random Linux notes 2012-04-18

By Xah Lee. Date:

• discovered yum. (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) It's a package manager for Red Hat's RPM package system. The name YellowDog, is from a Mac Linux distro in 1999. Yellow Dog Linux seems still around.

• on Fedora Linux, man {shutdown, halt, poweroff, reboot} says: “These are legacy commands available for compatibility only”. So, what is the modern command?

Answer: there doesn't seem to be a standard among Linuxes. (See “Replacement for init” at Init.) Fedora uses systemd.

Note that in Ubuntu, the man page for “shutdown” is different, and doesn't come with such note.

• discovered wmctrl. This seems to be Linux's analog of AutoHotkey for Microsoft Windows. See: Linux: Keyboard Software Guide .

unix stupidities check

here's more food for my wrath. todo tomorrow.

• check if Linux ps still silently truncate lines. [see Unix, RFC, Line Truncation]

• check if tar still have problem if file path is long. (For example, nested dir each with 200 char in file name)

• check robustness of tar when filenames are full of unicode. [see Unicode Support in File Names: Windows, Mac, Emacs, Unison, Rsync, USB, Zip]

• check if you can still put random char in file names, such as control sequence, beep. [see On Unix Filename Characters Problem]

• check how robust is Linux with unicode. Name files with Chinese and math symbols. (and if it requires me to dig into shell locale env var shit, then it's shit.)

• check/review the unix startup process, the rc scripts. [see Init]

• heard that ash is new simple shell for start up. Dig it.

• gotta review my unix networking stuff. ifconfig, whois, dig, ping, ... i understand many of these became obsolete.

• review the password creation, password file, user account creation, uid, gid, stuff.

• review how to find the processes that are locking files.

• run my elisp/perl/python scripts on website's 5k files, see how fast it runs inside virtual machine vs Windows native. (if good, i might start to do all my web site inside Linux.)

unixism lives: great power comes great responsibility

lol. The old unixism lives.

[xah@localhost~]$ sudo yum install xmonad-gnome

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.

[sudo] password for xah: 

“great power comes great responsibility”? FAAK the Red White Blue culture shit. That phrase amounts to being a execuse to meddle with other's business.

this officious advice from sudo happened in Fedora, but not in Ubuntu. For Dummies always win. At least better than the drivels from unix faakheads. [see What is a Tech Geeker?]