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Alec Burchfield
Member since: August 2011
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Iptables, more properly referred to as "iptables/netfilter" because of the two modules that are involved -- the userspace module "iptables" and the kernel module "netfilter" -- is the firewall that you'll find running by default on most Linux systems today.
25 weeks 5 days ago
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Setting limits on your Linux systems can both protect against certain types of failure and ensure that critical processes keep running when systems are heavily used. Take a look at the ulimit command and see what kind of shackles are limiting you – or maybe setting you free.
26 weeks 5 days ago
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The most typical use of Samba is to make Unix home directories or shared files available on Windows. Being most comfortable on the command line, I generally do this by opening a Command Prompt and entering NET USE commands.
27 weeks 4 days ago
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With the clocks turned back and the Big Vote about to happen, I'm up for a bit of nostalgia. And nothing pleases me more than doting on some of my favorite Unix commands, aliases and "tricks".
28 weeks 4 days ago
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I call this blog "Unix as a Second Language" for a reason. I spoke English long before I became a Unix geek and a well crafted sentence can still bring a thrill to my geeky little heart. The problem is that I find myself increasingly surrounded by people who just don't get some of the basic principles of the language.
29 weeks 4 days ago
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LVM (currently released as LVM2), the "logical volume manager", is a flexible storage manager for the Linux kernel. It allows you to add, remove and resize partitions to suit your needs.
30 weeks 4 days ago
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Just about anyone who works on the command line of a Unix/Linux systems knows about history. Having the ability to repeat their most recent command by just typing !! or the most recent command that starts with a particular letter by typing something like !s saves them a lot of typing and a lot of typos.
31 weeks 4 days ago
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If you've been thinking that you could really use an Intranet site for your small business, but you're worried about the costs associated with building and maintaining one yourself, you might want to take a look at Bitrix24.
32 weeks 5 days ago
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In the olden days of Unix, each file had an owner, a group, and a notion of "everybody else". These entities could be granted read, write and/or execute permission -- and that was as far as it went.
33 weeks 4 days ago
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More than a few Linux distributions have pulled up their stakes in the decades old System V method of booting and quietly moved to a better way of booting. Better, faster, easier to maintain, and less prone to problems.
34 weeks 4 days ago
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Anyone too comfortable with the idea of run states on Unix systems might not be ready to hear this, but the process of going from a cold piece of hardware to multi-user mode has taken a couple very sharp turns in the last six years or so.
35 weeks 4 days ago
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Linux has gone a long way to popularize the use of sudo.
36 weeks 4 days ago
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Q: Why don´t you see penguins in Britain? A: Because they´re afraid of Wales But, if you did, they'd probably be reading this fun new book -- Ubuntu Made Easy: A Project-Based Introduction to Linux, no starch press, 2012 is the most easy-to-read, properly pitched and fun Linux book that I've ever read.
37 weeks 4 days ago
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Over the years, the primary way that I've used sed is to change text on the fly. There are many occassions in which I want to change one string to another the first or every time that it appears in a file or command output. $ sed 's/2011/2012/' new $ sed s/tomorrow/today/ msg2 $ sed 's/,/:/g' < file
38 weeks 5 days ago
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Yes, most of that hour is download time. I get it started and then find something else to do -- like hiking around the back 40. :-)
The best way to learn Linux is to use it. A good introductory book will help, but you won't really learn Linux or become confident in your skills unless you park yourself in front of a Linux system and start typing (and popping windows open, creating files, find your way around the desktop ...).39 weeks 2 days ago
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They can get to root by typing "sudo su" in a terminal window. I would not use automatic login for any system with important stuff -- unless it's physically secured. However, anyone who steals your laptop can boot from Live media and own the system anyway. Whole disk encryption is the only guard against that.
Some Unix/Linux systems require that a username and password be entered for login. Some can be set up to log you in automatically. For Lubuntu -- a lightweight version of the popular Ubuntu distribution, you can move between these two login options with a mere flick of your wrist and a wee bit of editing.39 weeks 2 days ago
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Most admins monitoring system performace with sar (sysstat) collect performance data over the span of a week or two, but you can easily extend this to four weeks. In fact, you can extend the coverage period to well beyond a month if you need to maintain a longer view of performance and if you have enough disk space to hold all the data.
39 weeks 4 days ago
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40 weeks 1 day ago
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Some Unix/Linux systems require that a username and password be entered for login. Some can be set up to log you in automatically. For Lubuntu -- a lightweight version of the popular Ubuntu distribution, you can move between these two login options with a mere flick of your wrist and a wee bit of editing.
40 weeks 5 days ago
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Maybe so! I'll have to do that comparison.
The best way to learn Linux is to use it. A good introductory book will help, but you won't really learn Linux or become confident in your skills unless you park yourself in front of a Linux system and start typing (and popping windows open, creating files, find your way around the desktop ...).41 weeks 4 days ago
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The best way to learn Linux is to use it. A good introductory book will help, but you won't really learn Linux or become confident in your skills unless you park yourself in front of a Linux system and start typing (and popping windows open, creating files, find your way around the desktop ...).
41 weeks 6 days ago
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sar on Linux If the sysstat package isn't installed on your Linux system (which it generally isn't by default), you can easily grab a copy with your favorite Linux installer -- typically one of the following commands will do the job: yum install sysstat apt-get install sysstat
42 weeks 5 days ago
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Open source doesn't have to mean free of cost, but thanks to the generosity of open source developers many thousands of great applications are free. Why spend money when you don't have to? Though if you like and depend on an app, nothing says thanks like clicking the "Donate" button.
43 weeks 2 days ago
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Monitoring system performance with sar is as easy as enabling the sar tasks. While sar is bundled into many versions of Unix, it's often disabled until you take steps to get it running. To find out whether sar is running on your Unix server, just type sar and see what happens.
43 weeks 5 days ago
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A key element in the ISO 27001 certification process is to identify and assess risks. While this idea may seem obvious, you may be surprised at how much you can learn about your systems, processes and security threats by pushing them through this very systematic process.
44 weeks 5 days ago
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