Advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems.
Solaris 10 is the first version of Solaris to provide a complex set of variables for controlling password strength. The /etc/default/passwd file contains a series of parameters -- most commented out when a system is first installed -- that allow you ....
Sound advice against the use of bad passwords has been around for decades. Yet I still find people electing to use passwords like pa55w0rd and login123 as if they'd never heard about password cracking programs. Even technical professionals -- pr....
If you are still learning Unix or have any involvement in helping others master the command line, here's the book you have been waiting for. The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction (no starch press, 2012) will take you from 0 to 100 in 3....
Access governance is more than just the coolest concept since virtualization and cloud computing. It's likely to change the way you manage accounts on your servers. Designed to add clarity and control to questions like "Who has access to th....
How many special shell $ arguments do you use in your daily work? There may be a lot more of them than you think. Let's look over a bunch of them and examine how they can streamline your scripts.
If you haven't made the mistake of accidentally removed important files, you probably haven't worked with Unix very long. Here are some creative ways of keeping you from making that mistake.
Sandra Henry-Stocker's long-standing and largely happy relationship with Unix has been an interesting and rewarding trek. If she hasn't helped you to love Unix, let her try just once more.
The security dudes have been badmouthing telnet for a couple of decades now, reminding us that this old time tool for connecting to remote systems exposes our passwords to the snooping masses. But the telnet command itself still has some handy uses t....
The grep command can search for and list Linux files based on strings you are looking for and add the context of surrounding text.
The /etc/inittab file controls what happens whenever a Unix system is rebooted or forced to change run levels. Let's take a look at the configuration lines that tell your system what it's supposed to do when you hit that power button.