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"linux" Help and Information



How can I unwrap or decode Web URL redirects?

I'm frustrated as heck! I clicked on a URL and next thing I knew I was on a completly different site that was quite, um, inappropriate for work. I know how to write a redirect in my own script, but...

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How do I install Apple Developer Tools on my Mac?

I seem to recall a long time ago that when you installed Mac OS X you also got a bunch of cool Unix command line developer tools, including a C compiler, debugging tools and much more. I'm taking a C...

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How do I step through numeric values in a shell script?

Please, gimme a advice how to correctly use loop "for i in `seq 1 10`" for Mac OS X, echo $SHELL->/bin/bash, because when I write simple strip: for i in `seq 1 10`;do echo $i;done it outputs -bash: seq: command...

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What does the $( ) notation mean in a Bash script?

On page 329 (Hour 16) of your book Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours is the example: value=3 ; string="my horse Horace"test $value test `wc –l filename` -ge 10000 If I try this with this code: #!/bin/sh/value=3;string="my horse Horace"test $value...

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How do I detect an iPhone user coming to my site?

Amazon.com's jumped on the wagon, and Meebo has too: they automatically give you a different version of their site if you're browsing from an Apple iPhone. I want to do that too. How the heck do I detect that a...

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How do I change my PS1 command prompt in Bash?

I have read about 15 chapters of your book (Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours) so far. We are using vi. On the PS1 command, how do I see what is in it so I can add to it and...

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Article: Running Yellow Dog Linux on a Sony Playstation-3

In which we get the hottest video game system from Christmas 2006 and turn it into a Linux box? You bet! If you’re still thinking about video game systems as being just a wee bit more technologically advanced than an...

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How do I get "vi" shell edit mode in Mac OS X Terminal?

I just finished Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger, and think it is an excellent little resource. I'm recently out of school, a school where we weren't taught anything about Unix, just enough to get by. I started work...

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How can my shell script test to see if it's already running?

I have a script that does an ftp from a SCO UNIX server to windows server to get files from the windows server. The script is set in the cron to run every xx minutes. Sometimes the script will hang...

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How can I count executable binaries on my Linux box?

I've been looking at your script to count executable binaries in the book Wicked Cool Shell Scripts and I think that there's a problem in the script. Specifically, what happens if I have a directory in my PATH more than...

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How can I time portions of a Linux shell script?

Just picked up your book Wicked Cool Shell Scripts and already have one quick question: While working on the startup scripts, I would like to place log timers at certain portions of scripts. Is it possible to log point A...

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Why is Mailman complaining "Site list is missing: mailman"?

I've been running the Python-based "mailman" mailing list management program for quite a while with good results, but all of a sudden when I try to start it up I get the error "Site list is missing: mailman" and it...

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How do I increment IP addresses in a shell script?

I need help with a shell script! I want to prompt someone to enter an IP address the automatically increment it and output the sequence of that address and its following addresses, but I don't know how to do that:...

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String comparisons don't work in shell scripts?

I'm a bit baffled. I'm trying to compare string variables in a shell script to figure out if one value is lexically less (that is, would appear earlier in the dictionary) than another, but it doesn't seem to work at...

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How can I run an app if another app is running?

I need to run a Unix application if a different application is running, from within a shell script. How do I do this?...

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