Open source, command line, low "impact", png-producing, full-featured, good-looking graphing on Linux and other Unices? [more inside]
posted by DU on Sep 29, 2009 - 13 answers

I'm curious as to what are the current "best practices" when it comes to centralized administration of a network of Unix (primarily Linux, but not necessarily so) machines? Essentially, what is the equivalent of Active Directory for a network with one or more Unix hosts? The immediate answer I come up with would be something like OpenLDAP plus PAM but what I'm looking for is the suite of tools (GUI and CLI apps) for managing the directory, deploying software, centralizing sign-on and security, managing printers, etc. In a perfect world, I would like to centralize administration of Windows, Unix, and OS X machines via a single directory service, though I imagine such a solution would be expensive and/or cumbersome if it even existed. Or is this something Samba 4 will do?
posted by Imhotep is Invisible on Sep 9, 2009 - 5 answers

Could anyone recommend a color laser printer for ca. 500 GBP for a small office? Compatibility with Linux and Solaris---essential. BONUS question: should I also buy a monochrome laser for B&W printouts or is an unnecessary overkill when one has a color laser?
posted by noztran on Aug 31, 2009 - 3 answers

I need to pick a seminar/conference/class/training/whatever for work to attend within the next 6 months or so, I have until 10PM to choose, and I have no idea where or what the cool stuff is. It should be at least tangentially related to my job as a Unix Systems Engineer/Python Guy, and preferably within the Northeast (NYC is where I'm located), although feel free to recommend anywhere in the US. [more inside]
posted by Mach5 on Aug 7, 2009 - 3 answers

I'm using a shell script to handle some excel docs by converting to csv and reformatting it a little bit. I'm having some difficulty going on with the next part of the script. Some help would be great. :) [more inside]
posted by fightoplankton on Jun 10, 2009 - 11 answers

Why is it OK to have no reserved blocks in ext2 on the Acer Aspire One? [more inside]
posted by Busy Old Fool on Apr 6, 2009 - 4 answers

Can someone give me any pointers, tips, or caveats about installing BSD on sun hardware for use as a firewall/router? [more inside]
posted by Myles on Feb 1, 2009 - 6 answers

Found an old computer in the basement. What steps should I go through to get it up and running? [more inside]
posted by djgh on Nov 26, 2008 - 10 answers

vi / vim editor: Can I paste text inside a colon command? [more inside]
posted by alb on Oct 21, 2008 - 6 answers

Question about changing my terminal prompt (and other matters) in an OS X Bash shell. [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Oct 15, 2008 - 3 answers

Obscure linux/unix text processing command: what is 'dt'? [more inside]
posted by logicpunk on Oct 6, 2008 - 9 answers

Linux/Unix Admin Filter: What is your preferred method for monitoring bandwidth use per virtual host in Apache? [more inside]
posted by Brian Puccio on Sep 16, 2008 - 3 answers

Would anyone care to comment on the most practical way, given access to a command line Fedora box, I can obtain a copy of a folder and its contents? [more inside]
posted by dance on Sep 2, 2008 - 7 answers

UNIX experts: what's the best way to take a pdf file, cut out a few (non-sequential) pages, insert a few more pages from another pdf file, and end up with one new pdf file? [more inside]
posted by tractorfeed on Aug 11, 2008 - 6 answers

What were your greatest victories and punishing woes as a unix/linux system administrator? [more inside]
posted by Myles on Jul 21, 2008 - 11 answers

We're a small research lab, that uses a series of servers. A smart person would have these machines backed up regularly. But we're not that smart ... [more inside]
posted by outlier on Apr 30, 2008 - 22 answers

I need to change sendmail from sending emails from individual machines as user@host.domain.com to user@domain.com. [more inside]
posted by brent_h on Feb 5, 2008 - 6 answers

How do I get the correct return code from a unix command line application after I've piped it through another command that succeeded? [more inside]
posted by ChrisR on Nov 24, 2007 - 22 answers

I'm using the 'make' utility on a Linux system. Is there a way in a Makefile to set all the intermediate files as PRECIOUS without having to list them individually?
posted by bluefly on Nov 2, 2007 - 1 answer

How do I get bash to automagically execute a line or two of code at login? [more inside]
posted by nakedcodemonkey on Oct 22, 2007 - 25 answers

Best *nix distro for SSH, RDC, router and print server. Or i could use windows if that would satisfy the conditions. [more inside]
posted by DJWeezy on Oct 11, 2007 - 17 answers

I have a server running Centos 5. It's currently refusing outside connections to any port except port 22. ip-tables and SELinux are both disabled. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? [more inside]
posted by signalnine on Oct 1, 2007 - 20 answers

Configured Readline with the prefix 'ur/local' on OSX. Then installed Ruby in /usr/local, but with Readline. Would like to put everything in the proper place without damaging anything, so what do I do now? [more inside]
posted by djgh on Jul 23, 2007 - 5 answers

*nixfilter: Help me get to the "root" of understanding the vastness that is a unix/linux environment. [more inside]
posted by Industrial PhD on Jul 10, 2007 - 23 answers

I saw a really cool unix utility the other day blogged about somewhere, that in addition to some little boring http-ey tasks I can't remember, it also served as a tiny little HTTP-server-in-a-pinch like so: ./magicutil file.tar and boom, http://localhost/file.tar is alive. What was it!? Note: please don't try to find something that can /probably/ do this or show me a cool python script that will - this did some other cool stuff too I can't remember!
posted by floam on Jun 23, 2007 - 9 answers

Help me troubleshoot performance issues with digital media sharing between two computers. [more inside]
posted by fsmontenegro on Jun 6, 2007 - 5 answers

For UNIX-like systems (Linux, BSD, Solaris) is there a way to determine power supply type remotely, preferably with a simple command-line tool? [more inside]
posted by littlegreenlights on May 30, 2007 - 5 answers

Seeking a better understanding of Linux terminals, mostly being used remotely via SSH. History files, paths, ncurses, etc. [more inside]
posted by odinsdream on May 30, 2007 - 11 answers

In a Unix-type system, is there a way to quickly remove a directory that contains lots and lots of files? [more inside]
posted by PercussivePaul on Apr 16, 2007 - 18 answers

I'd like a file server. And a print server. And a low-traffic Asterisk server. All running from one box, please. [more inside]
posted by holgate on Apr 9, 2007 - 6 answers

Years of Linux experience, but looking for training on Solaris and AIX without having to relearn the basics [more inside]
posted by tkolstee on Mar 1, 2007 - 5 answers

i am a complete Linux Noob and i've decided to go a few rounds with a simple LAMP server. Where can i find helpful resources and suggestions? [more inside]
posted by Davaal on Dec 22, 2006 - 10 answers

Help me keep my Windows server from DoS'ing my nameserver! [more inside]
posted by Loto on Jul 27, 2006 - 6 answers

Need a tinker-free Linux/MySql install for Ruby On Rails. Also, seeking advice for getting started in RoR. [more inside]
posted by Afroblanco on Jun 27, 2006 - 19 answers

*nix shell "best practices" anyone? [more inside]
posted by furtive on May 31, 2006 - 9 answers

Calling *NIX shell wizards. [more inside]
posted by ori on Dec 11, 2005 - 33 answers

Linuxfilter: I have a third-party app which writes occasional messages to its logfile. The problem is I dont know when these messages are logged. There is no timestamp - just the message. Is there any way I could force a timestamp? Maybe some trickery with 'tail-f' and 'date' and pipes into some new pseudo-logfile? Thanks.
posted by vacapinta on Aug 30, 2005 - 12 answers