A list of numbers in a file may look out of order when Linux compares each line as text. The sort command can compare numeric values instead and write the lines in numeric order. I’ll show how to sort numbers in either direction and save or check the result. TL;DR Use sort to order text
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A server is ready for monitoring, and you need a place to view the measurements it collects. Grafana queries a configured data source and displays its values in dashboard panels. This article walks through installing Grafana from its signed APT repository and checking the service and sign-in page. TL;DR: Install Grafana from its APT repository
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A log file can hold more lines than you can scan by eye when you need to find an error message. grep is a command-line tool that searches text and prints the lines that match. I’ll show you how to search a file with grep and read its matches and exit status. TL;DR: Search for
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When a Linux machine seems short on memory, a terminal snapshot can show how much RAM and swap are in use. The free command reports those figures and estimates how much memory is available to new applications. This article explains how to read the free and available figures and how to take a short series
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Getting a WordPress site ready on Ubuntu starts with setting up the server that will host it. WordPress is a PHP content management system that stores site content in a database and provides an admin interface. This guide walks through installing WordPress on Ubuntu. It also explains what to check after setup. TL;DR Install Apache,
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Getting Dropbox running on Ubuntu starts with installing its Linux client. The client includes a daemon, a background process that keeps the local Dropbox folder aligned with files in your account. I’ll show how to set up Dropbox on Ubuntu, then check whether its folder is syncing. TL;DR Install Dropbox from its official Linux package,
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Composing a message or checking local mail from a Linux terminal starts with knowing what the mail command can do on your system. The Linux mail command is a terminal client for writing messages and reading the current user’s local mailbox. I’ll show how to check which mail implementation is installed and use GNU Mailutils
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Software installation instructions can ask which Linux distribution and release is installed, while other checks need the kernel release instead. Linux version commands show either the installed distribution’s release or the running kernel’s release. I’ll show how to read the distribution release from /etc/os-release and check the kernel release separately. TL;DR: Find the Linux distribution
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When you want a hostname to resolve to a chosen address on Ubuntu, you can add a local mapping. The hosts file is a plain-text file that associates IP addresses with hostnames for local name resolution. This article walks through editing /etc/hosts to add a hostname mapping. It also shows how to check the lookup
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Preparing a Java project on Ubuntu or Debian starts with making its build tool available. Apache Maven runs build tasks for Java projects and uses a project file called pom.xml to manage configuration and dependencies. This article walks through installing Maven with APT and choosing between the distribution package and Apache’s binary archive. TL;DR: Install
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