Brad Morton

I'm Brad, and I'm nearing 20 years of experience with Linux. I've worked in just about every IT role there is before taking the leap into software development. Currently, I'm building desktop and web-based solutions with NodeJS and PHP hosted on Linux infrastructure. Visit my blog or find me on Twitter to see what I'm up to.

Home » Articles by: Brad Morton

PHP Validator – Safely Checking Your PHP Code Syntax Quickly and Easily

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PHP Validator

This is a quick “now you know” article showing you how to validate your PHP code using PHP from the command line instead of using an online PHP validator. Online PHP Validators So, you’ve got some PHP code, and you want to check that it’s valid—a pretty common scenario. Maybe there’s a bug in it you can’t find; maybe your web host doesn’t allow you to view errors to debug. You probably just search for ‘PHP Validator’ and paste your code into the text box on … Read more

Categories PHP

Home » Articles by: Brad Morton

Restarting the Network in Ubuntu [Instructions/Example]

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Restart Network Ubuntu

If you’ve recently updated your network configuration or just can’t get things to connect, you may need to restart the networking services on your Ubuntu System to get things back up and running. Restarting the network is particularly useful if you’re recently updated your WiFi network details or changed your IP address or hostname. These examples will work for Ubuntu and should work for Ubuntu-based distributions like Pop!_OS and Linux Mint. Restarting the Network Service from the Linux Terminal/Command Line This is probably the solution you’re looking for … Read more

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Linux diff – How to Show Differences and Make Patches, With Examples

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Linux Diff Command

The diff command is an easy way to compare files or directories from the Linux shell. This article will show you how to use it, with some examples of common usage. The diff command performs a line-by-line comparison of two files or directories and outputs the differences between them. Why would you want to compare files or directories? You might have two files with the same name that look similar and want to see the difference between them. Comparing changes to the programming code in a project you’re … Read more

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Recover Deleted Files in Ubuntu/Linux, With Examples

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Ubuntu Recover Deleted Files

We’ve all been there (I’ve been there) – a file was deleted that shouldn’t have been. Here is how to attempt recovery on Ubuntu/Linux. with examples. Backup Your Files First up, keep backups of your files, and keep your backups up to date. The easiest way to recover a file is not to have to try to recover it at all – you can just go and retrieve it from your backup. No fuss. No stress. No praying. How Deleted Files are Recovered When a file … Read more

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Show Privileges in MySQL/MariaDB using SHOW GRANTS, With Examples

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MySQL Show Privileges

This article will show you, with examples, how to show what database privileges users have in MySQL and MariaDB. List All Users To show the privileges for a user, you need to be able to query the user’s name. Here’s how to generate a list of all users on a MySQL server: SELECT user FROM mysql.user; …and here’s how to list all users, with the host they are allowed to connect from: SELECT user, host FROM mysql.user; Both of the above queries pull information from … Read more

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

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cat Command Linux Bash

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

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Running Ubuntu in VirtualBox on Windows/Mac [Tutorial]

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Running Ubuntu In VirtualBox

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

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Getting the Absolute (Full) and Relative Path In Linux

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Absolute Paths in Linux

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

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Redirect stdin, stdout, stderr in Linux & Bash

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

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

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Linux Remove User

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