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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  • Unix How-To: DNS Logging

    Posted May 26, 2010 - 12:16 pm

    While it's generally preferable to let DNS servers to do their jobs quietly, you might sometimes want to turn on logging for troubleshooting or to view of kind of requests that are coming through the service routinely. To turn logging on, you just need to tweak the syntax in your configuration file and add some syntax that at first glimpse might seem fairly tricky.

  • Unix How-To: When Telnet isn't Telnet

    Posted May 19, 2010 - 01:48 pm

    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 that shouldn't be abandoned.

  • Unix How To: Planting a Tree, Unix-Style

    Posted May 12, 2010 - 09:56 am

    Most people learn the mkdir command on the first day they start using Unix. Along with ls, cd and pwd, it's in the set of the most basic commands that everyone who ventures onto the command line on a Unix system ought to know. It generally takes a while before they learn the more exotic uses of this simple command -- such a creating a branching tree structure with just one mkdir.

  • Book Review: "Hacking: The Next Generation"

    Posted May 05, 2010 - 11:29 am

    "Hacking: The Next Generation" is a book which quickly moves beyond the basics of why hacking works to modern tools and methods. Its three authors, each a recognized security expert in his own right, have joined together to write a book which is both jammed with practical insights and delightfully readable.

  • How To: Grep Tricks for Linux Users

    Posted Apr 28, 2010 - 11:39 am

    Here's a couple tricks you can play with grep, several that don't appear to have corresponding support in some of the other Unix versions.

  • Course Review -- The Art of Exploitation: Bootcamp Edition

    Posted Apr 21, 2010 - 06:06 am

    I just returned to work following a two-week hacking class. Called "The Art of Exploitation: Bootcamp Edition", this class has pushed me through to the "aha" (I really got it) stage of what hacking really is and how it works. Definitely in the "red team" (attack) camp, this high intensity, short time frame "bootcamp" class went from basics to realistic, seriously complicated hacking within its modest two week time frame.

  • Unix How-To: File Updates in Linux

    Posted Apr 14, 2010 - 06:42 am

    While the average Unix user is generally satisfied by the date/time stamps that he sees when using the ls -l command, it is sometimes useful to remember that there are actually several time stamps associated with every Unix file. These time stamps represent the last modification time (i.e., the time stamp you see when you use the ls -l command), the last status change time and the last time that the file was accessed. For Linux users, all three of these time stamps can generally be displayed with the stat command.

  • Unix How To: The Linux /etc/inittab file

    Posted Apr 07, 2010 - 07:55 am

    One of the files that the average Unix sysadmin rarely looks at, almost never changes and yet depends on every time he or she reboots a system is the /etc/inittab file. This modest little file controls what happens whenever a 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.

  • Alice in Colorland: RGB vs CMYK

    Posted Mar 31, 2010 - 11:26 am

    Scrunching my face at the differences between the image on my screen and the printout on the paper in my hand, the reason for the two systems commonly used for generating colors -- RGB and CMYK -- finally hit me like a chessire cat landing with a thud on the top of my head.

  • Unix How To: Aliases and Functions

    Posted Mar 24, 2010 - 03:43 pm

    With the right set of functions and aliases, Unix users can save themselves time and trouble and make their Unix accounts a lot nicer to use. In today's "how to", we're going to look at a simple function for setting up aliases and another that makes an alias-like change to a system command.
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