Linux Bash

Providing immersive and explanatory content in a simple way anybody can understand.

  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the world of web server software, Apache and NGINX stand out as the two most popular solutions used on the Internet today. They power a massive chunk of websites and applications, each boasting unique features, performance characteristics, and configuration styles. However, for someone just stepping into server management or setting up a basic website, it can be challenging to decide between Apache and NGINX. This article aims to provide a foundational understanding of both servers, their differences, and how to set them up on a Linux system. Apache HTTP Server, often referred to simply as Apache, was launched in 1995 and has since been a top player in the web server industry.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    Path Limits and Filenames in Linux: Understanding the Basics for Efficient File Management When navigating the Linux operating system, knowledge of how paths and filenames are structured is crucial for effective file management and system administration. Understanding these concepts will help you avoid common errors, optimise your scripts, and ensure compatibility across different filesystems. Let's dive deep into the concepts of path limits and filenames in Linux. What are Path Limits? In Linux, path limits define the maximum length of a pathname and the components (filenames) within that path. These limits are inherently tied to the underlying filesystem being used. PATH_MAX: This defines the maximum number of bytes a path can contain.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the ever-evolving world of technology, efficiency and reliability are paramount. For IT professionals working in Linux environments, this means ensuring that systems are not only operational but also optimally configured and maintained. This is where the power of automated configuration management comes into play, with tools like Ansible and Chef leading the charge. These tools revolutionize how administrators deploy, configure, and manage systems across extensive networks. Automated Configuration Management (ACM) refers to the process of managing configurations of computers and software in an automated, consistent, and repeatable manner.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    For Linux users, the terminal is an essential tool. However, navigating through directories and files using traditional commands like cd and ls can sometimes feel laborious, especially when working with frequently accessed directories or files. This is where fasd comes to the rescue, a command-line productivity booster that enables quick access to files and directories based on frequency and recent usage. Fasd (pronounced similar to "fast") stands for Frequent Access System for Directories. It is a lightweight, efficient command-line utility that offers quick access to files and directories, using auto-generated scores calculated from the frequency and recency of accesses.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    Managing a Linux system often involves needing to download packages and update your system using tools like apt, dnf, or zypper. However, in corporate environments or certain geographical locations, your network might require you to use a proxy server to access external network resources. This can be a bit confusing when you first encounter it, but no worries; setting up a proxy for updates and downloads from the command line is straightforward once you know where to make the right adjustments. Before diving into configurations, let's quickly understand what a proxy server does. A proxy acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the world of Linux, the command line interface takes center stage, providing power and flexibility in managing files and directories. Among these are hidden files and directories, which are crucial for user settings, configuration files, and securing sensitive data from accidental deletions or modifications. This article dives into how to effectively manage these hidden treasures using Bash, the default shell on most Linux distributions. In Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux, hidden files and directories are those whose names begin with a dot (a period or full stop). This nomenclature convention is simple but effective in keeping important files from cluttering the user's view and preventing accidental modifications.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    Embracing Multi-Environment Management in Linux Bash: Navigating Staging, Production, and Beyond In the world of software development, managing multiple environments is a critical task that helps teams deliver stable and reliable applications. From development to staging, and production, each environment serves a distinct purpose, playing a crucial role in a smooth and efficient workflow. But what about managing these environments right at the Linux command line? Linux Bash, being a powerful shell and scripting language, offers a robust platform for such tasks. Let’s explore how multi-environment management can be effectively implemented using Bash scripts, ensuring seamless transitions and configurations across different settings.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    The Network File System (NFS) is a popular file-sharing protocol in UNIX and Linux environments. Historically, managing and monitoring NFS traffic has been critical for understanding performance issues and maintaining the health of IT infrastructure. Fortunately, there's a handy command-line utility called nfswatch that provides administrators with real-time insights into NFS file system activity. In this blog post, we will explore what Nfswatch does, and how you can install and use it on various Linux distributions. Nfswatch is a tool designed to monitor all incoming network traffic to an NFS server and display a summary of this traffic. It provides statistics about NFS operations, such as read, write, and mount requests.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    When deploying a Linux system, understanding what services and daemons run by default after installation is essential for both performance and security management. Linux distributions are widely regarded for their robustness, security, and performance, making decisions about what runs on a Linux box critical right from the setup. In this blog post, we will explore the common network services that typically start by default on a Linux machine after installation, their purposes, and basic management tips. The set of default network services running on a Linux system can vary significantly depending on the Linux distribution (such as Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, etc.) and the installation options chosen (minimal vs. standard installation).
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the Linux universe, the presence of varied file types ranging from text files to executables, images to archives, is usual business. And sometimes, especially in a shell environment, where file extensions might be deceptive or missing, identifying these file types could become a hurdle. But fear not, there's a simple yet powerful tool nestled in your Linux system known as the file command, specifically designed to unravel the true nature of your files. Let's dive deeper into how to leverage this command to make your Linux experience smoother and more efficient. The file command in Linux is a utility for determining the type of a file.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In today's fast-paced tech environment, microservices architectures have become the de facto standard for building scalable and maintainable systems. However, deploying microservices efficiently can be a complex task, particularly when managing this on Linux servers using Bash scripting. This article will discuss various deployment strategies suitable for microservices architectures and demonstrate how to implement these strategies using Linux Bash. Microservices are independently deployable services that work together to form a complete application.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the Linux world, the choice of a file manager can greatly influence your workflow and productivity. Among the various file managers available, Nautilus stands out as the default file manager for the GNOME desktop environment. Known for its simplicity and flexibility, Nautilus provides an intuitive interface for navigating and managing your files. In this blog post, we’ll delve into what makes Nautilus a preferred choice for many users and guide you through its installation on different Linux distributions using various package managers such as apt, dnf, and zypper. Nautilus, also known as GNOME Files, is the official file manager for the GNOME desktop.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the bustling world of web hosting, the operating system you choose plays a pivotal role in defining the efficiency, security, and reliability of the services you offer. Linux, with its robust performance and open-source nature, remains a popular choice among hosting providers. However, when it comes to specialized hosting environments, CloudLinux OS emerges as a tailored solution that brings additional layers of control, stability, and security, especially useful in multi-tenant web hosting scenarios. One of the key strengths of CloudLinux lies in its suite of network tools designed to optimise and secure a hosting server environment.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the realm of software development and deployment, efficiency and responsiveness are the cornerstones of successful application delivery. Achieving optimal performance while accommodating increased user demand is a challenge that developers and system administrators frequently encounter. One dynamic solution to this problem is scaling applications during deployment, utilizing the flexibility and power of Linux Bash scripting to make deployment scalable, manageable, and less prone to human error. This article explores how Bash scripting under Linux can be a pivotal tool in automating and scaling application deployments. Application scaling can be classified into two types: horizontal and vertical scaling.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the vast landscape of Linux file system management, one might often overlook the finer details like file extended attributes, or xattrs, that offer additional metadata storage beyond the conventional file permissions. These attributes are key to storing and accessing small quantities of data related to files, without affecting the file content itself. Today, we're diving into how to view and manage these extended attributes in a Linux Bash environment. Extended Attributes (xattrs) are settings associated with files and directories in the Linux file system, used to store additional metadata.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    The Linux world is filled with various desktop environments, each offering its own unique tools and applications. For users of the MATE desktop environment, Caja emerges as the official file manager, replacing Nautilus from GNOME. In this blog, we will delve into the features of Caja, why it might be a perfect fit for many users, and provide detailed installation instructions across several Linux distributions using different package managers. Caja is the official file manager of the MATE desktop environment, which is known for its classic design and efficiency. It is a fork of GNOME's Nautilus file manager but has been modified to better fit the MATE philosophy.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    As the world of Linux continues to expand and evolve, the tools that users utilize to manage and monitor their systems are equally advancing. Among the myriad of Linux distributions available today, AlmaLinux and Ubuntu stand out for their stability, robust support, and rich set of features. While both distributions provide powerful platforms for deploying server and desktop environments, they bring different philosophies and tools to network management. In this blog, we dive deep into the AlmaLinux’s Cockpit and Ubuntu’s GUI network tools, to help you understand their functionalities, ease of use, and how they stack up against each other.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the realm of Linux, effective file management and navigation are indispensable skills. Whether you're a developer, system administrator, or just a Linux enthusiast, understanding the underlying details of filesystem metadata can significantly enhance your interaction with the system. Here, we will delve into what filesystem metadata is, why it's important, and how you can work with it using various Bash commands. In simple terms, filesystem metadata is data about data. More specifically, it refers to the information about files and directories, other than the actual content within them. This includes details such as file type, size, creation and modification dates, permissions, and links to other files.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    As businesses continue to adopt DevOps methodologies, the demand for more stable and reliable deployment strategies also increases. GitOps emerges as a robust approach to infrastructure and application deployment, revolving around the use of Git as the single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and applications. While much of GitOps can be tool-neutral, integrating it with Linux Bash scripts can automate and streamline the rollouts even further. Let’s explore how you can use Bash in a Linux environment to implement GitOps for automating your application deployments. Before diving into the specifics, it's important to understand what GitOps fundamentally stands for.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    When using the Linux desktop, a file manager is indispensable for navigating and managing your files with ease. Among the numerous options available, Nemo stands out graphically as a competent, feature-rich file manager designed for the Cinnamon desktop environment. Nemo is the official file manager for the Cinnamon desktop. It was forked from Nautilus in order to provide a more classical desktop metaphor in terms of user interface. Over the years, Nemo has evolved significantly, offering numerous features that enhance productivity and improve the overall user experience. These include options like dual panes, customizable toolbars, scriptability, and an extendable plugin system.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    When managing network settings in Linux, particularly in a distribution like OpenSUSE, YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) simplifies the process tremendously. YaST is one of the crown jewels of OpenSUSE, providing an intuitive, graphical interface for complex administrative tasks which might otherwise require cumbersome command line syntax. In this blog post, we will dive into how to use YaST for network configuration, making management tasks more accessible and less time-consuming. YaST is OpenSUSE’s all-in-one configuration tool. It manages installation, hardware configuration, system setup, and more. Network configuration through YaST is particularly user-friendly, offering both graphical (GUI) and text-based interfaces.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    Understanding Case Sensitivity in Linux Filesystems: A Guide Linux, known for its robustness and flexibility, is a staple in the world of operating systems, especially among developers and system administrators. One of its fundamental characteristics, which often comes as a surprise for newcomers transitioning from Windows, is the way it handles filenames and directories. Unlike Windows, Linux is case sensitive, a feature directly tied to its filesystems. In this blog, we will explore what case sensitivity entails, its implications, and how you can effectively manage files in a case-sensitive environment.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    Discovering the Tree Command: Visualize Directory Structures in Linux When navigating through the complex file systems of a Linux environment, understanding the structure of directories and their contents at a glance can be invaluable. This is where the tree command comes in handy. A powerful yet often overlooked tool, tree helps users visualize directories in an easily digestible tree format, thereby enhancing file management and system navigation. The tree command is a versatile utility in Unix-like operating systems that recursively displays the contents of directories in a tree-like vertical format. This is particularly useful for system administrators and developers who deal with complex folder hierarchies.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    In the fast-paced world of software development, Continuous Deployment (CD) is a critical part of the DevOps toolbox, allowing teams to accelerate the pace of software releases while maintaining high quality and reliability. A key aspect of a robust CD pipeline is the ability to perform rollbacks efficiently when something goes wrong. Rollbacks can effectively minimise downtime and service disruption, ensuring that customer experience remains untarnished despite unforeseen issues. Linux Bash, a powerful scripting environment, can be pivotal in managing rollbacks smartly and efficiently.
  • Posted on
    Featured Image
    Managing Temporary Files in /tmp and /var/tmp: A Guide for Linux Users Temporary files and directories are an integral part of a Linux system, assisting in various processes and tasks by providing a dedicated space to hold data temporarily during application execution. Understanding the purpose and management of these files can significantly enhance your system's efficiency and security. This article explores the roles of /tmp and /var/tmp directories, how Linux handles these temporary files, and best practices for managing them. Both /tmp and /var/tmp are directories designed to store temporary files created by the system and the users. Files inside these directories are typically cleared upon reboot or after a certain duration.