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README.md

This is a random collection of useful things I came across.
It's mostly distro-agnostic but sometimes specific for pacman-based distros.

[TOC]

0. Short example template.

  • Description: What is this good for.
  • Requires: Do you need any particular software (provide a link)?
  • How-to: Straight forward description and maybe a code example.
    • Detailled description if necessary.
    • $ this is the actual code lol
  • Aditionally: Anything else that might be important like additional ressources.

1. Automatic clear cache.

  • Description: Automatically move files older than a specific amount of time from your user's ~/.cache directory to the trash.
  • Requires: The rmtrash package and anacron.
  • How-to: Add the following line to /etc/cron.daily/cache.
    • find ~/.cache/* -mtime +7 -exec rmtrash -rf {} \;
    • This will move files older than 7 days in ~/.cache to the trash every day.
  • Additionally: This can also be done using regular rm instead of rmtrash.

2. Limit systemd journal size.

  • Description: Limit the systemd journal to a specific size.
  • Requires: Specific to systems using systemd.
  • How-to: Edit /etc/systemd/journald.conf and change SystemMaxUse=50M.
  • Additionally: ArchWiki: systemd.
  • Additionally: This can also be achieved using journalctl and be limited by time.

3. Syntax highlight for nano.

  • Description: Enable syntax highlighting for nano.
  • Requires: The nano editor.
  • How-to: Edit ~/.config/nano/nanorc or to /etc/nanorc and add the following:
    • include "/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc".
  • Additionally: ArchWiki: Nano.

4. Repeat a command using watch.

  • Description: Repeat and watch a command in a custom interval.
  • Requires: The procfs package.
  • How-to: Use watch followed by your command.
    • Example: $ watch -n 1.0 "du -h -s ./$folder
    • This prints the summarized size of $folder in human-readable format every second.
  • Additionally: ---

5. Repeat last command as su.

  • Description: Repeat the last command using sudo.
  • Requires: The sudo package.
  • How-to: Just type $ sudo !! and the last command will be repeated using sudo.
  • Additionally: ---

6. Prevent overwriting files.

  • Description: Use alias for rm, cp and mv.
  • How-to: Add the following alias into your ~/.bashrc.
    • Use -interactive option to get asked before overwriting files.
    • alias mv="mv -i"
  • Additionally: ArchWiki: Core utilities.

7. Auto-clean package cache.

  • Description: Automatically clean the pacman package cache using paccache.
  • Requires: A pacman-based distro and the pacman-contrib package.
  • How-to: Enable the paccache.timer.
    • $ systemctl enable paccache.time
  • Additionally: Edit the paccache.service in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ and change the command to e.g. keep the latest installed version and no uninstalled version of all packages: ExecStart=/usr/bin/paccache -rk1 && /usr/bin/paccache -ruk0

8. Passwordless SSH.

  • Description: Connect to a remote maschine using SSH without a password.
  • Requires: A SSH implementation like TinySSH.
  • How-to: Generate a keypair and send the public key to the remote maschine's authorized keys.
    • Generate a keypair: $ ssh-keygen -t rsa
    • Send the key: $ ssh-copy-id $remote-username@$remote-ip-address
    • Fill in the username and IP address of your remote maschine.
    • For example: $ ssh-copy-id foo@192.168.178.123
  • Additionally: Here's a more detailed tutorial.

9. Automatic clean orphaned packages.

  • Description: Automatically remove orphaned packages.
  • Requires: A pacman-based distribution and anacron.
  • How-to: Add the following line to /etc/cron.daily/orph.
    • pacman -Qtdq | pacman -Rns -
  • Additionally:

10. Automatic retrieve latest mirrors.

  • Description: Automatically retrieve the latest Arch Linux mirrors and write them to the mirrorlist.
  • Requires: An Arch-based distro and reflector.
  • How-to: Install reflector and enable the reflector.timer.
    • $ systemctl enable reflector.timer
  • Additionally: ArchWiki: Reflector.

11. Extract text containing keywords from any file.

  • Description: This command will filter and sort text based on keyword from any file(s).
  • Requires: GNU Coreutils, GNU grep
  • How-to:
    • $ cat ./*/files* | grep -e keyword1 -e keyword2 | sort -u | nl > file
    • cat will take any file(s), multiple files in multiple subdirectories can be specified.
    • grep -e will look for any and/or all specified keywords.
    • sort -u will sort the results alphabetically and remove duplicates.
    • nl will add a number in front of every result (optionally).
    • > will write everything in a specified file.
  • Additionally: This is simply an example of how useful the coreutils can be, especially when used together.

12. Enable parallel downloads for pacman.

  • Description: Enable parallel downloads for faster updates with pacman.
  • Requires: A pacman-based distro.
  • How-to: Edit pacman's config-file at /etc/pacman.conf and uncomment ParallelDownloads and add a number of parallel downloads like 5 or 10.
    • # nano /etc/pacman.conf
  • Additionally: ArchWiki: Pacman.

13. Enable smartd service.

  • Description: Enable the smartd daemon to monitor SMART status and emit notifications to log.
  • Requires: smartmontools
  • How-to:
    • Enable the service # systemctl enable smartd.service
    • Uncomment/add the following line to /etc/smartd.conf: DEVICESCAN -a
  • Additionally: ArchWiki: S.M.A.R.T.