Removing Untracked Files from SVN Working in an SVN repository often leaves behind temporary build artifacts, compiled outputs, and editor cache files. Unlike Git’s git clean command, SVN has no built-in cleanup mechanism for untracked files. Using svn st to Identify Untracked Files The svn status command (or svn st) marks untracked files with a…
Apply sysctl.conf Changes Without Rebooting When you modify /etc/sysctl.conf, the changes take effect on the next reboot. To apply them immediately without rebooting, use the sysctl -p command: sudo sysctl -p This reads the configuration file and applies all settings to the running kernel. Reloading Specific Configuration Files By default, sysctl -p reads from /etc/sysctl.conf….
Mapping Linux Disk Names to Physical SATA Ports When a disk fails on a server with multiple drives, you need to identify which physical SATA port it’s connected to. Linux device names (sda, sdb, etc.) don’t necessarily map to SATA port order, especially after disk failures or in systems with mixed storage. Using lsblk with…
Disabling Directory Listing with .htaccess Directory listing exposes your file structure to visitors and can be a security concern. Apache’s .htaccess file provides a straightforward way to disable this behavior while still allowing direct file access. Basic Implementation Create a .htaccess file in the directory where you want to disable listing: Options -Indexes Place this…
Installing the caption LaTeX package on Fedora If you’re getting an error like Package subcaption Error: ‘caption’ package not loaded, you need to install the caption package from TeX Live. Quick install For Fedora 41 and later, install the package directly with DNF: dnf install texlive-caption If you’re using an older Fedora version that still…
Reverting Local Changes in Subversion If you’ve made changes to your working copy but haven’t committed them yet, you can discard them using svn revert. This is useful when you want to abandon edits and go back to the last committed version. Basic Revert To revert all changes in your working copy, run this from…
Install and Configure MySQL Cluster on Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux MySQL Cluster uses NDB (Network Database) storage engine to provide high availability and data redundancy across multiple nodes. This guide covers installation and configuration on modern RHEL-compatible systems. Prerequisites Three or more servers (minimum: one management node, two data nodes, one SQL node) Rocky Linux 9 or…
Setting a local branch’s upstream tracking branch Tracking branches link your local branch to a remote branch, enabling git pull and git push to work without specifying the remote and branch name each time. Here’s how to configure this. The basic command To set an upstream tracking branch for your current branch: git branch –set-upstream-to=origin/branch-name…
Creating a Swap Partition on Linux Swap space is essential for system stability, allowing the kernel to move less-frequently-used memory pages to disk when physical RAM is exhausted. Here’s how to set up a dedicated swap partition. Step 1: Create the Partition Use fdisk, gdisk (for GPT disks), or parted to create a new partition….
Using Multiple Swap Spaces with Priority Linux can manage multiple swap partitions or files simultaneously, each with an assigned priority. The kernel allocates swap pages from highest to lowest priority, with round-robin allocation among equally-prioritized areas. Setting Swap Priority with swapon Use the swapon command to activate a swap partition and set its priority: swapon…
Writing GNOME Autostart Scripts GNOME uses .desktop files in ~/.config/autostart/ to launch applications when you log in. This mechanism works across GNOME, XFCE, KDE, and most other modern desktop environments. Basic Setup Create a .desktop file in ~/.config/autostart/. Here’s a minimal example: [Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=My Autostart Script Exec=/home/user/bin/myscript.sh Save this as ~/.config/autostart/myscript.desktop and it…
Tools for Designing Posters If you’re creating posters—whether for conferences, events, or general communication—you’ll want the right tools and guidance. Here’s a practical breakdown of what works. Design Software Inkscape is your go-to for vector-based design. It’s free, open-source, and handles logos, text, and scalable graphics without quality loss. Use it when you need clean…
Changing Your GNOME Keyring Password GNOME Keyring stores passwords, SSH keys, and certificates. If you need to update your keyring password, you can do this through the Seahorse graphical interface or directly from the command line. Using Seahorse (GUI Method) Seahorse is GNOME’s visual keyring manager. Open it with: seahorse Once open: Go to the…
Disabling All Swaps on Linux To disable all active swap spaces on Linux, run: swapoff -a The -a flag targets all currently enabled swap devices and files. This forces the kernel and applications to rely entirely on physical RAM. When You’d Do This Disabling swap is useful for: Performance testing: Eliminating swap I/O variance to…
Configure CMake with Debug Build Type To enable debugging, configure your CMake build with CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE set to Debug. This tells CMake to invoke the compiler with the -g flag, generating debug symbols that tools like gdb and lldb need. From your project’s root directory: cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -B build cd build make The -B build flag…
ANSI C Grammar and Yacc Implementation ANSI C is the standardized version of C defined in 1989, specifying the language’s syntax and semantics formally through a grammar. Understanding this grammar is essential for building tools that parse, analyze, or transform C code. Grammar Basics The ANSI C grammar is defined using Backus-Naur Form (BNF), a…
Downloading Videos from Chrome When you need to download a video playing in your browser, Chrome offers several solid options depending on your workflow and the video source. Browser Extensions Video Download Helper is a reliable choice for Chrome that works across most video hosting platforms. Install it from the Chrome Web Store and use…
Automatically Adding New SSH Hosts to Known Hosts When managing many systems, manually confirming host keys for each new connection gets tedious fast. You can configure SSH to automatically add unknown hosts to ~/.ssh/known_hosts without prompting. The Risk Trade-off Before implementing this, understand what you’re doing: disabling strict host key checking opens you to man-in-the-middle…
Handling Paste Mode in Vim Pasting external code into Vim often triggers unwanted autoindent behavior, adding extra indentation and breaking formatting. Vim’s paste mode disables all automatic indentation while inserting text, letting you paste code exactly as-is. Quick paste mode toggle Enable paste mode before pasting: :set paste Then paste your code. When done, disable…
Author markup for Google search results Google no longer displays author information in search results the way it did when Google+ existed. However, you can still control how your content appears in search results by using schema markup—specifically the author property in JSON-LD structured data. Current best practice: schema.org markup The modern approach uses JSON-LD…