Discussion on:

10 command-line tools that refuse to die

ipconfig [ /all ] -- 2nd or 3rd place
telnet x.x.x.x [port] to check and open port
ipconfig /renew - place 5th - 6th
nslookup

Don't forget ipconfig /release for when it won't let go.. and I'm surprised the netstat, nslookup, and particularly the netsh commands didn't get a mention here.

I prefer Dig, although in the Windows world, nslookup is the only DNS lookup service available. Why Dig hasn't been ported to Windows I'll never know; it's much more useful.

Dig has been ported to windows, but since it isn't a stock app nslookup still gets used a lot.

Bill

qwinsta /server:

Lists sessions on a server.

rwinsta /server:

Resets that session knocking the user off of the server.

Most valuable

%windir%\system32\taskkill.exe /F /FI "status eq not responding"

I think these 2 command should be included [ ls ] it very common to use, also cd,

cmd

some comments are confusing commands with program or utility names

Try the following:

man man

Then try:
man woman

nsfw.

I tried finding "man bear pig" but it isn't working?
Really liking the comments - great stuff and cmdlet finds that should be an article all to itself.

and copy con

I use nslookup every day, even with tools like dig etc... nslookup is what I was brought up on

tail -n[some number] filename, e.g. 'tail -n300 catalina.out'

Invaluable when trying to work out what's happening when daemon is starting up. Or not.

Whether using DOS, Windows, or linux, whether from a command line or in a bat/cmd/sh file, the "for" command is like the conductor of the soloist, getting the soloist to perform a wide variety of variations on a theme.

On a Solaris system "killall" kills all running processes. Be warned!

cacls for setting file/share perms
w32tm for checking/setting time parameters
shutdown /r for rebooting yours or another system when windows is "uncooperative"
netdom for resetting windows communications secret passwords
nbtstat for checking cached info
dsadd,dsget,dsmod,dsquery for AD management tasks
dnscmd for updating dns
rpcping for tesing rpc connections
ntdcutil for managing fsmo roles, among other things

netstat

with all those parameters - big TICK. I haven't found a backup tool - an' I've tried a fair few in 30 years in IT - that comes anywhere near the simplicity and flexibility of xcopy.

Have you tried to use Robocopy? IMHO it puts xcopy to shame. Way more parameters, plus logging and the fact that is only copies changed files by default when running the same job more than once - like running a backup.

using ">" or ">>" so that you can save and review the output later
e.g dir >> c:\temp\listing.txt
ok that was a trivial example.
or piping into more
dir | more

Group policy updater in windows land.

Windows Ftp when you are at a (customer) PC and need to upload / download a file

It's occasionally happened to me that an application has managed to generate a file name which Windows can't handle, so that Windows Explorer won't delete the file either individually or as part of a group selection because ti can't "see" it. When that happens the best solution seems to be to move all the other files out of the affected directory and then go to the command prompt and do a del *.* on that directory.

Not to worry, your readers caught them.

How can anyone do without an ssh command line when managing remote boxes?

Also, whilst there are a load of GUI front-ends for git, they always stuff up and I end up back at the command line (although 'smartgit' isn't bad)

I would add the "grep" "tail" command as the most popular! "ls -l" and there are many more who we can't forget and even windows user still run cmd line or powershell as it become more popular for windows sys admins.

I'd add tail and less

shutdown -r/-s (-m computername)

sudo?
rm -rf?

Careful using in tandem though.

man? Who uses man? ;^)

Are you saying that you never need directions, or that you know it all already?


Cheers!

Ipconfig in general is number two behind ping. Troubleshooting 101, ping it, if it isn???t ping-able verify the issue isn???t you be for continuing.

I was surprised to not see grep on this list.

Nbtstat -A followed by IP address shows information of that machine

You don't need 'find' just because you lost a file. This command is most useful when you want to locate all common files (like *.jpg) and automatically run other useful commands (like chmod, grep, etc) on them. And don't forget being able to 'pipe' at the command line.

Far and away the most poweful command line tool, because it feed the text output of one command into the input of another.

Works on Windows or Unix.

Has to be in the lineup somewhere!

dir
cd c:\
dir > lpt1

I just downloaded grep and sed from GnuWin32. I hadn't used any Unix for years, never mind how many. But I needed some quick access to some ugly XML, and there it was!

I am reviewing their library for other handy commands.

Yes, I have also used the various network commands suggested.