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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Terminal checks can go stale while you read their output. The Linux watch command reruns a command at intervals and displays its current output in a terminal. In this piece, I’ll show you how to set a refresh interval and watch the output of a command pipeline. TL;DR The Linux watch command runs a command
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Before checking filesystem free space, you may first want to know how much space a particular directory uses. The du command estimates the space used by that directory and its contents. I’ll explain what du measures and show how to request a total or inspect another directory level. TL;DR Use the readable-units option with a
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At a Linux terminal, the right password command depends on whose account needs a change. passwd updates the password for your account or for another account when you name it. I’ll explain which passwd command to use for your own account or another user’s, and how to handle password-change errors and related tasks. TL;DR: Change
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