Home » 2021 » May

cat Command in Linux/Bash – How to Use It, With Examples

May 17, 2021 by Brad Morton

The cat (concatenate) command in Linux/Bash is most commonly used to read the contents of a file. It outputs the contents of a given file. Here’s how to use it. cat concatenates files to standard output – by default, this is to the console for viewing on your computer screen. This makes it useful for quickly viewing the contents of files. It also has other uses, but first, the syntax: cat Syntax cat [OPTIONS] [FILE] Note that: If FILE is not specified, will read from standard input (stdin) Multiple FILEs can be specified, separated by … Read more

Home » 2021 » May

Running Ubuntu in VirtualBox on Windows/Mac [Tutorial]

May 17, 2021 by Brad Morton

Here’s a straightforward set of instructions (with lots of screenshots) on how to set up Ubuntu Linux in VirtualBox for running Ubuntu in a Virtual Machine on Windows 10 and macOS. VirtualBox allows you to set up and run virtual machines on your computer easily. A virtual machine is a whole computer, virtualized running on top of your current operating system – allowing you to try out and experiment with new operating systems and tools without reformatting your computer. Download and Install Virtualbox The first … Read more

Home » 2021 » May

Getting the Absolute (Full) and Relative Path In Linux

May 3, 2021 by Brad Morton

This article explains absolute paths and how they differ from relative paths, getting them, and how symbolic links are handled. FileSystem Paths A path is the location of a file in a file system. It’s the directions to the file in the folder it is located. A path consists of a string of characters. Some represent directory names, and a separator character separates the directory names from the file name and extension. Consider the below path: /path/to/my/file.txt It consists of: Forward slashes (/) to separate directories from their subdirectories … Read more

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Redirect stdin, stdout, stderr in Linux/Bash, With Examples

May 2, 2021 by Brad Morton

The Linux/Bash shell has three data streams that you can tap into when executing commands – stdin, stdout, and stderr. Here’s how to use them. stdin, stdout, stderr allow for the display of text in the console, and the data being output each stream can be directed into other programs. These are referred to as Standard Streams. What is stdin (Standard Input)? Text input stream. Applications can accept text via stdin as input. What is stdout (Standard Output)? The text output stream of a program. Applications send data to other programs (or to the console for viewing) via stdout. … Read more

Home » 2021 » May

Remove a User From the Linux Command Line/Shell – How to Do It

May 2, 2021 by Brad Morton

Here’s a short and sharp article on how to remove a user from a Linux system. These examples will work on the majority of Linux distributions. The userdel Command The userdel command can be run from the Linux shell to remove a user. Here’s the syntax: userdel OPTIONS USERNAME Note that: OPTIONS should be from the below table USERNAME should be the login username of the user to be deleted userdel requires administrative rights and will need to be run as root or using the sudo command BE AWARE – RUNNING ANY userdel … Read more

Home » 2021 » May

Why You Should Use Linux in 2021

May 1, 2021 by Brad Morton

Here’s a bunch of reasons to try out (or continue using) Linux in 2021. Lots has changed on the Linux front in the last decade – here’s why you should give Linux a go. I’ve been using Linux on desktop computers since the early 2000s – starting out with Corel Linux. Early distributions had big fallbacks for the average user – mostly to do with compatibility with Windows machines. While it was already best-in-class for running servers and developing software, creating and sharing images and … Read more