Did you know that the top command can also be used interactively? For instance, enter top, and view the output. Then, without hitting the Ctrl+C to stop the process, hit the u key, and enter the username of one of the users. That should only show the [...]

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I recently attended the Global Knowledge classes that prepare you for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) test. This article is a brief description of the content of the classes as well as an analysis of their intrinsic value. I will write about the location where the classes took place, the group of [...]

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If you are doing some work on the same file over and over again, you may want to use !$ to save some typing. Basically, this expression is equivalent to the argument that you passed to the previous command, as in:

less /etc/inetd.conf
vi !$

This will edit the same file that [...]

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Sometimes you may need to run a comand that will take many hours before it stops, and you are planning to log out soon. If you simply run the command in the background using the command & trick, it will nevertheless stop as you log out. In order [...]

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Many new users really dislike the way they are not able to scroll up when viewing a file with more. Well, just use less to view the file, and that will allow you to scroll up and down to view the file. The old UNIX hackers like to [...]

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Sometimes you may want to know the exact location of a certain program that you run. In that case, type this at the prompt: which [command], as in which netscape. That will tell you if the command is in your path or not, and also the location where [...]

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A good thing about Linux/UNIX is how you can change the network configuration withouth even rebooting the box. Use the ifconfig command to do this.

First of all, you can use the command just to show you all the information on currently configured network interfaces: ifconfig -a

In order to change [...]

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It is a good idea to place the swap partition at the beginning of the drive, since this will physically locate it on the outer edge of the hard drive thus allowing the head to cover much more ground per revolution.

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You can use the tune2fs command to tune up your filesystem. For instance, the tune2fs -c command will allow you to specify the maximum amount of mounts that your filesystem will accept before going through a check. Other choices are:

The option -e allows you to specify how the [...]

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You may need sometimes to see the parent-child relationship between processes in order to troubleshoot a problem. In that case, run the pstree command, which will show it in a nicely organized tree. Otherwise, you can also obtain the same information from running the ps command with a [...]

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