Unix as a Second Language

Using curl and wget commands to download pages from web sites

The curl and the wget commands make it easy to download content from web sites.

Sorting, joining, shuffling, skipping and numbering lines on Linux

Linux provides a lot of handy commands for manipulating text files. This post explains how to use a collection of them.

Using the comm command to compare files or directories on Linux

The Linux comm command makes it easy to compare a couple text files and determine if they both contain the same lines -- whether the file contents are sorted or not.

Incrementing and decrementing numeric variables in bash

There are quite a few ways to increment and decrement numeric variables in bash. This post examines the many ways you can do this.

Navigating your way around the Linux file system

With a handful of commands and a trick or two, you can move around the Linux file system with ease and never get lost.

There's more to more than meets the eye

The more command on Linux may have a lot more options than you know and use.

Hiding from history on Linux

The history command on Linux can be used to display and rerun commands that you've used, and it can also help you hide commands that you don't want remembered.

Pipes and more pipes on Linux

Linux systems support pipes that enable passing output from one command to another, but they also support 'named pipes,' which are quite different.

Moving tasks from foreground to background and back again

Moving a command or script that you're running on the command line to the background so that you can start another job and managing backgrounded processes requires only a handful of commands.

Assigning sudo privilege to users on Linux

Assigning sudo privileges to users allows them to help manage the system by running commands that they would not otherwise be allowed to use.

How to determine your Linux system’s filesystem types

Linux provides quite a few commands to look into file system types. Here's a look at the various file system types used by Linux systems and the commands that will identify them.

The power of >, >>, &, &&, and || on Linux

The >, >>, &, && and || characters are extremely useful whenever you're working on the Linux command line.

Creating a directory tree with a single command

The mkdir command can create not just a directory but also a complex directory structure if you ask in the right way.

Getting help on Linux

There are a lot of ways to get help on Linux, especially when you're getting started and want to learn a number of important commands.

Finding files on Linux in all sorts of ways

There a quite a few ways to narrow your search when trying to find files on a Linux system.

Using PuTTY to connect to Linux

PuTTY can do a lot more than allow you to log into Linux from another system. It also allows you to tailor your window in several ways.

Sharing, compressing and password-protecting files on Linux

Linux provides a number of ways to control who has access to your files and what kind of access they have.

Setting up aliases on Linux systems can save you a lot of time and trouble on the command line. This post shows how to set up and manage aliases and provides a number of examples on how and why to use them.