Peteris Krumins has done a great job on “Top Ten One-Liners from CommandLineFu Explained”. Here’s my short summary for quick reference:

#1. Run the last command as root

#2. Serve the current directory at http://localhost:8000/

#3. Save a file you edited in vim without the needed permissions

#4. Change to the previous working directory

#5. Run the previous shell command but replace string “foo” with “bar”

#6. Quickly backup or copy a file

#7. mtr – traceroute and ping combined

#8. Find the last command that begins with “whatever,” but avoid running it

#9. Copy your public-key to remote-machine for public-key authentication

#10. Capture video of a linux desktop

That’s it.