which cool programmes and/or bits of code do you use that others might find useful?

i was going to reply to the poll about compression software, but thought it would be better in the unix forum

here are some options for unpacking archives (i just copied and pasted what i was going to write in my original reply, it should mostly make sense) -

i always used tugzip with windows and sometimes winrar.

on linux i've added the unpacking commands separately to the right-click option in my filemanager - thunar. i added an extract alias for my terminal with this function -

Code:

iceni60 ~ $ type extract
extract is a function
extract () 
{ 
    if [ -f $1 ]; then
        case $1 in 
            *.tar.bz2)
                tar xjf $1
            ;;
            *.tar.gz)
                tar xzf $1
            ;;
            *.bz2)
                bunzip2 $1
            ;;
            *.rar)
                rar x $1
            ;;
            *.gz)
                gunzip $1
            ;;
            *.tar)
                tar xf $1
            ;;
            *.tbz2)
                tar xjf $1
            ;;
            *.tgz)
                tar xzf $1
            ;;
            *.zip)
                unzip $1
            ;;
            *.Z)
                uncompress $1
            ;;
            *.7z)
                7z x $1
            ;;
            *)
                echo "'$1' cannot be extracted via extract()"
            ;;
        esac;
    else
        echo "'$1' is not a valid file";
    fi
}

i got this one too

Code:

iceni60 ~ $ type unpack
unpack is aliased to `/home/iceni60/scripts/unpack2dir.sh'

that leads to this -

Code:

iceni60 ~ $ cat /home/iceni60/scripts/unpack2dir.sh
#! /bin/sh
# #############################################################################

       NAME_="unpack2dir"
       HTML_="uncompress unpack script"
    PURPOSE_="unpack zip, tar, tgz, tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar.z to a dir of the same name as archive prefix"
   SYNOPSIS_="$NAME_ [-vhlr] <file> [file...]"
   REQUIRES_="standard GNU commands"
    VERSION_="1.2"
       DATE_="1999-09-20; last update: 2006-02-03"
     AUTHOR_="Dawid Michalczyk <dm@eonworks.com>"
        URL_="www.comp.eonworks.com"
   CATEGORY_="compress"
   PLATFORM_="Linux"
      SHELL_="bash"
 DISTRIBUTE_="yes"

# #############################################################################
# This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License

# HISTORY:
# 2006-02-03 v1.2 - added the -C flag to tar options. Otherwise tar would not 
#            extract to a dir with different name then the one found in the 
#            archive.

usage () {

echo >&2 "$NAME_ $VERSION_ - $PURPOSE_
Usage: $SYNOPSIS_
Requires: $REQUIRES_
Options:
     -r, remove the compressed file after extraction
     -v, verbose
     -h, usage and options (help)
     -l, see this script"
    exit 1
}

# args check
[ $# -eq 0 ] && { echo >&2 missing argument, type $NAME_ -h for help; exit 1; }

# var init
rmf=
verbose=

# option and argument handling
while getopts vhlr options; do

    case $options in
        r) rmf=on ;;
        v) verbose=on ;;
        h) usage ;;
        l) more $0; exit 1 ;;
       \?) echo invalid argument, type $NAME_ -h for help; exit 1 ;;
    esac

done
shift $(( $OPTIND - 1 ))

mkdirf() {

    # usage: fnc <file_prefix> <file>

    [ -d $1 ] && { echo "${NAME_}: skipping ${2} - dir ${1} already exist" ; continue; }
    #echo $1
    mkdir $1
#    [[ $verbose ]] && echo "${NAME_}: unpacking "$2
}

file_getDirname() {

    local _dir="${1%${1##*/}}"
    [ "${_dir:=./}" != "/" ] && _dir="${_dir%?}"
    echo "$_dir"

}

file_getBasename() {

    local _name="${1##*/}"
    echo "${_name%$2}"

}

clean() {

    # usage <exit_status> <dir_to_rm>

    [[ $1 != 0 ]] && rmdir $2 # remove empty dir if unpacking went wrong
    [[ $1 == 0 && $verbose ]] && echo "${NAME_}: unpacking " ${dir}/${a}
    [[ $rmf ]] && rm -f -- $a

}

start_dir=$(pwd)

for a in "$@"; do

    cd $start_dir        
    fname=$(file_getBasename $a)
    dir=$(file_getDirname $a)
    cd $dir
    a=$fname

    case $a in


        # zip
        *.[zZ][iI][pP])
            mkdirf ${a/.[zZ][iI][pP]/} $a
            unzip -qq $a -d ${a/.[zZ][iI][pP]/}
            clean $? ${a/.[zZ][iI][pP]/}
            ;;

        # tar
        *.[tT][aA][rR])
            mkdirf ${a/.[tT][aA][rR]/} $a
            tar -xf $a -C ${a/.[tT][aA][rR]/}/
            clean $? ${a/.[tT][aA][rR]/}
            ;;

        # tgz
        *.[tT][gG][zZ])
            mkdirf ${a/.[tT][gG][zZ]/} $a
            tar -xzf $a -C ${a/.[tT][gG][zZ]/}
            clean $? ${a/.[tT][gG][zZ]/}
            ;;

        # tar.gz 
        *.[tT][aA][rR].[gG][zZ])
            mkdirf ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[gG][zZ]/} $a
            tar -xzf $a -C ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[gG][zZ]/}/
            clean $? ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[gG][zZ]/}
            ;;

        # tar.bz2
        *.[tT][aA][rR].[bB][zZ]2)
            mkdirf ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[bB][zZ]2/} $a
            tar -xjf $a -C ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[bB][zZ]2/}/
            clean $? ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[bB][zZ]2/}
            ;;

        # tar.z
        *.[tT][aA][rR].[zZ])
            mkdirf ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[zZ]/} $a
            tar -xZf $a -C ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[zZ]/}/
            clean $? ${a/.[tT][aA][rR].[zZ]/}
            ;;


        *) echo "${NAME_}: $a not a compressed file or lacks proper suffix" ;;

    esac

done

 

here are a couple of graphics programmes i use -

gcolor2 - GTK+2 Color Selector
this programme lets you click anyway on the screen with the eyedropper and it then tells you the exact colour of the pixel you clicked on!
http://gcolor2.sourceforge.net/

kolourpaint - a clone of the old windows paint programme. for quick graphic edits or picture resizing etc.
http://kolourpaint.sourceforge.net/

i took a couple of screenshots to show you exactly what they're about lol

 

i know you can use a terminal for this, but i like day planner for an alarm -
http://www.day-planner.org/

it's very similar to lsalarm
http://ltsword.allegronetwork.com/?page=7

i love this programme - Desktop Data Manager.
it's a clipboard manager for both clipboards. it is also a screenshot app, letting you select which areas you want to take a screenshot of and a download manager too, i think. i just use it for the clipboard manager though.
http://data-manager.sourceforge.net/



i disabled the automatic time update, so i added this alias i can run when i want!
alias update_time='sudo /usr/sbin/ntpdate pool.ntp.org'

 

I love the smxi scripts:- http://smxi.org/ for debian and debian based distros. Makes life that bit easier.