Vim is one the more popular choices of text editors for Linux. For vim, there are a few non-default options that may be useful whether editing config files or writing scripts in your favorite language.

Some months back I developed some pyuno code for converting spreadsheets into CSV files from the command line. Pyuno being the Python interface to the OpenOffice runtime. One of the enhancement suggestions I got was to add the ability to extract all the sheets and/or a specific sheet rather than always extracting the first sheet. The following update to the code does just that.

Ghostscript gives you the power to combine files, convert files, and much more, all from the command line.

If you're coming fresh from Microsoft Excel, you might wonder where the Pivot tables are in OpenOffice.org Calc. The problem is, they're masquerading under the name of DataPilots. But, under any name, DataPilots are Calc's way of allowing you to quickly reorganize information in a range of cells so that you can gain a new insight into them.

Using the HISTCONTROL variable you can control how bash stores your command history. You can tell it to ignore duplicate commands and/or to ignore commands that have leading whitespace.

There are a number of ways to extract a range of pages from a PDF file: there are PDF related toolkits for doing it, or you can use Ghostscript directly.

If you need to move your Linux installation to a different hard drive or partition (and keep it working) and your distro uses grub this tech tip is what you need.

If you've used bash for a while you probably know that the commands you enter are saved in the file ~/.bash_history when you log out. Next time you log in, bash automatically loads these history commands from the saved file and you can then use the up and down arrow keys to browse your command history and find the command you want rather than re-entering it.

Do you have a linux server without a keyboard or monitor? Need to administer the server on-site but don't want to lug over a monitor and keyboard (or kvm)? Then setup the server to output the console to a serial port and use screen/minicom (Hyperterminal or putty in Windows) to console into the server over a serial cable.

To kick off the upcoming 4th of July celebrations we present the following bash script for your enjoyment.

To add a bit of color to your man pages install the most pager. For most DEB based distros:

In order to avoid this common mistake I often have my shell scripts prompt me for a yes or no answer before they proceed. The function described here is for doing that: asking a question and validating the answer.

As a consultant, I am often faced with an unfamiliar Linux system (usually RHEL). I always find it useful to understand which files that shipped with rpm packages have been modified, since it's usually a good indicator of what customizations have been performed on the system. To determine the modified files, I simply run:

On Debian based systems, or any that use Synaptic for package management, you can use Synaptic to help you setup multiple systems with the same software. On the first system select all the packages you want and then under the File menu use Save Markings or Save Markings as to save your selections to a file.

To see the interrupts occurring on your system, run the command:

If you manage remote servers or if you have more than one computer you most likely have used the ssh command. A simple description of ssh is that it's a secure version of telnet, but that's like saying a Porsche is a just a better version of a Volkswagen bug.

The following methods can be used for resetting the root password if the root password is unknown.

Do you know what this sequence of characters "/-\|/-\|" is for? A text based spinner. Still confused, read on.

Queries are the database equivalent of filters in a spreadsheet. Just as a filter can limit and reorganize the information displayed in a spreadsheet, so a query limits and reorganizes the information in a database. Either can be an efficient way of finding the information you want, especially when you're dealing with thousands of records.

In a previous tech tip, we saw how to use kill to monitor processes. Another option is to use ps. With both methods, you can check $? for success/failure. However, note that kill -0 may return failure even if the process actually exists. This happens when the current user has no permission to the process in question, for example: kill -0 1.