This script will run check for ubuntu launch once every 5 mins and let you know if there is an launch.

while [ 1 ]; do if [ -z "`curl -I "http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/release/"|grep "404"`" ]; then kdialog --msgbox "9.10 Released"; exit; fi; sleep 300;  done

Run this command to find the installed version of Ubuntu…

cat /etc/lsb-release

Run top in batch mode

top -b -d 10 -n 3

Transfer stdin and stdout to and from machines over the network

ssh remote_machine 'cat - > file' < file

Use this command to add line numbers to a text file…

sed = filename.txt | sed 'N;s/\n/\t/' > filename_number.txt

Install a list of packages from a text file.

cat packages.txt | xargs apt-get install

Different way to use the rename command.

rename 's/.html$/.php/' *.html

Useless – but fun – get a random Futurama Quote

curl -Is slashdot.org | egrep '^X-(F|B)' | cut -d \- -f 2

Use this command to create a random password

< /dev/urandom tr -dc A-Za-z0-9_ | head -c8

Also see…

CDPATH is to cd what PATH is to exectable. You can go to a folder inside any of the CDPATH folders by just cd 'folder name' – no mater where you are currently.

export CDPATH='.:~:/var/www/html:~/Scripts'