Linux

I stumbled across a thread about terrible programming mistakes and found this: https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/commit/a047be85247755cdbe0acce6f1dafc8beb84f2ac Which contains the line: rm -rf /foo-bar-usr /lib/nvidia-current/xorg/xorg Note – I’ve added foo-bar- to the string so that if you try to run it, it won’t do the thing I’m warning about –even having that on my clipboard makes me nervous!. What happens when it’s run? It wipes out the entire /usr/ directory – essentially bricking your computer! All because of a single space. Due to the space after /usr, the rm command interprets it as two separate directories … Read more

This tutorial explains how to pass command-line arguments to your bash scripts. There are many examples included to help get you started. Bash/Shell scripts are a great way to automate your Linux workflow and speed up your workday so you can leave the office early (or hide in the server room until 5 pm hits). Making scripts re-usable makes them more useful – you don’t need to write a script that does the same task for different sets of information or on different days – … Read more

In Linux, *./ (dot slash) represents the relative path to the current working directory. This article lays out exactly what it means and how to use it. . (dot) and .. (double-dot) . (single dot) and .. (double dot) are special directory names in Linux (And other *nix operating systems). . represents the current directory. .. represents the parent directory (of the current directory). ./ (dot slash) So, the . in ./ represents the *current& directory – and the slash is the path delimiter so that what follows will refer to the contents of the current directory. Example To edit … Read more

Here’s how to set up and use the Linux shell on Windows – using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This tutorial is intended for up-to-date versions of Windows 10 from 2020 onwards. I’m not going to cover how to use WSL on older versions of Windows 10 or other methods for Windows 8/7/XP/3.1 because you shouldn’t be using outdated software. If you must use Windows, use a version that still receives security patches! WSL is a great tool and allows you to pretty much run Linux software on windows … Read more

#! – Usually nicknamed shebang, shabang, hashbang, poundbang – we’ll stick with shebang for the duration of this article. It is found at the beginning of countless Linux shell scripts – but what actually is it? Let’s break it down. It Usually Looks Something Like This #!/bin/bash The #! appears at the beginning of the file, usually on the first line, followed by the path to an executable (in this case, the bash shell). It’s a Comment It starts with a #, so it’s not executed as part of the script itself – it does affect how the … Read more