If you're not yet comfortable with writing scripts on Unix and Linux systems, this post might get you off to a healthy start. Creating a script on a Unix or Linux system can be dead easy or ...

It is easy to dismiss bash — the typical Linux shell program — as just a command prompt that allows scripting. Bash, however, is a full-blown programming language. I wouldn’t presume to tell you that ...

The printf command offers well-defined behavior following the POSIX standard, which means it works the same way across shells ...

I would like to write a simple bash script. I tried googling bash, grep, and regular expressions, but I got a textbook thrown back at me, and I have too much on my plate to dive into regexps in depth, ...

A recent post about debugging constructs surprised me. There were quite a few comments about how you didn’t need a debugger, as long as you had printf. For that matter, we’ve all debugged systems ...

Basically, after creating a user, I need to make a /home/$username/2003_2004 directory, which will be their web directory, so I need to set the perms and ...

I follow several Web comics. I used to open my Web browser and check out each comic's Web site. That method was fine when I read only a few Web comics, but it became a pain to stay current when I ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover the exciting intersection of Linux and handheld gaming. My job – and sheer curiosity – compels me to distro hop a lot. You ...

FFmpeg was designed as a cross-platform solution for video and audio recording, conversion, and streaming. Its About page describes the command-line tool as “the leading multimedia framework, able to ...