Learn how to use a host of Linux commands in these 2-minute video tutorials from Sandra Henry-Stocker, author of the Unix as a Second Language blog.
In this Linux tip, we look at the stat command. Like the ls command, stat displays important details about a file – like permissions and ownership, but in a much different and surprisingly useful way.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at what happens on many Linux systems when someone mistypes “ls” – typing “sl” instead. What you can anticipating seeing (provided the sl command has been installed with one of the commands shown below is a rather entertaining image – a steam locomotive that drives across your screen.
In this Linux tip, we're going to take a look at the shuf command.
In this Linux tip, we’ll take a look at the chmod command for changing permissions on a Linux file.
In this Linux tip, we’ll take a look at the apropos command and how it can help you identify commands that you want to use. The meaning of the word apropos is “fitting and to the point”. When you use this command on the Linux command line, you can expect it to generate a list of commands that fit what you’re asking about.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to examine the shred command – a command that allows you to overwrite the content of a file with randomized data so that it is no longer readable and basically impossible to recover.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at directories on Linux – basically folders that are set up to house related files. Whenever you use a command like “ls dirname” for a directory, you will see a list of the files it contains.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to examine some commands for generating reports on who is logging into a Linux server. The data for login activity is stored in the /var/log/wtmp file.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at the cal (calendar) command. This command allows you to display a calendar for a month or even for a year. Using a command like this, you display a calendar for the current month with the today highlighted.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to take a quick look at the /etc/shadow file on Linux systems. It contains a lot of useful information pertaining to user accounts – and is a file that can only be viewed or changed with root or sudo access.
In this Linux tip, we’ll look at how you can “source” files on the Linux command line. “Sourcing” means reading the file and running the commands that it contains – even if the file isn’t set up with execute permissions. There are two ways to do this. One involves using the source command as in the command “source myfile”. The second way is to replace the word “source” with a dot as in “. myfile”. The results will be the same.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at timestamps used on Linux systems. There are actually three of them and they represent the date and time that the file was last accessed, the time it was last modified and the time it was last changed. Modified and changed may suggest the same thing but “modified” implies content changes and “changed” will capture other changes – like permissions.
In this Linux tip, we take a look at the who command – a command that tells you who is logged into the system. If you’re working on a Linux server, you might see that a number of people are logged in. The who command also tells you where the users are logged in from.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to take a look at epoch time – the way Unix and Linux systems store dates and times. Unix and Linux systems don’t store dates and times in a way that includes months, days and years in the way that you see them displayed on the system. Instead, they are stored as the number of seconds since the beginning of 1970. While this method of recording dates and times may seem odd, it requires little storage space and is consistently interpreted.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at the –help option that is available with most Linux commands. Type a command name followed by the argument --help and you will get some information on the command and its options.
This Linux tip explains how to locate files based on several different criteria.
In this Linux tip, we take a look at long file listings – using the ls -l command to examine the provided details.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at the easiest way to empty a file of its contents while not deleting the file. All you have to do is point a greater-than sign at a file and its contents are removed.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at if-then-else and if-then-elsif commands. Both are frequently used in bash scripts to make running a series of commands much easier.
In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at case statements – commands that are used in bash scripting to run shell commands depending on the value of some variable or command output.
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