MSC is my collection of missing shell commands - stuff where I feel comfortable when it's at my fingertips on a Unix commandline, and where I feel very naked when I don't have it! Have you ever been asked by a customer to take care of a Unix system, and then you log in, and.. aarrgh - the commandline just won't behave how it should? Well, enter msc: a set of "missing commands" that are very easily installed on new systems and very handy to have.

As with most stuff on my site: feel free to use MSC. It's distributed without cost, and without warranty - use at your own risk. Licensing GPLV3 applies: if you re-distribute it, you must do so in source format, and with the license intact. Finally - if you have good additions, you're of course free to put them in, but I'd appreciate a holler!

How to get it

Get the Perl script msc and save it to a temporary directory (e.g. /tmp or your "sources" directory);
Change-dir over there;
Have a look at the script if you like, there's no magic. To install, type ./msc install.

To get all aliases and all goodies, add the following to your /etc/bashrc (sometimes this file is /etc/bash.bashrc or /etc/bash.profile, your mileage may vary):

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
eval `up_aliases`
eval `xoff_xon_aliases`
eval `path`
eval `ps1`
eval `ep_alias`
gd_function > /tmp/$$; . /tmp/$$; rm /tmp/$$
xd_function > /tmp/$$; . /tmp/$$; rm /tmp/$$

Reload Bash's profile (or relog).

What does it do

Here's a quick description of what's in the MSC package. The following list shows the commands that you normally type (and not the setup-commands like shown in the listing above).

msc Shows what commands are in the package (just gives a quick list).
l and d Quicks for "ls" and "ls -Fla".
lx ext and dx ext: Quicks for "ls by extension", e.g. lx c does "ls *.c".
rx ext Removes by extension, as in rx o a ("rm *.o *.a")
- and --: cd one-up or two-up.
xd ulb: This is a nifty one. Fast directory-changer, by initials. E.g., xd ulb will take you to /usr/local/bin, xd ulsct will take you to /usr/local/src/crossroaads/trunk (if those destinations exist, of course). When more than one possibility is available, you get a choice where you want to go.
tarc archive directory, tart archive, tarx archive: Tar helpers to create (tarc), list (tart), extract (tarx). Knows .tar, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 archives.
x or x user, or x user@host: Starts an xterm. When the user is given (or user@host) then an SSH connection is made to the given credentials.
xoff or xon: Turns of X by temporary deleting the DISPLAY variable, or by re-enabling it.
ep: Lets you edit your Bash profile and afterwords reloads it. For example, you can enter ep, add an alias to your profile, exit the editor - and pronto, it's loaded. User's profiles are expected as "~/.bashrc", root's profile is expected as "/etc/bashrc" or "/etc/bash.bashrc".
cpf file(s) directory is a "copy-forward", files are only copied when they don't yet exist in the destination directory, or when they are more recent. New files aren't overwritten by old ones. I use this on Unixes where the "cp" command doesn't support the flag "-n" (yes, these are still around!)
ftail file(s): Like tail -f, for Unixes that don't have GNU tail.
ip shows the configured IP addresses (from ifconfig).
less file, perldoc subject, man subject: Like the normal less or perldoc or man, but when X is available, the command runs in a separate xterm window.
m: Like make, but you get normal and error output piped into less. Another quickie command.
psg command (as in "ps|grep"): Examines the ps list and shows the matching command(s).
b64dec and b64enc: Encodes or decodes all command line strings. If no arguments are given, processes "stdin" (as in: b64enc 'Hello World' | b64dec)
hex file(s) hexdumps the contents of the file(s). Use file "-" to dump stdin.
while1 and while5 run commands each 1 or 5 seconds. They are just shortcuts to while [ true ] ; do commands; sleep 5; done.
beep just beeps 5 times. I use it to get an alert after a long-running command ends, as in: long-running-command; beep
env is a fusion between the two functions of /usr/bin/env: to show the environment, or to invoke a program. E.g., env home shows the HOME directory, while env perl invokes Perl.
ds is a case-insensitive find that avoids .svn, CVS etc.. Use as e.g. ds file, which will match myfile.o, MyOtherFile.c and so on.
loglimit is for those situations where you don't have e.g. Apache's logrotate and you need to limit the growth of log files. Use as for example: mycommand | loglimit /tmp/mylog 10000 5. This will limit the size of /tmp/mylog to 10.000 bytes, and it will leave up to 5 historical versions (/tmp/mylog.1 up to /tmp/mylog.5).

Full "usage" information

Here's what msc reports when you run it without any arguments:


These are the Missing Shell Commands V1.09
Copyright (c) Karel Kubat <karel@kubat.nl>. Visit http://www.kubat.nl/ for
more information.

Available commands:

  l, d      short, long directory listing
  lt, dt    short, long listing by date
  lx, dx    short, long directory listing by extension, e.g. dx c (lists *.c)
  rx	    remove files by extension, e.g. rx o a (removes *.o *.a)
  up1, up2  cd 1 or 2 up, use as: eval `up1` and: eval `up2`
            to set up the aliases - and --, run:
      	      eval `up_aliases`
  gd        goto-directory, use as: eval `gd /new/directo/ry`
      	    to set this up as a bash function, run:
      	      gd_function > /tmp/$$; . /tmp/$$; rm /tmp/$$
  xd        fast cd, use as: eval `xd ulb` (ulb is short for
            /usr/local/bin or whatever matches)
            to set this up as a plain xd bash command, run:
              xd_function > /tmp/$$; . /tmp/$$; rm /tmp/$$
	      
  tarc	    create tar archive, supported: .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2
  tart	    list tar archive
  tarx 	    extract tar archive

  path      set shell path, use as: eval `path d1 d2 d3`, sets standard dirs
            and adds to the path d1,d1/bin,d1/sbin and so on
  ps1       set bash prompt, use as: eval `ps1`

  x         start xterm, use as: x user@host, default: thisuser, @localhost
  xoff      turn off X ($DISPLAY), use as: eval `xoff`
  xon       turn on X  ($DISPLAY), use as: eval `xon`
  	    to set up xon and xoff as aliases, run
	      eval `xoff_xon_aliases`

  e, ew     start editor (async or wait mode)
  ep        edit and reload bash profile, use as: eval `ep`
  	    to set up ep as a bash command, run
	      eval `ep_alias`
  cpf       copy-forward, if you don't have cp -n
  ftail     like tail -f, if you don't have it
  ip        shows IP addresses
  ruler     displays a 80-column ruler
  less      less-pager in a new window
  man       man display in a new window
  m         make, with stdout/stderr to less
  perldoc   Perl documentation in a new window
  psg       like 'ps ax' but looks for certain commands
  while1    run commands every 1 second (or 5 sec with while5), use as
              while1 cmd1 cmd2 cmd3
  env       shows (parts of) environment, or invokes a command, eg. "env home"
            shows the home directory, "env perl" invokes perl
  beep      sound the alarm
  hex       hexdumps a file (use - for stdin)
  ds        case-insensitive find, avoids .svn, CVS etc.
  loglimit  pipe that writes limited logs, use as:
              cmd | loglimit FILE SIZE HISTORYFILES

  b64enc    encode into base64 format (either cmdline arguments or stdin)
  b64dec    decode from base64 format (either cmdline arguments or stdin)