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Piping and redirection are two tools that, although I have mentioned them before, I vastly under-utilize in the command line.
To that end, I have decided that a more thorough exploration is warranted, so that I might come to appreciate these tools to their fullest — and remember to use them!
In previous posts, I have touched on both paths and navigation, without going into all of the details.
Since the two are so closely intertwined, I decided today to go into greater detail about both subjects at once, with an emphasis on how to navigate via the Linux command line, and what shortcuts are available to streamline the navigation process.
In a previous post I mentioned wild cards very briefly, in conjunction with the Linux command line.
I did not stop to explain at that time, but wild cards have a life that extends far beyond the Linux command line.
It is time now to delve deeper in this subject, as it is a great one to be aware of. But take note that I will be focusing back on the use of wildcards in the Linux command line.
If you’ve used the Linux command line much at all, you’re probably familiar with yum.
Yum — an acronym for the “Yellowdog Updater, Modified” — is an RPM-based package manager that is now obsolete.
Dnf — an acronym for “Dandified Yum” — is the replacement RPM-based package manager used in place of yum.
Today’s topic is a continuation of last week’s lesson on the Vi/Vim editors.
Mailing list subscribers will receive a free copy of the Vi/Vim Editor Cheat Sheet. To receive this, and other (past/future) exclusive content, you can subscribe.
The command possibilities available in Vi are seemingly endless; as such, they are not all covered in this cheat sheet.
What this cheat sheet does cover, are all of the basic commands for navigating Vi and modifying, searching, replacing, exiting, etc.
Remember, Vi is case-sensitive; any letter that you type can mean two completely different things, depending on its case.
I like to use this cheat sheet as a quick reference, as I have not yet managed to memorize all of these commands.
I hope that you find it as useful as I do.
The Vi editor is a programmer’s text editor. The VIM editor is a “Vi IMproved” editor.
In short, the Vim editor is an improved version of the Vi editor, with additional features.
On many distributions of Linux, the Vi editor defaults to the Vim editor; their function is primarily the same.
The good news, is that you do not have to be a programmer — or have any programming knowledge/aspirations — to use the Vi/Vim editors. They’re just editors. Specifically, they’re command line text editors.
We already know what a command line is.
A command line text editor is a text editor that runs directly from the command line, and does not require a graphical user interface, or even a separate window.
Command line text editors only edit plain text files.
The most common examples of command line text editors are Ed, Pico, Nano, Emacs and Vi.
Each editor presents is own set of challenges and rewards; it is not necessary to choose a favorite, but it is a good idea to be briefly introduced to each one.
To begin, let’s discuss processes.
We all know that a process is a series of actions, or steps, taken in order to achieve a particular end.
With that thought in mind, it should be easy to see that a computer process is a task, or a set of instructions, that is processed by a computer’s processor.
In Windows, processing happens in the background, and is rarely interactive with the average user.
In Linux, you, the average user, have the opportunity to see and control all kinds of processes.
Let’s go cause some havoc!
If you’re running Linux, chances are that you know what distribution you’re running, as well as the version of that distribution, and all those other pertinent details that can come in handy.
In fact, you probably have it memorized down to the very last three decimal points of the version, and also know what date it was last updated.
What’s that? You don’t?!
Often-times, for those of us who just do not memorize such details, we need a quick way to look them up.
While we’re still on the subject of networks, I thought I’d stick in a few remote system administration tools.
You’ll let me get away with claiming that these are network-related, because by definition of “remote”, there has to be some sort of network connection involved, right?
These commands will allow you to perform various administrative tasks on Linux machines that you do not have physical access to, whether that’s because they’re in a far off country, or because you can’t be bothered to get out of your chair and walk across the room. Both are perfectly valid excuses, provided — in the case of the latter — that you’re recovering from running a very recent marathon.