SuperLinux Encyclopedia - Tips

Other lists:

• Tips HOWTO HOWTO on miscellaneous tips and tricks for Linux.
• Michael Holve's Tips
• Linux Gazette  Has monthly "2-cent tips" section, plus articles with tips.
• Linux Gazette Jan'98 2-cent tips  Note: All other issues can probably be accessed by changing the numbers in the URL.
• LTT - Linux Tips & Tricks  Lots here.
• Portico  "the source for Linux tips"
• Tip of the Week

Misc tips:

• Disabling Internet Services:
  Comment the appropriate line in /etc/inetd.conf but do not comment a line in /etc/services as it is unneeded and disables outbound uses of the services too.
• Finding Home Directory:
  Use: eval HOMEDIR=~$(id -un)
• Paging output of color ls:
  Try something like "ls -al --color | less -r". With the embedded color switching codes, "less" may get confused about what should be displayed where on the screen, but it works better than "more".
• To convert a M$-DOS text file to a standard text file:
  Someone suggested:alias msdostounix='perl -i -pe '\''s/\r$//'\'
  The other way:alias unixtomsdos='perl -i -pe '\''s/$/\r/'\'
  Someone suggested:mimencode -p [ infile ] | mimencode -p -u [-o outfile] but it didn't work for me. (mimencode -p [ infile ] | mimencode -u [-o outfile] did work for converting host-style to M$-DOS style.)
• To get the current working directory (CWD) of a process, given its PID:
  In a Bourne-type shell: "cd /proc/[pid] & pwd"
  In a program: Use chdir and getpwd similarly.
  These only work for your own processes or if you have root privileges.
• To have a program determine the name of its executable file:
  A non-script can look at /proc/self/exe and get back the "[device]:inode" of the file, with device major:minor 03:02 inode 3456 giving "[0302]:3456". A script cannot do this with "ls"; it gets back the data for the "ls" file. A script can do this (though its slow): do "ls /proc/$$/exe" and get the inode from it. Then do "find / -inum 'inum'". Much faster (but IIRC, it may not always give a correct absolute path) is: "$0" or "which $0".
• To pop up a message or query window from a shell script:
  Use xmessage:
• To find an RPM:
  If you have trouble finding package foo, check out http://rufus.w3.org/linux/RPM/ or FTP over to the RedHat server and type: "site exec locate foo".
• To install and use a second disk:

  I'll assume both disks are typical non-SCSI disks and no other OSes.
  == Set jumper on first drive to be master.
  == Set jumper on second drive to be slave.
  == Run BIOS setup program to let it know about new disk.
  == Boot Linux.
  == run "cfdisk /dev/hdb" and create your Linux partitions.
  == run "man mkfs" and "mkfs -t ext2 {other options?}" to
     "format" the partition.
  == Create a directory [usually empty] at which to mount 
     your new partitions.
  == run "mount {options}" to mount your new partitions.
  == Try creating some files, running ls on them, etc.
  == Optionally, copy over dir trees from your other disk.
     If you're going to "move" som dir trees, you'll need
     to play games with directory renaming, etc. Figure it out.
  == Add something like this to your /etc/fstab file for each
     partition you want to auto-mount at bootup.
     /dev/hdb5    /var     ext2     defaults 0 2
  == Reboot Linux.
      

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