Linux

Modern computers are incredibly reliable, but things can still go wrong – and the worst thing that can usually go wrong is losing your data – be it important work or your precious photos. Alongside a robust backup system, fsck (File System cheCK) is probably the most important tool you can have on hand to prevent data loss. This tutorial explains how to use fsck to repair file system errors in Linux and takes you through four common examples. fsck verifies the integrity and repairs errors … Read more

This tutorial explains how to create symlinks (symbolic links), also know as “Soft Links,” in Linux using the ln command. If you’re coming to Linux from a background using the Windows operating system, you’ll be familiar with the concept of shortcuts – files that don’t contain any real data and contain a link to the actual file or folder you wish to access. They may exist simply for your convenience (to save time clicking through nested folders) or to redirect the output (You have a … Read more

The rsync (remote synchronization) command is a file copy tool that can synchronize files across local storage disks as well as over a network. It’s prevalent because it’s very good. It is commonly used for backing up files, keeping file servers up-to-date with each other, and for deploying code and assets for web apps to servers. rsync can and will copy just about every file it can see and will synchronize based on file size and modification date to see what’s changed and what needs to be updated. … Read more

This article explores chmod 777, a Linux command used to give ALL RIGHTS to the user, group, and others. As a new Linux user, web developer, or system administrator, you have probably been instructed to type: chmod 777 /path/to/file/or/folder …into your Linux shell at some point. Whenever you’re running commands on your systems (especially as root!), you should ALWAYS know what they’re up to. So what’s chmod 777 really about? Permissions in Linux Above is an example of running the: ls -l command, which will list the current directory contents in … Read more

The for loop is a handy tool when writing Bash scripts for repeating a task for a number of files, records, or other values. The for statement will iterate over a list of values, performing tasks on each one until all items have been processed. Usage cases include looping over the files in a directory, the lines in a text file, or the output of a database query. Bash For Loop Syntax for VARIABLE in LIST do COMMANDS done Where: VARIABLE is the variable name that will … Read more

If you followed our Magic Mirror tutorial, you’d see the wget command was used to download some files. This tutorial explains how to use wget, a command-line tool for downloading (getting) files from the web, be it via HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, or FTPS. Use it to download files from the internet from the Linux shell, call it from Bash scripts – it’s simple and versatile and doesn’t require user interference once started so that it can run in the background. Syntax wget [OPTIONS]… [ URLS ]… … Read more