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##  Code Snippets - Reuseable pieces of Scripting code
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# display date as YYYmmdd  and remove trailing new line - good for filenaming
date +%Y%m%d | tr -d '\n|\r'
or
datestring=$(date +"%Y%m%d")

# shell script way of creating a tmp file with pid
# and being sure the tmp file is erased even if the script does not 
# properly complete
TMP=/tmp/tmp_out.$$
trap "/bin/rm -f $TMP; exit" 0

Perl:
# for hidding a password typed as command line argument
use Term::ReadKey;
    print "Hidden password: ";
    ReadMode('noecho'); # don't echo
    chomp (my $pwd = <STDIN>);
    ReadMode(0);        # back to normal