Open Sourcery

Mine /proc for system information

The /proc virtual filesystem is one of the most interesting virtual filesystems available on Linux. Here you can see more information about your running system than you would know what to do with, including system information, memory information, CPU information, and much more.

Synchronise computers with Unison

For individuals with more than one computer, trying to keep files in sync between them can be an exercise in frustration. Typically, tools such as rsync are used to synchronise files from one system to another, but the problem is that it's a one-way sync.

Power Linux with pipes and redirection

Despite pretty GUIs and eye candy being the order of the day, there is a definite advantage to being familiar and comfortable with the Linux command-line.

Restrict users' access on Linux systems

When we talk about forcing a user to log off, what we're really talking about is implementing time restrictions on the account for system access or services. The easiest way I've found to implement time restrictions is using a plug-in module called Linux-PAM.

Configure GNU Screen to handle multiple terminals

GNU Screen is a fantastic terminal "window manager" in that it lets you handle multiple terminals from within one -- not only that, but what you run under Screen can be shared with other users or used remotely if you start a Screen session and then ssh into your box and resume the session.

Using FileZilla on Linux

Recently, the open source FileZilla FTP client became available for Mac OS X and Linux. Previous versions of FileZilla were only available for Windows.

Getting things done with mutt

David Allen created the GTD (Getting Things Done) work-life management system and it has really become a way of life for many people. Vincent Danen shows you how to how to implement this system using the email client mutt.

Locate files with the find tool

The find tool is another Linux gem that allows you to search for files based on a number of criteria including name, file size, modification date, etc. Using find will help you locate files that would otherwise take time to locate manually.

Learn to search with grep

The grep tool is a great text-searching tool. Using grep, you can search anything that is text, be it text in a file or text in a command's output. Grep can search for simple strings or regular expressions, and it can present its output in a variety of useful ways.

Configure wireless support in Mandriva Linux with ndiswrapper

If there is one area in Linux that still persists in falling under the category of "black magic," it's wireless networking. We show you how to use the ndiswrapper tool to configure your wireless networking.

Extract text with awk

Like sed, awk can be used to transform text. Awk is both a general purpose text transformation tool and a programming language in its own right. Awk is especially useful in scripts and on the command-line.

Manipulate text with sed

Sed is a very handy and very powerful little text manipulator. Sed is short for "stream editor" and what it does is manipulate and filter text. We'll show you some of it's uses.

Set up user accounts quickly and securely

When you need to set up a user account to give a user shell access to the system, the only logical choice of login tool is OpenSSH. With SSH keys, all you need from the user is his SSH public key, and all he needs from you is the IP address or hostname with which to log in. Usually, this is sufficient.

Get the most from the du and df commands

While Linux has a number of very nice GUIs, using the command-line interface can be faster and produce more information than GUI tools can, especially when it comes to reporting and viewing disk usage.

Get more out of the ls command

The ls command is a well-known and often used command-line program that is used to list directory contents by name; in fact, it could be argued that it is the most used Linux command-line program.

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Delivered Mondays

It's more than just Linux now, open source software permeates almost all computing in some way. Every Monday we spread our net wide to cover topics from Firefox to BSD without forgetting to have a healthy dose of Linux.

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