Getting your process ID Every running process gets a unique identifier from the operating system called a PID (Process ID). You’ll need this when managing processes, logging, creating lock files, or coordinating between parent and child processes. The POSIX standard approach The simplest way is getpid() from unistd.h: #include <unistd.h> #include <stdio.h> int main() {…
Getting the parent process ID Every process running on a Unix-like system has a parent process. The parent process ID (PPID) identifies which process spawned the current one — critical information when debugging process hierarchies, managing child processes, or writing robust shell scripts. Built-in variable The simplest approach uses Bash’s $PPID variable: echo $PPID This…
Getting the Hostname in C Programs on Linux The gethostname() function is the standard POSIX way to retrieve the system’s hostname. It’s straightforward to use and works across Unix-like systems. Basic Implementation #include <unistd.h> #include <stdio.h> int main() { char hostname[256]; if (gethostname(hostname, sizeof(hostname)) == 0) { printf(“Hostname: %s\n”, hostname); } else { perror(“gethostname”); return…
Converting Epoch Timestamps to Readable Dates Bash provides straightforward methods to convert Unix epoch timestamps into human-readable formats. This is essential for log parsing, system monitoring, and scripting across CI/CD pipelines and production environments. Using the date Command The standard approach is the date command with the -d flag (GNU coreutils) or -r flag (BSD/macOS):…
Getting the Hostname in Python There are several ways to retrieve the hostname of the current machine in Python, each with different use cases. Using socket.gethostname() The simplest and most common approach is the socket module, which is part of Python’s standard library: import socket hostname = socket.gethostname() print(hostname) This returns the hostname as a…
Getting Epoch Timestamp in C The epoch timestamp (seconds since January 1, 1970 UTC) is fundamental for Unix timekeeping. Every process needs reliable time access — whether for logging, scheduling, or benchmarking. Basic Second-Level Precision For simple timestamp needs, use time(): #include <time.h> time_t now = time(NULL); printf(“Current epoch: %ld\n”, (long)now); This returns seconds since…
Getting epoch timestamps in Java Java provides multiple ways to get the current time as an epoch value. The right approach depends on whether you need milliseconds, seconds, or nanosecond precision, and whether you’re working with UTC or time zones. Using Instant for UTC timestamps The most straightforward method is Instant.now(): Instant now = Instant.now();…
Getting epoch timestamps in Go Getting the current epoch timestamp is straightforward using the time package: package main import ( “fmt” “time” ) func main() { epoch := time.Now().Unix() fmt.Println(epoch) } The time.Now().Unix() call returns the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 UTC as an int64. Getting nanosecond precision If you need higher resolution,…
Getting Epoch Timestamps in PHP The epoch timestamp (also called Unix time) represents the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. PHP provides several straightforward methods to obtain this value. Using time() The simplest approach is the time() function: <?php $timestamp = time(); echo $timestamp; // Output: 1704067200 (example) ?> This returns the…
Getting epoch timestamps in Perl The Unix epoch (seconds since January 1, 1970 UTC) is the standard for representing time across systems. Perl gives you straightforward access to this value. Basic epoch timestamp The simplest way to get the current epoch time: my $epoch = time(); print $epoch; # prints something like 1735689600 The time()…
Getting Epoch Timestamps in Python Python offers several ways to get the current epoch timestamp, each suited to different use cases. The choice depends on your precision requirements and whether you’re working with timezone-aware operations. Using time.time() The simplest approach is time.time(), which returns the current time as a float representing seconds since the Unix…
Missing libvirt default network After a libvirt upgrade, VMs fail to start with the error: error: Failed to start domain kvm1 error: Network not found: no network with matching name ‘default’ This happens when the default NAT network (virbr0) isn’t automatically created during the upgrade. Quick fix: Restore the default network The fastest solution is…
Using os.access() to check file permissions The most straightforward approach is os.access(), which tests whether the process has the requested access to a file: import os file_path = “example.txt” # Check if file is readable if os.access(file_path, os.R_OK): print(“File is readable”) # Check if file is writable if os.access(file_path, os.W_OK): print(“File is writable”) # Check…
Getting File Extensions in JavaScript Extracting a file extension from a filename is a common task. Here are the main approaches, with modern best practices. Simple Method with lastIndexOf() The most straightforward approach uses lastIndexOf() to find the last dot: function getExtension(filename) { const lastDotIndex = filename.lastIndexOf(‘.’); return (lastDotIndex < 1) ? ” : filename.substring(lastDotIndex…
Moving to a specific byte in Vim If you need to jump to a particular byte position in a file, Vim provides the goto command. This is useful when debugging binary files, working with hex editors, or when error messages reference byte offsets. Using the goto command In normal mode, press go followed by the…
YouCompleteMe for Vim on Fedora 41 reports this error: [zma@laptop:~/.vim/bundle/YouCompleteMe]$ ./install.sh — The C compiler identification is GNU 4.9.2 — The CXX compiler identification is GNU 4.9.2 — Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc — Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc — works — Detecting C compiler ABI info — Detecting C compiler ABI info…
Unfortunately, my C: drive is almost full. Most of the space are used by the user home under C:Users. How can I move the home directory to another drive while not affecting the user’s usage of Windows. On Linux/Unix, moving the directory to another drive/partition and then keeping a softlink is enough. But how to…
What suggested web browser in command line? This will be very useful for browsing the Internet from a command line via SSH. You may use Lynx, a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users running cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices, in Linux. Homepage: http://lynx.isc.org/ Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users…
When programming in C on Linux, it is common to allocate a buffer for storing the full path of a file. How to get a safe maximum size for allocating buffers for file paths? The header <linux/limits.h> includes macros for the path and file name length limits. On my system (Fedora 41), it is located…
How to measure the execution time of a function, say f: ‘a -> ‘b in OCaml? This small OCaml function is handy: let time f = let t = Unix.gettimeofday () in let res = f () in Printf.printf “Execution time: %f secondsn” (Unix.gettimeofday () -. t); res ;; The gettimeofday returns a float representing…