Quick Linux Post: CLI SysAdmin Tools

Tux_Black_Small

Linux CLI SysAdmin Tools.

Here is just a really short post regarding a collection of CLI SysAdmin tools.

These tools definitely warrant a page in their own right, but I just don’t have the time at the moment.

(And I just wanted to get them down before I forgot them)

I will be expanding this topic at some point (probably in a separate page), but until then, this will have to do!

top

top

Shows system processes in real-time

Displays a dynamic list of processes which (by default) updates every few seconds, and

Focuses on the most CPU-intensive processes

top z

Top enables several commonly used ‘hot keys’ which serve various handy purposes, some of these are:

q – quits the application

z – toggles colour/monochrome

t – toggles summary info

m – toggles memory info

space – refresh display

A – toggles display by categorising processes into groups based on various system resources

f – enters an interactive configuration menu for ‘top’ field management (ESC to return to top display)

r – allows ‘renice’ command to be applied to a particular process via its PID

k – allows ‘kill’ command to be applied to a particular process via its PID

w

w

Displays who is currently online / logged into the system

Can provide information regarding what they are doing

Variation can include:

w username

or

w matt

as examples

w

pstree

pstree

Displays a static process tree within the terminal

pstree

.

more to follow………………………..

apt-get moo

Wasting time…….With Linux! #2!!!

Easter Eggs

More shenanigans from the command line within Ubuntu; EASTER EGGS!

In the coming months, if I get wind of a heap of these, then I might dedicate Linux Easter Eggs their own page, but for now a humble post will suffice.

Go on, try these out in your Ubuntu or Linux Mint installation, you know you want to!

For the apt-get VS aptitude Easter Eggs, you may firstly need to install aptitude depending on your distribution’s bundled software. In the case of Ubuntu 13.04, aptitude is NOT part of the main installation (though it is in LM15), and therefore has to be added afterwards with either the Ubuntu Software Centre or (ironically enough) apt-get. For the latter, the following should work:

sudo apt-get install aptitude

Then, try this out to get started:

apt-get moo
apt-get moo
Channel your inner bovine!

and to answer the age-old question regarding the difference between apt-get and aptitude:

aptitude moo
aptitude moo
These guys are no fun..

and……

aptitude -v moo
aptitude -v moo
If at first you don’t succeed..

and……

aptitude -vv moo
aptitude -vv moo
And again….

and……

aptitude -vvv moo
aptitude -vvv moo
And again…

and……

aptitude -vvvv moo
aptitude -vvvv moo
And again…

and……

aptitude -vvvvv moo
aptitude -vvvvv moo
And again….

and finally (after long last)……

aptitude -vvvvvv moo
aptitude -vvvvvv moo
And finally……

and continuing the apt-get VS aptitude (and to a lesser extent, ‘cows’) theme, here are a few more:

apt-get -h | tail -n 1

and…….not to forget:

aptitude -h | tail -n 1
apt-get VS aptitude
apt-get VS aptitude

Within previous versions of Ubuntu (well, 8.04 at least!) there was also the ‘Wanda the fish” Easter Egg.

I downloaded and installed 8.04.4 LTS (Hardy Heron) within a Virtual Box VM just to test this one….

Open the quick-command ALT-F2 and type:

free the fish

and…….you will be rewarded with ‘Wanda the fish” swimming around your desktop for a few minutes, a la below:

Wanda the fish
Wanda the fish – Just above the task bar in between the Terminal and Run Apps.
Wanda the fish
Free the fish!

Humorously enough, if you try the same stunt in 13.04 you are greeted with:

Wanda in Ubuntu 13.04
Wanda in Ubuntu 13.04…..Kill Joys!

In case you were about to ask; No, clicking on the file/application or otherwise interacting with it in any other way doesn’t illicit any response (that I have found, anyway!).

Customise the command line.

An old post by the creator of Life Hacker, Gina Trapani, regarding customisation of the command line.

I like to refer to it every now and then for inspiration (as a novice Linux practitioner).

I haven’t got the time for it specifically tonight, but I definitely would love to play around with Terminal/CLI customisation and post the artwork up here.

The link to the article by Gina is here, but until you get there, here is something to whet your appetite…

The source of the image below, and another great Life Hacker article is here (The Top 10 Command Line Tools)….

One of the more creative CLI customisation!
One of the more creative CLI customisation!

-matt6560

Wasting time…….With Linux!

Inspired by the movie Inception, I thought that I’d have a go at getting three operating system’s deep with everyone’s favourite free VM generator, VirtualBox!

Below is a screen-capture from my system running three flavours of Ubuntu deep.

My specs are: Late 2012 (10,1 Model) MacBook Pro Retina 15in, Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM CPU @ 2.60GHz × 8, 16gig RAM, 512gig SSD: Running Ubuntu 13.04 x64 (on its own partition).

Specs

The stunt: Ubuntu 13.04 with VirtualBox running Linux Mint 15 XFCE; running VirtualBox which in turn is running Lubuntu (rather slowly).

Powered by Linux & executed by VirtualBox.
Powered by Linux & executed by VirtualBox.

 

Next time I get really bored, I might try going deeper, but I will really need to plan out the resources granted to each VirtualBox VM.

For this example I think I granted 10gig RAM to Linux Mint, and 2gig to Lubuntu, but doing anything within Lubuntu was like wading through molasses (in snow boots).

Hope you enjoyed!

-Matt