A reader writes:
So, I’m partway through your book, and I want to check on hard links. When you say it creates another door to the same body of data, is that literally true? For example, if all I have in my ./Documents directory is 001.doc (size 512K), and I hard link as hardlink.doc then run ls, do I see A or B?
A) 001.doc 512K
hardlink.doc 512K
total 1024KB) 001.doc 512K
hardlink.doc 512K
total 512KIf it’s not B, I’m not sure what the point is, other than maybe not changing the timestamp.
If you’re like me, you are getting an ever-increasing flow of spam into your mailbox. What you might not realize, however, if you’re a Unix or Linux system administrator, is that you might be part of the problem! In general terms, electronic mail servers (so called “mail transport agents” or MTAs) are only intended to accept mail either to be directly delivered to someone on the system or being sent from somene on the system.
A reader of Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther writes in to ask for an explanation of the regular expression shown in this command:
du -s * .[^.]*
I’m working on the Web site for Creating Cool Web Sites and just realized that the little Unix trick I used while editing a file is actually a beautiful example of why so many people love Unix so much, so I thought I’d share it. The problem: a file where lines have 1-10 words + a last field value (in this case, a page number) that I don’t want. The challenge is to figure out how to easily remove that last field, when there are a variable number of fields on the line.
A reader writes:
“I’ve got a few of your books and today picked up Wicked Cool Shell Scripts, which I’m very much looking forward to working with.
“Totally greenhorn question, though: I want to keep the scripts in ~/bin and on page 12 you have an italic note saying to edit our PATH variable, but I’m not sure how, and don’t see any instructions anywhere else as to how to do this. I would be perfectly happy to have ~/scripts as you suggest but have not been able to create either. Your other book
Learning Unix for Mac OS X doesn’t appear to show how to do this with BASH. Many thanks in advance.”
A reader writes:
Here is the problem – when I su to become root I don’t have any aliases or any stuff in my path. I also am not sure were the .bash_profile for root goes and if it is even read when su’ing – please help thanks.
A reader writes:
“At the end of TYU24, you mention MKS as a Windows-based shell. I checked their website as an avenue of learning Unix/Linux without resorting to dual-boots, or multiple systems (I’m a little short on space to accomidate another tower, and short on cash to build a new micro). While they do offer evaluation versions, and educational discounts, they are still a little steep on the price range. Is there another package that may
follow GPL (GNU Public License) or maybe a more cost effective package for
home use?”
A reader of Solaris 9 for Dummies reports:
“Is there a typo in Chapter 15? I’m referring to page 288-289. The book says you should modify the S30network.sh file in step 3 then says you should modify the same place in the same file in step 6. (although this time ‘shcat’ is just ‘cat’) I was wondering if in step 6 I should be actually modifying a different file rather than remodify the change just made?”
