this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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A while ago I made a tiny function in my ~/.zshrc to download a video from the link in my clipboard. I use this nearly every day to share videos with people without forcing them to watch it on whatever site I found it. What's a script/alias that you use a lot?

# Download clipboard to tmp with yt-dlp
tmpv() {
  cd /tmp/ && yt-dlp "$(wl-paste)"
}
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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

I wrote this suite of scripts a few years ago and still use them to:

  1. Boot into Ventoy and select a Debian Live environment
  2. Optional: connect a storage device (local partition, USB drive, etc) for persistent storage
  3. Modify cfg/cfg.sh if it's the first time using the tool
  4. Run setup.sh to configure the environment into a familiar/productive state

The tools are flexible on hardware (more directed toward x64 systems at this time), and I (almost) never have to worry about OS upgrades. Just boot into a newer live OS image once it's ready. They are still a work-in-progress and still have a few customizations that I should abstract for more general use, but it's FOSS in case anyone has merge requests, issues, suggestions, etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

I alias traditional stuff to better, usually drop-in versions of that thing on computers that have the better thing. I often forget which systems have the better thing, so this helps me get the better experience if I was able to install it at some point. For example I alias cat to bat, or top to htop, or dig to drill, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

This tmux wrapper is remarkably convenient:

Usage:

# Usage: t [session-name]
#
# With no arguments:
#   Lists existing tmux sessions, or prints "[No sessions]" if none exist.
#
# With a session name:
#   Attempts to attach to the named tmux session.
#   If the session does not exist, creates a new session with that name.
#
# Examples:
#   t            # Lists all tmux sessions
#   t dev        # Attaches to "dev" session or creates it if it doesn't exist

function t {
	if [[ -z $1 ]]; then
		tmux ls 2> /dev/null || echo "[No sessions]"
	else
		tmux attach -t $@ 2> /dev/null
		if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
			tmux new -s $@
		fi
	fi
}
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

g-push

git push origin `git branch --show`
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (6 children)

alias fuck='sudo $(history -p \!\!)'

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

jmpd(jump directory): fuzzy finds and opens directory with fzf

# fish shell
function jmpd
    set _selection $(fzf --walker=dir);
    if test -n "$_selection"
        cd "$_selection";
    end
end
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have a collection of about 8 machines around the house (a lot of Raspberry Pi) that I ssh around to from various points.

I have setup scripts named: ssp1 ssp2 ssba ss2p etc. to ssh into the various machines, and of course shared public ssh keys among them to skip the password prompt. So, yes, once you are "in" one machine in my network, if you know this, you are "in" all of them, but... it's bloody convenient.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I used to have scripts like that, but eventually switched to ssh aliases. You can set up an alias for each machine in ~/.ssh/config with lines like this:

Host p1
    HostName 192.168.1.123
    Port 22
    User pi

Then access with ssh p1. Slightly more typing, but avoids adding more commands to your $PATH. Also has the benefit of letting you use the same alias with other ssh-related commands like sftp.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I wrote a script called please. You input please followed by any other command (e.g. please git clone, please wget blahblah) and a robotic voice will say "affirmative," then the command will run, and when it completes, the robotic voice reads out the exit code (e.g. "completed successfully" or "failed with status 1" etc.)

This is useful for when you have a command that takes a long time and you want to be alerted when it's finished. And it's a gentleman.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Not exactly a single script, but I use scm breeze for git stuff. Has a ton of QoL features for working with git

https://github.com/scmbreeze/scm_breeze

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I use Clevis to auto-unlock my encrypted root partition with my TPM; this means when my boot partition is updated (E.G a kernel update), I have to update the PCR register values in my TPM. I do it with my little script /usr/bin/update_pcr:

#!/bin/bash
clevis luks regen -d /dev/nvme1n1p3 -s 1 tpm2

I run it with sudo and this handles it for me. The only issue is I can't regenerate the binding immediately after the update; I have to reboot, manually enter my password to decrypt the drive, and then do it.

Now, if I were really fancy and could get it to correctly update the TPM binding immediately after the update, I would have something like an apt package shim with a hook that does it seamlessly. Honestly, I'm surprised that distributions haven't developed robust support for this; the technology is clearly available (I'm using it), but no one seems to have made a user-friendly way for the common user to have TPM encryption in the installer.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is clevis using an attestation server or is it all on a single machine? I’m interested in getting this set up but the noted lack of batteries included for this in the common distros makes it a somewhat tall order.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In my case, no; it’s all a single machine - it is in the initramfs and uses the system’s TPM to (relatively) securely store the keys.

It can be set up with an attestation server, but you certainly don’t have to do it. The Arch wiki has a really good article on getting it set up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How difficult is it for an adversary to get in the middle of the TPM releasing the keys to LUKS? That’s why I would want attestation of some sort, but that makes it more complicated and thinking about how that would work in practice makes my head spin…

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

Vulnerabilities certainly do exist, but I’m pretty sure the attacker has to be well-equipped

I’d call it a protection against data getting cracked in a petty theft, but if your attack vector is much more than that, there are other measures you should probably take. I think Clevis also works with Yubikeys and similar, meaning the system won’t decrypt without it plugged in.

Heck, I think I know someone who just keeps their boot partition with the keys on it on a flash drive and hide it on their person.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

On MacOS, to open the current directory in Finder: alias f='open -a Finder .'

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Hey OP, consider using $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR instead of /tmp. It's now the more proper place for these kinds of things to avoid permission issues, although I'm sure you're on a single user system like most people. I have clipboard actions set to download with yt-dlp :)

My favorite aliases are:

alias dff='findmnt -D -t nosquashfs,notmpfs,nodevtmpfs,nofuse.portal,nocifs,nofuse.kio-fuse'

alias lt='ls -t | less'

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Here is on that I actually don't use, but want to use it in scripts. It is meant to be used by piping it. It's simple branch with user interaction. I don't even know if there is a standard program doing exactly that already.

# usage: yesno [prompt]
# example:
#   yesno && echo yes
#   yesno Continue? && echo yes || echo no
yesno() {
    local prompt
    local answer
    if [[ "${#}" -gt 0 ]]; then
        prompt="${*} "
    fi
    read -rp "${prompt}[y/n]: " answer
    case "${answer}" in
    [Yy0]*) return 0 ;;
    [Nn1]*) return 1 ;;
    *) return 2 ;;
    esac
}
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

here we go:

dedup:

#!/usr/bin/awk -f
!x[$0]++

this removes duplicate lines, preserving line order

iter:

#!/usr/bin/bash
if [[ "${@}" =~ /$ ]]; then
    xargs -rd '\n' -I {} "${@}"{}
else
    xargs -rd '\n' -I {} "${@}" {}
fi

This executes a command for each line. It can also be used to compare two directories, ie:

du -sh * > sizes; ls | iter du -sh ../kittens/ > sizes2

fadeout:

#!/bin/bash
# I use this to fade out layered brown noise that I play at a volume of 130%
# This takes about 2 minutes to run, and the volume is at zero several seconds before it's done.
# ################
# DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS is needed so that playerctl can find the dbus to use MPRIS so it can control mpv
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus"
# ################
for i in {130..0}
do
    volume=$(echo "scale=3;$i/100" | bc)
    sleep 2.3
    playerctl --player=mpv volume $volume
done

lbn:

#!/bin/bash
#lbn_pid=$(cat ~/.local/state/lbn.pid)
if pgrep -fl layered_brown
then
	pkill -f layered_brown
else
	export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus"
	mpv -ao pulse ~/layered_brown_noise.mp3 >>lbn.log 2>&1 &
	sleep 3
	playerctl -p mpv volume 1.3 >>lbn.log 2>&1 &
fi

This plays "layered brown noise" by crysknife. It's a great sleep aid.

here are some aliases:

alias m='mpc random off; mpc clear'
alias mpcc='ncmpcpp'
alias thesaurus='dict -d moby-thesaurus'
alias wtf='dict -d vera'
alias tvplayer='mpv -fs --geometry=768x1366+1366+0'
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago
alias bat="batcat"
alias msc="ncmpcpp"
alias xcp="xclip -selection clipboard"
alias wgq="sudo wg-quick"

also a couple to easily power on/off my 4g modem

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I have a few:

loginserver
  • 3 of these, 1 for each of my headless vm's/computers that's just an SSH command
dcompose(d/pull) - docker compose (down/pull)

3 scripts that are just docker compose up/down/pull, as scripts (remind me in 6 hours and I will post the scripts) so that it will CD to my compose folder, execute the command (with option for naming specific containers or blank for all) and then CD back to the directory I started in.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

One of favorites cds to the root of a project directory from a subdirectory,

# Changes to top-level directory of git repository.
alias gtop="cd \$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago
function seesv
    column -s, -t < $argv[1] | less -#2 -N -S
end

I used this a lot when I had to deal with CSV files — it simply shows the data in a nice format. It's an alias for the fish shell by the way.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I've only used aliases twice so far. The first was to replace yt-dlp with a newer version because the version that comes pre-installed in Linux Mint is too outdated to download videos from YouTube. The second was because I needed something called "Nuget". I don't remember exactly what Nuget is but I think it was a dependency for some application I tried several months ago.

alias yt-dlp='/home/j/yt-dlp/yt-dlp'
alias nuget="mono /usr/local/bin/nuget.exe"
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nuget is a the .NET package manager. Like npm or pip, but for .NET projects.

If you needed it for a published application that strikes me as fairly strange.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I looked through my bash history and it looks like I needed it to build an Xbox eeprom editor for Xemu. Xemu doesn't (or at least didn't, I haven't used newer versions yet) have a built in eeprom editor and editing the Xbox eeprom is required for enabling both wide screen and higher resolutions for the games that support them natively.

I just looked at Xemu's documentation, and it looks like they've added a link to an online eeprom editor, so the editor I used (which they do still link to) is no longer required.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Ah, if you need to build a .NET project that makes sense

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

For the newer version of program, that's why we have the $PATH. You put your program into one of the directories that is in your $PATH variable, then you can access your script or program from any of these like a regular program. Check the directories with echo "$PATH" | tr ':' '\n'

My custom scripts and programs directory is "~/.local/bin", but it has to be in the $PATH variable too. Every program and script i put there can be run like any other program. You don't even need an alias for this specific program in example.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

alias clip='xclip -selection clipboard'

When you pipe to this, for example ls | clip, it will stick the output of the command ran into the clipboard without needing to manually copy the output.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

Pretty sure this only works on x distros? wl-copy and wl-paste are for Wayland FYI.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I use a KDE variant of this that uses klipper instead (whatever you pipe to this will be available in klipper):

` #!/bin/sh

function copy {
    if ! tty -s && stdin=$(</dev/stdin) && [[ "$stdin" ]]; then
        stdin=$stdin$(cat)
        qdbus6 org.kde.klipper /klipper setClipboardContents "$stdin"
        exit
    fi

    qdbus6 org.kde.klipper /klipper getClipboardContents
}

copy $@`
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)
alias gl='git log'
alias server-name-here='ssh server-name-here'

I have a bunch of the server aliases. I use those and gl the most.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can also use ssh shorthands in ~/.ssh/config

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I do have the servers in ~/.ssh/config. I just got tired of typing ssh server and wanted the be able to just type server to ssh in.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

We almost have the same setup then, I use

ssh_hostnames=$(grep "^Host " ~/.ssh/config | awk '!/*/ {print $2}')
for host in $ssh_hostnames
do
 alias $host="ssh $host"
done

in my .bash_aliases to parse the ~/.ssh/config file and cut off the 'ssh ' part automatically for every Host I have in there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

That is a lovely setup. I'm gonna drop that into my bash_aliases so much more elegant than me adding the alias for each server.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Hahaha. Fucking autocorrect. Git log.

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