Advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems.
There are lots of ways to compare files on Unix systems and some of the choices are going to be just right for you
It's not quite as hard as it sometimes seems
Some tips for how to get started and how to stay on track for learning how to be a command line pro.
Some of the less obvious Linux commands might still come in very handy from time to time
The relatively new bash on Ubuntu on Windows brings some new possibilities to Windows users
There are even more ways to kill a process on a Unix/Linux system than there are ways to skin a cat.
Easy ways to pull together important and interesting stats on your running processes -- using the pgrep command
The everlastingly useful grep command can change its character with the flip of a switch to help you find things.
Unix commands can help you get a feel for how your users are working and what's usual or unusual about their command line activities
Some useful tips and tricks to get 2017 off to a good start
Removing, moving, and renaming files with troublesome names and files extracted to the wrong location
Some handy tricks for using vi more effectively amd efficiently
How the umask setting works
Colored file listings can make your work easier or drive you mad. Here's how to take control.
Some things to do today before the ghostly spirits go back into hiding
Clever use of history commands to help you move faster on the Unix command line.
Managing password resets without making headlines
The lsof command has so many options that you may not be making good use of it. Let's look at ways that you can make it work better for you.
There's more to the lsof command than you might imagine. Check out all the ways that it can be used to help you with your troubleshooting.
Just about all you need to know about arguments in scripts and on the command line
Put all the commands you need for extracting from archives in a script and you'll never find yourself scrambling for the right syntax
Easy ways to keep petty differences from spoiling your day
Some ideas on how to celebrate
Useful things that you can do on the command line with xargs
Brace expansion is one of the features of bash that is either never used or is one of its users favorite commands. The difference likely lies in unraveling the syntax just enough to understand how it works.
Unix aliases are generally extremely helpful, but watch out -- they can be used for mischievous ends.
You can't change history, but you can change the way it's displayed
Have you ever wanted to display messages on your screen so that you could read them standing on your head? Of course not, but you can!
Converting numbers to different numeric bases is easy on the Unix command line. Just learn a little syntax or stash your conversion commands in a script.
There's a Linux command that can help repair mistakes in the commands you type. Just don't say its name where your boss or customers can hear you.
You can do a lot more with your command line font colors than turn them on and off. How about picking your own colors? How about customizing your prompt so that it balks when you make a mistake?
If you haven't examined all the lines in the ifconfig output, you might find that there's more data there than you expected.
When a script is passed a file name as an argument, how can you tell if it's relative or absolute?
The top command's many options allow you to be creative when you're looking into system performance
Logger makes it easy to add custom messages to your system log files.
One simple command on a Linux system lets you calculate pi to as many digits as you have the patience to wait for
With the right group of options, you can get rsync to do just what you want and nothing more
Rsync is a lot more versatile than you might imagine and is a super tool for synchronizing your systems
Nine commands that do some very unusual things on Linux systems. Some could actually prove useful.
The dstat command can provide the data that you need when troubleshooting system problems or evaluating performance -- succinctly, easily, and to your specifications.
A huge collection of details about your Unix systems lies right under your fingertips. All you have to do is cd over to /proc.
Gain insights into the processes running on your Unix servers with familiar and unusual commands.
The dmidecode command can tell you a lot more about your Linux server's hardware than you'd ever want to know
The inside scoop on the infamous "bit bucket". Maybe even something you don't already know.
How can you create email on the command line -- or even better within scripts -- to tell you what's happening on the servers you manage?
History and command line editing can be tricky, but 2016 is the year of the monkey. Maybe it's time to monkey around.
Using cowsay and math commands to count down to those special days
Using the shopt built-in, you can change the nature of bash
If everything is a file, what's an inode?
We might just run out of time!
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