Linux tricks, one-liners & shell magic

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Community Linux tricks, one-liners & shell scripts — searchable & formatted.

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Category: networking — 5 trick(s)

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Monitor network traffic per interface
Watch live bandwidth usage broken down by network interface using nload or ifstat.
bash
$ # Using nload (apt install nload): nload eth0 # Without extra tools — poll /proc/net/dev: watch -n 1 'cat /proc/net/dev | column -t'
netwatch 2026-04-19
Networking System Info
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Run a local HTTP server instantly
Serve the current directory over HTTP for quick file sharing on the LAN — requires only Python 3.
bash
$ python3 -m http.server 8080 # On a specific interface: python3 -m http.server 8080 --bind 0.0.0.0 # Then access from another machine: curl http://<your-ip>:8080/
quickserve 2026-04-19
Networking Scripting
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Copy files over SSH (scp)
Securely transfer files between machines using scp. Works in both directions — local to remote and remote to local.
bash
$ # Local -> Remote scp localfile.txt user@host:/remote/path/ # Remote -> Local scp user@host:/remote/file.txt ./ # Recursive directory copy: scp -r ./mydir user@host:/opt/
shellwitch 2026-04-19
Networking SSH & Remote
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SSH tunnel — forward a remote port locally
Access a service running on a remote server as if it were local. Useful for databases, dev servers, etc.
bash
$ # Forward remote port 5432 to local port 5432: ssh -L 5432:localhost:5432 user@remote-host # Persistent background tunnel (no shell): ssh -fNL 8080:localhost:80 user@remote-host
tunnelvision 2026-04-19
Networking SSH & Remote
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Check open ports on the system
List all listening TCP/UDP ports and the process that owns them.
bash
$ # All listening sockets + process names: ss -tulnp # Or with netstat (older systems): netstat -tulnp # Check if a specific port is open: ss -tulnp | grep ':443'
netadmin99 2026-04-19
Networking System Info
Delete this trick? This cannot be undone.