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Bash Tip and Tricks

24 September 2021

Check if file or directory exists, multiple ways: https://linuxize.com/post/bash-check-if-file-exists/

Tar: compress a directory

tar -czvf name-of-archive.tar.gz /path/to/directory-or-file

Nano settings

Nano is an easy editor for the terminal. Useful options for ~/.nanorc:

set linenumbers
set softwrap
set tabsize 4

Run a process in the background

Add & at the end to detach a process started in the terminal, for example npm run evaluation &, or nohup bash script.bash & so it keeps running after the terminal closes. jobs lists the running jobs for that user; from another shell use htop or ps -ef | grep bash.

References: run a Node.js server in the background, Node.js app as a background service, npm run start in the background.

Recently installed packages on Ubuntu

grep " install " /var/log/dpkg.log

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