-dl is not working
I am using youtube-dl to download some videos from youtube. But when I write:
youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_YodiJO6k
I get:
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] rn_YodiJO6k: ...
11
votes
2answers
553 views
How to Change Quickly's Editor?
I've just downloaded Ninja IDE and I really like it's interface.
Is there a way to configure the Quickly app to launch my project in Ninja IDE when I type quickly edit?
11
votes
1answer
14k views
What is the proper terminal-way to shutdown?
I was trying to shutdown my PC through SSH. I executed
sudo shutdown now
The user was logged-out and Ubuntu starting turning off, but it froze at the last screen with the Ubuntu logo and the loading ...
11
votes
1answer
162 views
Bash comparison and expression operators
I'm new to bash programming. I've read two good, long guides, but they made a mess in my head about operators and keywords.
Which are more commonly and widely used? I don't know when to use which ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
How can I start a different X session on tty8?
Let's say, for an example, I want to run a full-screen opengl application on tty8 and have my standard GNOME desktop on tty7. How can I configure Ubuntu to meet my requirements?
11
votes
4answers
215 views
Is there a way to see the text of tty7 without shutting down Xorg?
Is there a way to see the text of tty7 without shutting down Xorg, just like switching to another tty?
11
votes
0answers
508 views
Open any file using terminal window [duplicate]
I just want to know some commands so that I can open some files using terminal window.
for example: how to open pdf files using terminal?
10
votes
5answers
3k views
Commandline shortcut for current directory similar to ~ for home directory?
When i use the cp or move command in a terminal window,
i'm currently with bash in a certain folder like this.
NES@server:~/Desktop/dir1$
And now i wanna copy a file from here ~/anotherdir/dir2 ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
Opening a file from terminal
When we want to open an application or file from the terminal, we type, say,
okular file.dvi
This opens the application, but also shows the status of the application. We cannot close the terminal, ...
10
votes
3answers
400 views
How to open an application in terminal and detach it? [duplicate]
I opened Cairo-dock in my terminal with: open cairo-dock and that worked but if I close the terminal it goes with it. How can I keep it open regardless of the terminal?
10
votes
3answers
227 views
How to see the command attached to a bash alias?
Suppose I have an alias in the bash shell. Is there a simple command to print out what command the alias will run?
10
votes
7answers
3k views
How can I start gnome-terminal at a particular directory?
I've tried
gnome-terminal -x 'cd /path/to/dir'
and
gnome-terminal -e 'cd /path/to/dir'
but both give me errors when the new terminal opens. How do I get a new terminal to start in a specific ...
10
votes
2answers
1k views
Why do I need root privileges to umount a drive at the command line, but not in nautilus? How to change?
When I insert a thumb drive, media card, or USB hard drive, to unmount it via the command line, I need to use
sudo umount /media/the_device
But, I can unmount the device in a file manager like ...
10
votes
3answers
2k views
Remove note about sudo that appears when opening the terminal
Whenever I open the terminal,
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.
appears before the terminal. How do I get that to go ...
10
votes
6answers
531 views
Command to see media file info in terminal?
I need a command to quickly see in terminal essential information about an audio or video file.
(Then I'll consider adding that to Thunar's custom actions, etc.)
10
votes
4answers
21k views
How to check Internet Speed via Terminal?
Instead of going to sites like Netspeed etc i want to check my current internet speed in terminal in 11.10, how can i do it?
10
votes
5answers
5k views
How to create a .torrent using the command line?
I'm using mktorrent, but I'm having problems with it since it doesn't hash the files in the directory for some weird reason...
I'm looking for a replacement specifically for command line
10
votes
6answers
6k views
How can I pause/resume an apt-get update process in a terminal?
My Internet gets paused sometimes because of change in the 3g signal strength and I've to restart the whole apt-get update process again! Each update consumes 13-15 mb and every mb costs here!! Can I ...
10
votes
4answers
7k views
Beep in shell script not working?
i'd like to use a beep sound in a shell script. Unfortunately none the methods i found via google does work for me.
i tried
echo -e '\a'
echo -ne '\007'
and the command beep after i installed it ...
10
votes
2answers
34k views
Changing keyboard layout in Ubuntu 12.04 server command line interface
I'm new to Ubuntu. I use 12.04 Server in command line mode (no X installed) and I would like to change the keyboard layout... Thanks !
10
votes
5answers
8k views
How to start a terminal with certain text already input on the command-line?
Rather than rephrasing my question, let me describe to you the desired user-case:
I create a short shell-script to run command "gnome-terminal --someoptionflagname 'my text to be posted'", and ...
10
votes
3answers
675 views
Can I make my own commands?
I was wondering whether I could make my own commands as in if I were to type in 'music' at the command line, my vlc should open up and start playing my playlist. The vlc thing is just an example but ...
10
votes
3answers
6k views
How can I know how long `dd` cloning will take?
I have to dd a couple of 1TB hard drives. They are taking several hours to clone and I was wondering if there was any way possible of knowing how fast they are going, how much they have done and how ...
10
votes
2answers
684 views
Can a server handle simultaneous shell commands?
I'm writing a very simple browser based MP3 player in PHP. Part of this project requires that every MP3 file is converted to a WAV file. There's a function in PHP called shell_exec that allows you to ...
10
votes
4answers
12k views
Reverting from Ctrl - Alt - F1
I tried to install an nvidia driver and there was an error saying I must not be in an X terminal when doing so. So I did a Ctrl+Alt+F1.
The resulting terminal did not allow the nvidia driver to be ...
10
votes
4answers
5k views
X11 Forwarding over Gnu Screen, is it possible?
I use GNU Screen constantly. But, I've been trying to figure out if there is someway to get X11 apps to forward over screen when I am ssh-ing (Is that a word?). Currently if I try to run 'gedit' ...
10
votes
6answers
3k views
Can I use banshee from the command line?
I love Banshee media player in general, and I already have an important library of music, which I've spent a lot of time organizing (labeling, correcting, etc).
I also use the command line a lot, so ...
10
votes
1answer
482 views
What does this “… | ps `cat`” command do?
On my Internet research, I found the following command as solution to find the process name of a window:
xprop _NET_WM_PID | sed 's/_NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = //' | ps `cat`
I just do not understand ...
10
votes
2answers
9k views
How to open a directory/folder and a URL through Terminal
I can navigate my files quite fast through terminal. Faster than double clicking... open... look, double click... etc.
How do I open a directory in the Ubuntu GUI? For example:
cd projects
{some ...
10
votes
3answers
619 views
Tab completion for commands
I've noticed on the Desktop version when typing commands like sudo apt-get install mysq I can tab complete like when resolving file paths. However in the server edition this does not happen. Is there ...
10
votes
2answers
247 views
What is the difference in /home locations between nautilus and the command-line?
I cannot understand why in the bash, the path for (let's say) the Videos folder is /home/ioannis/Videos and in the Nautilus is /home/Home/Videos. This is what it looks like:
Bash
Nautilus
Any ...
10
votes
2answers
6k views
How can I hibernate/suspend from the command line and do so at a specific time and a relative time?
Ok,I managed to find out how to suspend/hibernate the system from the command line by reading How can I suspend/hibernate from command line?.
However, I would like to know how to use the command line ...
10
votes
3answers
3k views
Environment variable vs Shell variable, what's the difference?
Somebody told me that:
BASH isn't an environment variable,
it's a shell variable
What's the difference?
10
votes
1answer
3k views
How do I disable the blank console “screensaver” on Ubuntu Server?
How to disable blank screensaver on Ubuntu Server?
There's no desktop or X, only console (command-line interface).
10
votes
1answer
11k views
Command to append line to a text file without opening an editor
Assuming i have a line that i want to add to a file without opening an editor.
How could i append this line
alias list='ls -cl --group-directories-first'
to this file
config.fish
10
votes
1answer
3k views
What are login and non-login shells?
It is said that settings for non login shell to go into .bashrc file and login shell settings to go into .profile file.
What is really meant by login and non-login shells?
Please explain without ...
10
votes
4answers
245 views
Is there a system journal that I can install?
I am talking about a program that will show you all the changes you made to the system,
in case i have to trouble shoot my system? A CLI one will be better, in case of worst case scenario
10
votes
3answers
6k views
How do I add a repository from behind a proxy?
Hi
I've a problem at the office. We're behind a proxy (which is set and applied at ubuntu proxy settings) and when I try to add a repository from terminal, I get:
Error reading --some url here--: ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
High resolution CLI?
I want the resolution of my console to match my screen resolution(1440x900). 1024x768 works fine but for some reason when I put 1440x900 when I switch to ttyX the command prompt is almost right off ...
10
votes
2answers
4k views
How to get coloured terminal over ssh?
When I connect over ssh to remote hosts everything is just a single font/color. I would like to have colours like I do locally e.g. green for executable and blue for symlinks etc. And such that when I ...
10
votes
1answer
5k views
How can I email an attachment from the command line
Is it possible to email attachments from the command line?
If possible, I'd like something as simple as:
mail -a myfile.txt -t me@example.com -s "Here's my file"
10
votes
3answers
376 views
How to reformat/reindent all the source files in a given directory?
Given a directory containing a source tree, is there a simple way from command-line to replace each source file with its beautifully reformatted equivalent?
Keep in mind that usually a source tree ...
10
votes
2answers
2k views
How to launch an application on a specific desktop from command line?
The title says it all. I usually have a console window on my Desktop 1; I would like to be able to launch from there any application specifying on which Desktop the application window should appear. ...
10
votes
5answers
4k views
Switch encoding of terminal with a command
One of the servers I quite often ssh to uses western encoding instead of utf-8 (and there's no way I can change that).
I've started writing a bash script to connect to this server, so I won't have to ...
