Juliet Kemp is one of my favorite authors. She writes a regular “Tip of the Trade” column for Serverwatch.com, and a regular monthly howto column for LinuxPlanet.com. Today I have assembled some of my favorite Tips all in one handy-dandy article: the magic sysreg key, proc and processes, fuser, cracking passwords, iptraf, UUIDs, and more.
Reading Compressed Files With less
Sometimes, less really is more. In the case of the app less, it is also the better-featured version of its bigger sibling, more.
UUID notation is one way to access your disks when using Linux. But first you must find the identifier.
Magic Tricks With the Sysreq Key
Remember the Sysreq key? It’s in the same spot it’s always been. Get reacquainted with it, and rediscover all the useful things it can do.
The /proc directory provides a text-based way of interfacing with system settings and processes. Sure, it looks complicated at first glance, but it is incredibly helpful when troubleshooting.
Learn more about proc, how it works and how to get the most out of it.
Monitoring Network Traffic With IPTraf
Check out the traffic passing through your machine with this useful and easy-to-use ncurses-based app.
Find password weaknesses before it’s too late. john-the-ripper offers three cracking modes to evaluate passwords.
Command-Line-Fu, Because Knowledge is Power
This social networking site makes broadening your command-line knowledge fun and easy.
Because sometimes you need to know which process is accessing a particular file or filesystem.
Most likely, you already have a personalized setting for PS1, the default bash interaction prompt. Here’s what to do with PS2, PS3 and PS4.