The linux quiz has changed! We have replaced linux questions with answers! And from those answers you'll find further links to even more information - forums where you can ask questions, training courses, longer articles, and more. [link to quiz index] ... If you really want the old quiz questions, you can find them here, here, here and here ... and with onward links to the possible answers to each question too.

Ruby, Perl, Linux, MySQL - some training notes

We have just come to the end of a solid 12 days of training ... and we are just getting ready for the next week, with delegates arriving this evening. There's a lot going on behind the scenes, even ...

daemons - what is running on my Linux server?

Processes which (re)start when you start your computer and run until you halt it are known as services in the Microsoft world and daemons in the Linux and Unix world. As well as providing support ...

sstrwxrwxrwx - Unix and Linux file permissions

Have you ever wondered about those letters that turn up on the left of a long listing (ls -l) report? Here's an example: ...

Some Linux and Unix tips

How to make a woman equal to a man [trainee@easterton ~]$ man ls [trainee@easterton ~]$ woman ls -bash: woman: command not found [trainee@easterton ~]$ alias woman=man [trainee@easterton ~]$ woman ls ...

What is my real and my effective ID? [Linux]

When you're logged in to a Linux or Unix system, you should normally be running through a user account - and not as the system administrator (root). The root account should be reserved for systems ...

FTP server on Fedora Linux

Using vsftpd ... Turning on manually / for current boot 1. Log is as root 2. cd /etc/init.d 3. ./vsftpd start [trainee@melksham ~]$ su - Password: [root@melksham ~]# cd /etc/init.d [root@melksham ...

Slow boot and terminal start on Linux boxes

Now this was a mystery. I had two Linux boxes which booted perfectly when used inhouse, but very slowly indeed (10 minutes plus) when in use on a customer site. Very awkward really - we would test ...

Looking for files with certain characteristics (Linux / Unix)

I was about to use chown to change the ownership of an entire subdirectory tree that had been passed from one user to another. But - hang on - were there any files there that belonged to someone ...

The tourists guide to Linux

When visitors come to this country for a touring holiday, they'll land at Gatwick and take in London, Stonehenge, Bath, Stratord-upon-Avon, York (pehaps) and Edinburgh. That will give them a flavour ...

Linux and Java Course in London

There are certain locations which used to fill me with horror as to how I was going to work out the logistics of getting my equipment in and out for a course. And today's was one of those for which I ...

Setting up a new user - Linux or Unix

Creating a local user account on a Linux box: 1. Add an entry to /etc/passwd 2. Add an entry to /etc/shadow 3. Add an entry to /etc/group IF the user is in a new group 4. Use the passwd command to ...

Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, Linux, MySQL, Ruby courses ...

What's this list got in common (apart from all being countries?) BelgiumEnglandFinlandFranceGermanyGuernseyIrelandNetherlandsNorwaySaudi ArabiaScotlandSloveniaSwedenUSAWales They're all countries ...

Linux / Unix - layout of operating system files

At the top level .. Typically "read only" bin - binaries - executable programs sbin - system admin binaries - programs for the system / admin lib - library files (needed by binaries and shared ...

Linux, PHP, Tcl, Ruby, C, C++ - last minute training course availability

Here's a schedule of our public courses from now until Christmas. Linux Basics - 19th November Linux Administration - 20th November Linux Web Server - 22nd and 23rd November Technology for PHP - 26th ...

2008 course schedule - Perl, Python, PHP, Linux, Java Deployment, Ruby and more

It's nearly the August Bank Holiday ... and the time of year when our minds turn to scheduling courses for the next year. For 2008, I am proud to present: Every 8 to 12 weeks: Public courses in ...

Linux run states, shell special commands, and directory structures

Some useful notes from the board ... Run states of Unix and Linux systems: 0 - Halted 1 - Single User 2 - Multiuser 3 - Full Multiuser (inc servers) 5 - Same + X Windows 6 - transient reboot ...

ls -l report, Linux / Unix - types and permssions

What does drwtrwx--- mean on the start of your ls-l report? The first character (d in my example) tells you the type of symbol you have on the file system, as follows: d - a directory; b - a ...

Linux / Unix - process priority and nice

Visit certain theme parks, stand in queues for the rides. OK - that's fair enough at time. But then see folks with "fast pass" special tickets go the front and get, more or less, straight on. You ...

Finding public writeable things on your linux file system

Wondering what files and directories on your (Unix, Linux, OS X) system are marked "public writeable"? There should be very few indeed (none is good), but the following will wheedle them out. ...

Moving files between Windows / DOS and Linux / Unix

Text files written on a Windows or DOS operating system use a carriage return character (ASCII decimal equivalent 13) followed by a line feed (ASCII decimal equivalent 10) as their line terminator, ...

The LAMP Cookbook - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl

It all started on Friday as we came back from the pub. I was describing how we've been, twice, on Neil Bauman's Geek Cruises but never been asked to talk or lecture, even in a "lightning session" on ...

No news is good news with Unix and Linux

No news is good news ... so says Linux and Unix. All processes return a status code, and you can expect that to be: 0 - success 1 - failure 2 - abject failure So, for ...

What to do during a Linux build

I remember doing Solaris builds a decade ago ... hanging around for occasional questions or to change the tapes from volume 1 to 2, 2 to 3 .... the bad ole days. These days, the Linux distributions ...

Linux training Glasgow, Python programming course Dundee

We run training courses so often in Scotland that I don't even need a map anymore, except perhaps a streetmap page showing the roads in the immediate vicinity of the training venue. But how do we ...

Supporting users on Linux and Unix

Q: If you're the administrator on a Linux or Unix system and you want to help a user look after some of the files and directories, or run applications, under their own account, what's the best login ...

Short Linux and Perl courses for small groups

Around a half of my training time is spend presenting public courses - the other half goes on private courses to groups ranging in size from a handful of trainees up to (in exceptional cases) 15 or ...

File permissions of Linux and Unix systems

What does -rwxr-x--- mean in the output of a Linux ls (list symbols) command? The first character indicates the type of file system object that the line describes, and the commonly found characters ...

Linux commands - some basics

DoscommandLinuxcommandDescription File basics copycpCoPy file(s) renmvMoVe (rename) file(s) delrmReMove (delete) file(s) dirlsList files / Symbols Working on file contents -fileWhat's in a file? ...

MySQL, Java, PHP and Linux - new technical articles

For the more technical reader, I've added the following articles to our Solution Centre in the last couple of weeks: Complex joins (including left joins) in MySQL When should you denormalize a ...

Linux - where to put swap space

Swap Space is used on Unix and Linux systems to provide additional pseudomemory resources. In other words, if you try to run so many processes that they won't all fit into memory at the same time, ...

Comparators in Linux and Unix

I always say that it'll be a sad day when I don't learn anything ... I'm always delighted to pick up nuggets and reminders from trainees on courses whilst appreciating that the major knowledge flow ...

Linux / LAMP course

There's just so much you can learn about Linux - it's a complete operating system and you can easily get 3 or 4 days of user training, followed by weeks of "admin" training before you even start to ...