Unix mavens: is there a way for ls on a Mac OS X install to alphabetize its listing case-insensitively, while still preserving any other ls flags you may be using? If not, does another ls variant offered by anybody offer case-insensitivity, and if so, how can I supplant one with the other, without risk of any harm to anything else on my system? (If it matters, my shell of choice is tcsh.)
posted by WCityMike on Aug 16, 2009 - 17 answers

I have a podcast that downloads as multiple segments over multiple days. Its format arrives as YYYYMMDD_showcode_segment.mp3; so, for example, one download might result in files as 20090323_goofa_01.mp3 through 20090323_goofa_21.mp3, and also within the same download 20090324_goofa_01.mp3 through 20090324_goofa_21.mp3. What I'm looking for is a Unix script (shell, perl, what have you) that would look at a directory and look at what dates are represented there, and let me join all of the segments together by day. I can use mpgtx -j to do the actual joining; I'm looking for the code that would let the script determine what dates are in the directory and then get each day's segments united into a single MP3 for that day's show.
posted by WCityMike on Mar 25, 2009 - 5 answers

Is there a way that I can access some very old PDF files that are encrypted with a password I cannot remember any longer? I have a system running Mac OS X (Leopard), and I do need to do the decryption myself. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on May 16, 2008 - 12 answers

I would basically like to rip off, wholesale, some command-line script which will provide me a countdown -- only in days. No years, months, minutes, or seconds. Unfortunately, adapting an existing script is beyond my ken. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Sep 27, 2007 - 5 answers

I have Mac OS X, with its Unix underpinnings. I have a number of text files through which I did a search-and-replace. Unfortunately, that altered all of the timestamps on the files. I'm trying to restore things via the "Date Created" info. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Aug 6, 2007 - 12 answers

In need of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Enabling/Getting the 'Mail' Unix Command to E-Mail You Stuff, for Complete and Utter Dummies." [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Sep 20, 2006 - 3 answers