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Q&A

General Q&A about Linux and Unix-like operating systems

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85%
+10 −0
In a bash shell script, how to filter the command line argument list to unique entries only, for processing each?

I have a handful of shell scripts that accept any number of command line arguments, then do some relatively expensive processing based on each command line argument in turn. The general format for ...

3 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Quasímodo‭

84%
+9 −0
What are phased updates, and why does Ubuntu use them?

So I ran into that weird "packages being held back" problem while updating my system using apt. After some research, it appears to be the result of "phased updates". What are phased updates, any...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by ArrayBolt3‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by ArrayBolt3‭

83%
+8 −0
Are there any legitimate uses for newlines in filenames?

Unix is very permissive with filenames, and this can sometimes lead to a bunch of annoying corner cases when printing files. A well known example is when you put a newline in a filename, and it bre...

2 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by terdon‭

81%
+7 −0
What partition type should be used for cross-platform FAT partitions?

Question What partition type should I use for FAT partitions such that Linux and Windows systems both recognize the drive? Notes I am partitioning the drive with fdisk and making the filesystem ...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by mcp‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Ullallulloo‭

81%
+7 −0
What does a minimal /etc/hosts need to contain?

I run an environment that, until recently, did all local name resolution by putting names in /etc/hosts. I'm in the process of replacing that with local DNS. The DNS part works fine, and now I'm tr...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by ajv‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by dsr‭

80%
+6 −0
How to get number of files in directory

How do you find out the number of files in a directory from the command line?

4 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by mcp‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by AdminBee‭

80%
+6 −0
Does /proc/config.gz always contain all supported options of a kernel?

Assuming I have a running Linux system that has the /proc/config.gz file: Does the (unpacked) file always contain all of the options the particular kernel supports, including commented out like: ...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by sktpin‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Quasímodo‭

80%
+6 −0
How do I deal with a "pending update to "snap-store" snap, close the app to avoid disruption" notification in Ubuntu 22.04?

For several days now, I've been getting a notification telling me that there's a pending update to the "snap-store", and to close the app to avoid disruption. I first got this notification while...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Mithical‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Quasímodo‭

80%
+6 −0
Why is Pause/Break key is immediately released? Can that be fixed?

Since the Pause key is useless, I tried to map it to a modifier key. What is straightforward for other keys turned out not to work fine for Pause. By inspecting the output of xev -event keyboard |...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Quasímodo‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Quasímodo‭

80%
+6 −0
A shell script that can run under different shells

I have a shell script with a syntax compatible to both bash and zsh, except for a section that has zsh specific syntax that throws syntax errors if sourced from bash. Is there an easy way to escap...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by 4015.alt‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by mjy‭

80%
+6 −0
Looking for a way to sync dotfile content between different machines without introducing security issues

I switch between three computers and have never been able to keep my dotfiles in sync. I cannot put them into source control because they contain sensitive data. So, my question is: how do I share ...

2 answers  ·  posted 22d ago by paulsweatte‭  ·  last activity 21d ago by LAFK‭

80%
+6 −0
What are the correct permissions for `~/.ssh/config`?

I got this message: Bad owner or permissions on /Users/rbiaa065/.ssh/config What should the permissions be to make ssh happy?

1 answer  ·  posted 5mo ago by wassied‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by r~~‭

ssh
77%
+5 −0
Copy to clipboard from terminal with Vim bindings

Question How do I copy to clipboard from terminal with yy, assuming it's configured to use Vim bindings? I am using zsh with bindkey -v. MWE Enter something on the commandline (without pressi...

2 answers  ·  posted 9mo ago by mcp‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by Mithical‭

77%
+5 −0
How to convert Flac to Mp3 with FFmpeg?

I have a directory filled with Flac audio files and I would like to convert them all to Mp3. How do I go about this using FFmpeg? I am using the git FFmpeg and Slackware -current.

2 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by andrew.46‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

77%
+5 −0
How do I view fonts?

How can I view font files, like .ttf, in Linux? I'd like to see a sample of the font (quick brown fox...) and metadata about it (like exact name).

2 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by andrew.46‭

77%
+5 −0
How can I restrict filename characters?

Suppose I want to limit what characters are allowed in filenames. For example, I want file creation to fail if there is a \n in the name. Is there a way to enforce this? If it matters, I prefer a...

2 answers  ·  posted 1mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 1mo ago by Basile Starynkevitch‭

77%
+5 −0
What unexpected things can happen if a user runs commands expecting a text file on input lacking a file-final newline?

It is often taught that in Unix/Linux text files should end with newline characters. The reason given (orally) to me by various sources was that "some commands (such as wc) assume or require a newl...

2 answers  ·  posted 5mo ago by Lover of Structure‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by tripleee‭

77%
+5 −0
Capture separate _and_ combined stdout/stderr

Using BASH, how can I redirect stdout and stderr each, to two separate files, simultaneously? That's a mouthful, let me clarify a little: I have a hypothetical script that may/will generate outpu...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by jaybeers‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Quasímodo‭

77%
+5 −0
How to figure out the licenses of files installed from packages?

On a Linux system, a lot of files are installed from packages, many of which have different licenses (and sometimes different licenses for different files in the package). If I want to figure out ...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by celtschk‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Quasímodo‭

77%
+5 −0
Recursively remove files with the same name as the ones that end in `.part`

I want to remove all files with the ".part" extension in the current directory and its subdirectories, including files with the same name but different extension. Is this correct? find . -name '*...

3 answers  ·  posted 11mo ago by ShadowsRanger‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by jimbobmcgee‭

77%
+5 −0
Adding Python 3.11 to `$PATH`

I built Python 3.11 from source (from GitHub python/cpython branch "3.11"). Here is what I did (after downloading the repo as ZIP) cd Downloads 7z x cpython-3.11.zip cd cpython-3.11 chmod +x c...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by HGStyle‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by terdon‭

77%
+5 −0
Installing Ruby on MacOS 12.2 (or 11.6) produces compilation errors in the downloaded source; how do I fix?

A project I want to work on requires Ruby. I was directed to RVM or rbenv. I tried rbenv first because it has Mac instructions, ran into failures, uninstalled it and installed RVM, and still ran ...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭

75%
+4 −0
Retrieve changes that closed a Debian bug

If a Debian bug number is referenced in the changelog of an uploaded package, it is automatically closed with a generic message: We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest versi...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Quasímodo‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by tripleee‭

75%
+4 −0
When should you install windows dlls for wine with winetricks?

I noticed in winetricks that it can install windows dlls to the wine folder. It even gives an option to install almost all of them at once. When should someone install these instead of staying with...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by true_blue‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

75%
+4 −0
Make Less use a normal view instead of hexdump view

Less does not display data files normally, but if it were some sort of Xxd. $ bash --norc $ export LESS= $ file -i /var/log/lastlog /var/log/lastlog: application/octet-stream; charset=binary $...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Quasímodo‭  ·  edited 2y ago by Quasímodo‭

75%
+4 −0
How to forward SSH access of one machine, through another, to the rest of a network?

I have a setup with two Raspberry PIs, a CM3 module with only a USB connection to the outside, and the Pi4 with a lot of connectors. I set up things such that CM3 functions as USB Gadget, and once...

3 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by CanisSomnolentus‭  ·  last activity 1mo ago by Michael‭

75%
+4 −0
Reverse shell with named pipe and netcat

This blog post describes a privilege escalation, exploiting tar's --checkpoint-action option. The privilege escalation is used to solve a TryHackMe challenge. The root user calls tar via cron whi...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Matthias Braun‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by Kamil Maciorowski‭

75%
+4 −0
How do I safely replace brew on Big Sur?

I'm still trying to solve my problem with installing Ruby on a new Mac, and some discussions are saying that I need to reinstall brew because of the change from the old chipset to the M1. (I'm jus...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭

75%
+4 −0
How to convert PDF to docx

How can I convert PDF to docx using the terminal or a Linux app? The output docx must be formatted with editable text. Some alternative solutions I've seen online using soffice and abiword output...

2 answers  ·  posted 11mo ago by mcp‭  ·  last activity 11mo ago by samcarter‭

75%
+4 −0
What is the best way to identify changes from the default configuration in Raspbian systems?

I've got a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian, which I'd like to reinstall from scratch. However over time I've made many changes to the configuration (installed new packages, changed the name of the de...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by celtschk‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Canina‭

75%
+4 −0
Desktop Multiplexer for Linux? (GNU Screen for GUI apps)

GNU Screen and Tmux allow you to run command-line programs on a server, and 'disconnect' from them but let them keep running remotely. This is great if your primary computer is a laptop and it has...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by re89j‭  ·  edited 1y ago by re89j‭

75%
+4 −0
Documentation for double asterisk glob expansion

Where can I find documentation on double asterisk in glob expansion? It is discussed in the .gitignore section of Pro Git. It works in ls **/* to list all terminal files. It is supported by py...

2 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by mcp‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by Kamil Maciorowski‭

75%
+4 −0
How to run a command on a list of files?

Suppose I have a list of files on standard input. These may be the output of find, cat filelist.txt or something else. How can I run a command on each file in turn?

3 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 1mo ago by alx‭

75%
+4 −0
How to RTFM well to get a CLI command

I've met with the phrase RTFM often. I recognize it's value. However the manual pages are often hard to understand and written by people who know so much about the topic at hand, that they don't ev...

1 answer  ·  posted 19d ago by LAFK‭  ·  last activity 18d ago by alx‭

75%
+4 −0
VISUAL=gvim makes crontab -e open a new crontab instead of a current one

My VISUAL setup interferes with my cron jobs. crontab -l works all right, I see my previous jobs. crontab -e, crontab -e -u user-here - opens GVIM on an empty file checked cron.allow or .deny,...

1 answer  ·  posted 21d ago by LAFK‭  ·  last activity 17d ago by Quasímodo‭

75%
+4 −0
How can I use SIGUSR1 or SIGUSR2 without risk of terminating the process?

SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2 are user-defined signals. Imagine there is a tool designed to do something useful upon receiving one or the other. The problem is the default action for these signals is Term (...

1 answer  ·  posted 5mo ago by Kamil Maciorowski‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by Kamil Maciorowski‭

72%
+6 −1
How do I get lubuntu to not prompt non-admins about updates?

I have an old Mac Mini (Late 2009 model) kicking around, and as Apple stopped providing patches for it (and as I'm not going to put an unpatched system on the Internet), I was looking for a Linux d...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Peter Cooper Jr.‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by deleted user

71%
+3 −0
How to configure GNOME Keyring to by default NOT automatically unlock keyrings whenever logged in, on Debian?

On a Debian Buster system I use, the password for connecting to a VPN is stored in the GNOME Keyring. Therefore, whenever I want to connect to the VPN in question, I get prompted to unlock my keyri...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Canina‭  ·  edited 2y ago by deleted user

71%
+3 −0
How to detect if a Linux Docker host has had unwelcome guests?

I plan to set up a Raspberry Pi to host some dockerized apps, for it to be accessible to the Internet through a remote proxy, and since I'm no sysadmin, I'm trying to come up with a suitable policy...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by nnlei‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Canina‭

71%
+3 −0
Why is libvkd3d1 not upgrading on my system? (lubuntu 20.04 LTS)

Why is libvkd3d1 not upgrading on my system? (lubuntu 20.04 LTS) When I run sudo apt update, apt flags libvkd3d1 and libvkd3d1:i386 as upgradable, but sudo apt upgrade does nothing and reports tha...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Darth_Muldoon‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Canina‭

71%
+3 −0
What does capital T mean in the output of 'ls -l'?

I had a nightly cronjob start throwing errors about "inappropriate permissions..." rsync: [generator] failed to set permissions on "/data2/home/redacted/alsoredacted/opt/dell/srvadmin/var/log/open...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by re89j‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Quasímodo‭

71%
+3 −0
Close all desktop notifications

I'd like to hide/dismiss/remove all the notifications that applications like Signal have created. I know I can create notifications with, for example, notify-send -t 10000 "🤖 Here goes my message"...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Matthias Braun‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Matthias Braun‭

71%
+3 −0
Disable transient symbols for compose and dead keys in GTK programs

An article in the GTK blog explains the situation very well, but here is my go at it. In my keyboard layout, accents are handled as dead keys, so to insert "ë", first I type ¨ and then e. Nothing ...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Quasímodo‭  ·  last activity 12mo ago by Quasímodo‭

71%
+3 −0
how to determine from the command line whether a DVD is encrypted

I am currently ripping a bunch of DVDs. Some are encrypted, and some are not. My method for ripping a DVD depends on whether or not it is encrypted, so I am looking for a command-line method to det...

0 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Trevor‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by Mithical‭

dvd
71%
+3 −0
Treat underscores as word boundaries in terminal using vim mode

Question How do you specify underscores as Vim word boundaries when using vim mode in either bash or zsh? MWE w on this_word should place the cursor on the underscore. A second w should place th...

1 answer  ·  posted 10mo ago by mcp‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by r~~‭

71%
+3 −0
Is this a robust way to distinguish explicitly installed packages from those pulled in as dependencies?

When exploring the commands from this answer to my previous question, I found that the ist of packages includes a lot that were automatically installed due to dependencies. Obviously I'm interested...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by celtschk‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Peter Taylor‭

71%
+3 −0
Why does the file command fail to recognize non-text files as such?

POSIX defines Text file as A file that contains characters organized into zero or more lines. The lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in length, inclu...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Quasímodo‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by LawrenceC‭

71%
+3 −0
What does `emerge --update --newuse --deep @world` have to do with package removal?

In Debian-based distributions, one can update the system with apt upgrade and cleanup unused dependencies with apt autoremove. Period. On Gentoo that is apparently not as straightforward. From G...

0 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Quasímodo‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by Mithical‭

71%
+3 −0
How to use a detected USB RNDIS gadget as network adapter

I have a RaspberyPi module, with USB connected to another module computer (as USB host) running Linux. The RasPi is configured as USB ethernet gadget. Once I boot the RasPi, and enter dmesg on th...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by sktpin‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by sktpin‭

71%
+3 −0
Get current server of pacman

How do I get the URL of the remote repository that pacman uses to download packages? I know that I can tell pacman which server to use by editing /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist. But in my case, all of t...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Matthias Braun‭  ·  edited 2y ago by Matthias Braun‭