Advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems.
The btrsfck command allows you to check the integrity of a btrfs file system. As file systems migrate to this newer file system format, this command is increasingly important.
The ldd displays the shared object files that a particular Linux command needs to run.
Fail2ban can detect attempts to connect to authenticated services such as ssh and put the offending connections in "jail". This article provides information on how to install, configure and test the tool on Fedora.
Here are some basic skills to get started with bash, one of the best shells for preparing and using scripts on Linux.
The ClamAV command can identify and relocate files on Linux that have been infected by viruses, but not remove the viruses themselves.
Piping commands together on the Linux command line lets you get a lot more done with little effort. This post demonstrates this with a couple very useful commands.
The Linux host command can retrieve a lot of useful information from the domain name service, but has a lot of options that you need to understand to get started.
In Linux, the fold command can wrap text that displays wider than a monitor's width.
The Linux seq command generates lists of numbers, but it has many subtleties to master.
The Linux expand and unexpand commands can turn tabs into spaces and spaces into tabs, and the sed and awk commands can help.
The Linux hash command provides information about commands on your system or those you've run recently, but what you see depends on the shell you are using.
The look command allows you to extract lines from files that begin with a certain string. It's easy to use when you want to find words stored in the system's words file but can be little finicky when you want to use it on other text files.
How the true and false commands work, and how to put them to use on the command line and in scripts.
The Linux csplit command provides a way to break files into pieces based on the content of the files.
The beginning of a new year is always a good time to review what has gone well and not so well and make decisions about how you want to improve your work and your life.
The timedatectl command allows you to examine date and time zone settings and, if you need, to make changes
The ncdu command provides detailed data on disk usage by running through the contents of the current directory and collecting file sizes.
The whois and jwhois command can retrieve extensive details on domain registrations including domain registrants, domain status, responsible organizations and their locations.
While the dmesg command can display the entire contents of the Linux kernel message buffer there are ways to have it choose just what you want to see.
It's easy to add a few lines of text to files on Linux, but there are tools that make it easier to add many lines.
The script command not only makes a record of what commands you run but also allows you to save the output generated so that you can examine it later or easily turn your command sequences into scripts.
The bpytop tool works a lot like other performance monitoring tools, but gives you tremendous control over what it shows you.
The chpasswd command allows Linux admins to change passwords one at a time or many at a time. Here's what you need to watch out for.
The cheat command, available for installation on many Linux systems, provides an easy way to make cheat sheets available for hundreds of commands.
There are a number of ways to search the contents of compressed files while leaving the files intact. This post examines how to view, browse and search through many types pf compressed files.
The xargs command can come in very handy, especially when combined with find. Understanding how it works and how to implement a loop can help make it work for you.
Windows users can now more easily explore Linux on their Windows 11 desktops.
Here's an introduction to Homebrew, an easy but unusual package manager that works with both Linux and macOS.
Fedora has been recognized as a "digital public good" by an international organization focused on promoting a more equitable world.
The ethtool utility provides information about your network-driver and interface-card settings, including speed, whether the interface uses auto-negotiation, and whether it runs in half- or full-duplex mode.
Swap space can play an important role in system performance. Learn how to determine how much swap space your system has available and how much it's being used.
The sleep and wait commands can provide useful ways to observe system and script activity.
The Linux set command offers a lot of interesting options for working with your scripts.
It's doubtful that even Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, imagined it would play such a major role in everything from supercomputers to tiny embedded devices.
If you don't love the shell you're using on your Linux system, change it! There are plenty, including bash, fish, ksh, tcsh, zsh.
The /etc/shadow contains a lot more information than usernames and password hashes. It includes, among other things, the hashing algorithm that is used.
The cut command offers many ways to extract portions of each line from a text file. It's similar to awk in some ways, but it has its own advantages and quirks.
The awk command provides a lot more than simply selecting fields from input strings, including pulling out columns of data, printing simple text evaluating content – even doing math.
Systemd and the systemctl command play vital roles in most of today's Linux systems. This post explains commands for peering into some aspects of how they work.
Here are easy ways to list upgrades available for installed packages on Fedora, Ubuntu and related Linux systems.
The dnf command can uncover a wealth of information about what file packages are installed on Fedora and related systems
If you've never looked into the availability of free fonts for Linux, you've got a big surprise coming. There are many thousands of uniquely appealing fonts, and adding them to your system is very easy.
When we run into a serious problem that threatens our ability to get our work done, it just might be time to rethink what "backing up" should involve.
It's not hard to look up configuration details on your Linux system. The hard thing is wrapping your brain around how many are available and what they can tell you.
Here are eight Linux commands for looking into binary files and viewing details about what executables are doing when they run.
The sar command can provide detailed system metrics on just about every aspect of system performance. You can query it on as as-needed basis or set it up to provide daily reports.
When a Linux user finds his system nearly out of disk space and unwilling to save files, fellow Linux users online provide a solution.
The where, whereis and whatis commands summarize commands, show where executables are, and point to relevant man pages.
Bash provides some handy techniques for troubleshooting bash scripts, and they're very easy to use.
You can examine the contents of compressed files on Linux systems without uncompressing the files or changing them in any way. This post explains the commands for doing that and the types of compressed files they work with.