[NTLUG:Discuss] Strings in BASH, an easier way?

[Leroy Tennison]

Robert Citek wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 3:57 AM, Leroy Tennison
> <leroy_tennison at prodigy.net> wrote:
>> However, overall it's an interesting exercise to see
>> what additional useful programs you can discover, I've probably found
>> 10+ so far.
> 
> Like what? - Robert
> 
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> 

Depending on what you have happened to learn about or use over the 
course of your Linux/*NIX experience, some of these may be "duh" to you. 
  However, these are the things I picked up.  I listed more than 10 in 
the hope that most people reading this post will pick up something 
useful. I haven't tried all of them out yet so there may be some "duds" 
in the list.  Also, I'm running SuSE 10.3, not all "discoveries" may be 
available on all distributions.

lastlog -
	last time all IDs logged in (if ever)
w -
	returns more information than who or users
mkdirhier -
	creates an entire hierarchy, mkdirhier /a/b/c creates all three
base64 -
	previous versions of the distro I used didn't have this program
script -
	records a terminal session
multixterm -
	starts 1+ xterms plus other features
getkeycodes/setkeycodes -
	defines the kernel mapping, interesting to me because Ctrl-arrow
	didn't work on previous distros
sash -
	stand alone shell, useful in problem situations (the "regular"
	shell is missing some of it's dependencies)
cal -
	prints a calendar, this is a real "duh" but can come in handy
wdiff -
	a "diff" which compares words ignoring white space
[de]cryptdir -
	encrypts or decrypts all files in a directory
rev -
	outputs a file line-by-line but each line from end to beginning
	not sure how I would use it but interesting to know about
xxd -
	translates between hex and regular test
z[cmp | grep | cat | more | (others)] -
	preforms traditional functions on compressed files
whereis -
	returns all instances of a program in the path
fdupes -
	finds duplicate files in directories
fileschanged -
	lists altered files
dirsplit -
	splits a directory into multiple with equal size
scsiformat –
	low level format of scsi drives (surprising to me for an OS)
[x]kibitz -
	allows users to share a common shell.
states –
	like awk, has different functions
bssh/bvnc -
	Browse for SSH/VNC servers on the local network
mesg -
	controls receipt of write/wall/talk messages
hal-device | lsdev | lsusb | udevinfo | lsscsi | scsiinfo | siga
	more ways of seeing hardware information than I dreamed
pwdx -
	report current working directory of a process
netcat -
	for network troubleshooting, etc.
lwp-request -
	Perl script allowing use of POST procedures on Web sites