To check whether a function exists in Bash, use the type builtin with the -t option. This returns a string identifying what the name is: alias, keyword, function, builtin, or file. Basic Check The simplest approach: if [[ $(type -t f1) == “function” ]]; then echo “f1 is defined as a function” fi This works…
The usermod command is the standard tool for modifying user accounts. To change a username, use the -l (or –login) option: sudo usermod -l user1 u1 This changes the login name from u1 to user1. However, there’s an important caveat: usermod only updates the /etc/passwd file. The user’s home directory, mail spool, and other resources…
The YARN resource scheduler determines how cluster resources are allocated to jobs. By default, Hadoop uses the Capacity Scheduler, but you can switch to an alternative like the Fair Scheduler or configure different scheduling policies. Identifying Your Current Scheduler Check which scheduler is currently active by examining your configuration: grep -A 2 “yarn.resourcemanager.scheduler.class” $HADOOP_HOME/etc/hadoop/yarn-site.xml The…
Most modern systems have thermal sensors built into the CPU and motherboard. Reading these sensors is essential for monitoring system health, diagnosing performance issues, and preventing thermal throttling or hardware damage. Install lm-sensors The standard tool for reading hardware sensors on Linux is lm-sensors. Install it on your system: Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install lm-sensors RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:…
If you’ve set up passwordless SSH login with key-based authentication but lftp keeps prompting for a password, you need to explicitly configure it to use your SSH keys. The basic approach The simplest method is to pass an empty password to lftp, which signals it to fall back on SSH key authentication: lftp -u user,…
The standard systemctl enable command should work for rpcbind.service, but if you’re seeing it fail to start after reboot, there are several approaches to troubleshoot and fix the issue. Check the Current State First, verify the actual status: systemctl status rpcbind.service systemctl is-enabled rpcbind.service If is-enabled returns disabled, the service wasn’t properly enabled. Check for…
You need to check whether a directory exists in your $PATH variable. This is useful when verifying that a tool installation succeeded, or when debugging shell initialization scripts. The regex approach Since $PATH uses colons as separators, a regex is the most straightforward method: if [[ “$PATH” =~ (^|:)”/usr/local/mytool/bin”(:|$) ]]; then echo “Directory found in…
When running scripts as root, you often need to execute commands with the environment of a different user. The most reliable way to retrieve another user’s PATH is by spawning a login shell under that user’s context. Basic Approach user1path=$(su – user1 -c ‘echo $PATH’) This spawns a login shell (-) as user1 and outputs…
Python provides several ways to check if files or directories exist, with different trade-offs depending on your use case. Using pathlib (recommended) The modern approach uses pathlib.Path, which is cleaner and more object-oriented: from pathlib import Path path = Path(‘/etc/passwd’) # Check if path exists (file or directory) if path.exists(): print(“Path exists”) # Check if…
Extracting a file extension from a filename is a common task. Here are the main approaches, with modern best practices. Simple Method with lastIndexOf() The most straightforward approach uses lastIndexOf() to find the last dot: function getExtension(filename) { const lastDotIndex = filename.lastIndexOf(‘.’); return (lastDotIndex < 1) ? ” : filename.substring(lastDotIndex + 1); } console.log(getExtension(‘file.txt’)); //…
When you initialize a new repository locally and try to push to GitHub or Bitbucket for the first time, you’ll likely encounter errors like: No refs in common and none specified; doing nothing. Perhaps you should specify a branch such as ‘master’. fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly This happens because your local repository…
The scp command handles multiple files efficiently, whether you’re pushing to a remote server or pulling from one. Here are the practical approaches for copying multiple files from remote to local. Brace Expansion Use brace expansion to specify discrete files: scp user@remote:file{1,2,3} ./ This works well when you have a known set of files with…
If you need to jump to a particular byte position in a file, Vim provides the goto command. This is useful when debugging binary files, working with hex editors, or when error messages reference byte offsets. Using the goto command In normal mode, press go followed by the byte number: 20go This moves the cursor…
When writing system administration scripts, you often need to check if a user account exists before taking action. There are several reliable methods to accomplish this. Using id command The id command retrieves user information and returns a non-zero exit code if the user doesn’t exist. This makes it ideal for conditional testing: user=”hello” if…
When you source a script using . script.sh or source script.sh, the $0 variable doesn’t point to the sourced script—it stays as the path of the parent shell or calling script. This creates a problem if you need the sourced script to know its own location. The solution: use ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} The ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} variable holds the…
The tilde expansion ~username works fine when the username is literal, but fails when the username is stored in a variable like ~$user. Bash doesn’t perform tilde expansion on variables by default—it only expands ~ at the beginning of a word before variable expansion happens. Using eval The most common approach is to use eval:…
MATE’s mouse settings don’t include a graphical toggle for natural (or inverted) scrolling on touchpads, unlike GNOME or Cinnamon. You’ll need to configure it through the command line or configuration files. Using synclient If your system uses Synaptics touchpad driver, you can invert scrolling direction with synclient: synclient VertScrollDelta=-111 synclient HorizScrollDelta=-111 Verify the change took…
MATE Desktop provides a traditional GNOME 2-style interface that many users prefer over modern GNOME Shell. Here’s how to install it on Linux Mint 17 Qiana. Install MATE Desktop sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment For the full MATE experience with extras: sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-extras This adds additional applets, themes, and utilities not…
When renewing an SSL certificate, your CA will request a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). If you have the private key but need to generate a fresh CSR, OpenSSL handles this straightforwardly. Basic CSR Generation Generate a CSR from your existing private key: openssl req -new -key ssl.key -out req.pem This creates req.pem containing your CSR,…
When you need to restrict a find-and-replace operation to a specific block of text, Vim gives you several approaches. Using the %V atom The most straightforward method is the %V atom, which restricts pattern matching to the current visual selection: :%s/%Vfrom/to/gc This works regardless of the visual mode you used (character, line, or block). The…