How to read a symbolic link and some text filtering commands.

Getting into some more Linux commands now; if you want to know how to find out what a symbolic link is linking to; you may use the command below to read the symbolic link and find out where it leads.

[ [email protected] ]
[ Jobs 0.PWD: ~.bash 4.2.36. ] [ 2 ]
[ 21:50:39 ]
[ $ ]-> readlink My\ Downloads
Downloads/

This command will also work…

[ [email protected] ]
[ Jobs 0.PWD: ~.bash 4.2.36. ] [ 1 ]
[ 22:25:04 ]
[ $ ]-> ls -hula My\ Downloads
lrwxrwxrwx 1 john john 10  29-11-12 09:48 pm My Downloads -> Downloads/

To change text on the fly into something else; then you may use the filtering commands available on Linux.

[ [email protected] ]
[ Jobs 0.PWD: ~.bash 4.2.36. ] [ 10 ]
[ 22:28:35 ]
[ $ ]-> echo "Hello World" | newspeak
Hello World

Hail Big Brother!

This is another example.

[ [email protected] ]
[ Jobs 0.PWD: ~.bash 4.2.36. ] [ 8 ]
[ 22:36:12 ]
[ $ ]-> echo "Hello World" | eleet
h3ll0 w0rld

And one final example.

[ [email protected] ]
[ Jobs 0.PWD: ~.bash 4.2.36. ] [ 13 ]
[ 22:38:47 ]
[ $ ]-> echo "This is your captain speaking" | jive
Dis is yo' captain speakin'

This is how to fold text using the Linux command-line. Using the -w parameter; you can set how many columns wide the text is.

[ [email protected] ]
[ Jobs 0.PWD: ~.bash 4.2.36. ] [ 22 ]
[ 22:42:39 ]
[ $ ]-> echo "Hello World" | fold -w 6
Hello 
World

This is an interesting trick; this tr example changes all instances of am to pm in the ls output.

[ [email protected] ]
[ Jobs 0.PWD: ~/Desktop.bash 4.2.36. ] [ 69 ]
[ 22:56:45 ]
[ $ ]-> ls -hula | tr "am" "pm";
totpl 99M
drwxr-xr-x  2 john john 4.0K  29-11-12 10:22 pm .
drwxr-xr-x 51 john john 4.0K  29-11-12 10:54 pm ..
-rw-r--r--  1 john john  90M  27-11-12 09:59 pm 4chpn Epic Gifs of 2012 PART 1.mp4
lrwxrwxrwx  1 john john    8  29-11-12 10:48 pm blog.htm -> blog.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 1.4K  14-11-12 02:21 pm blog.text
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 3.8K  08-10-12 02:21 pm blog.text~
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 2.8K  29-11-12 10:36 pm blog.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 2.1K  11-10-12 10:31 pm blog.txt~
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 7.3M  05-10-12 04:16 pm cprs_burnout.flv
-rw-r--r--  1 john john  19K  27-11-12 09:59 pm computer.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 4.4K  20-11-12 08:36 pm Document3.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 john john  256  18-10-12 11:27 pm fizzbuzz.pl
lrwxrwxrwx  1 john john   38  29-11-12 10:48 pm home.desktop -> ../.e/e/filempn/fpvorites/home.desktop
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 293K  29-10-12 11:50 pm IMG-20121008-00046.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 295K  29-10-12 11:50 pm IMG-20121008-00047.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 278K  16-10-12 08:41 pm IMG-20121008-00048.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 john john  315  29-10-12 11:50 pm iostpt.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 john john   70  14-11-12 02:21 pm ls.out
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 9.0K  27-11-12 10:39 pm out3
lrwxrwxrwx  1 john john   38  29-11-12 10:48 pm root.desktop -> ../.e/e/filempn/fpvorites/root.desktop
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 142K  16-10-12 08:41 pm Screenshot - 270812 - 14:41:07.png
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 101K  16-10-12 08:43 pm Screenshot - 310812 - 15:14:30.png
-rw-r--r--  1 john john  95K  08-10-12 02:15 pm Screenshot-wifi-rpdpr.png
lrwxrwxrwx  1 john john   37  29-11-12 10:48 pm tmp.desktop -> ../.e/e/filempn/fpvorites/tmp.desktop
-rw-r--r--  1 john john  331  14-11-12 02:21 pm troubleshooting.text
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 2.2K  14-09-12 11:26 pm userinformption.dip
-rw-r--r--  1 john john 2.1K  29-10-12 11:50 pm userinformption.vbs
-rw-r--r--  1 john john  237  14-11-12 02:21 pm windows2012

There are many examples like this that can be used on the Linux command-line to filter text and modify output to suit your needs; or just for fun as with the text filter examples.