Unix as a Second Language

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Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 25 years. She describes herself as "USL" (Unix as a second language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She currently works for TeleCommunication Systems -- a company that builds innovative technologies to make critical connections happen -- where no one else necessarily shares any of her opinions. This blog offers advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems. Send comments and suggestions to mailto:bugfarm@gmail.com.

by Sandra Henry-Stocker

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Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 25 years. She describes herself as "USL" (Unix as a second language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She currently works for TeleCommunication Systems -- a company that builds innovative technologies to make critical connections happen -- where no one else necessarily shares any of her opinions. Send comments and suggestions to bugfarm@gmail.com.

Sftp-Only User Accounts

Posted Apr 22, 2009 - 01:35 pm

Need to support users who only need to upload and/or download files to your server? Set them up with an sftp-only account.
Network access control, Network access control, restrict users
Peeping into PostgreSQL

Posted Apr 15, 2009 - 01:18 pm

Need to probe your PostgreSQL database for some stats? Here are a few useful queries and as easy way to commit them to memory.
IT Management, database query, PostgreSQL
Checking disk space

Posted Apr 08, 2009 - 12:32 pm

If your boss shows up at your desk asking if you are going to need to buy more or bigger disks for your servers, you need a quick estimate of how much disk space your servers have and how much of it is in use. Here's a quick script that will provide that information.
IT Management, df -k, disk usage
Unix tricks - Useful but unusual

Posted Apr 01, 2009 - 11:33 am

Here are a few Unix tricks you might not have seen before.
IT Management, display unprintable characters, omit blank lines
Finding process IDs with fuser

Posted Mar 25, 2009 - 12:38 pm

The fuser command comes in handy for a lot more tasks than figuring out why a file system can't be unmounted. Let's take a look at how much work it can save you for more routine tasks.
IT Management, busy file, fuser command
Book Review: Cisco Routers for the Desperate, 2nd Edition

Posted Mar 18, 2009 - 03:35 pm

If you're a Unix systems administrator who every now and then has to tend to Cisco routers and switches, here's a book that's going to relieve your stress level. Cisco Routers for the Desperate is just that -- nearly everything you need to know when you don't have time to read the tomes of Cisco documentation.
Network access control, book, Cisco routers
Spring forward file fixing

Posted Mar 11, 2009 - 10:26 am

One of the annoyances of the Unix date command is how easily one can end up with a date that's far in the past or into the future. Let's look at a simple way to find and fix files that, according to their timestamps, don't yet exist.
IT Management, find command, mtime
GPG Fundamentals

Posted Mar 04, 2009 - 04:12 pm

If you're ever tempted to send encrypted messages to a particular recipient but have never used PGP, you might be happy to learn that it's not all that hard to get started. Enter GnuPG and a handful of gpg commands!
IT Management, GnuPG, gpg
Creating images with a text editor

Posted Feb 25, 2009 - 03:03 pm

Ever find that you needed a simple graphic of a circle, oval, rectangle or other basic shape? Simple SVG files can be created with nothing more than a text editor.
Internet, Sandra Henry-Stocker, SVG file
Who's Using Samba?

Posted Feb 18, 2009 - 04:22 pm

There's a lot more to monitoring Samba than checking whether the daemons are running. The smbstatus command can tell you who's using it and show you what files they're updating.
IT Management, CIFS, Samba

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