Skip one-click backup apps. This rsync script gives you full control over what gets saved and when, plus logs and a few hard-won lessons.

The printf command offers well-defined behavior following the POSIX standard, which means it works the same way across shells and systems. Where echo often fails with escape sequences, printf handles ...

Give your scripts understandable names and they'll be easier to find and easier to use. I often start my scripts by calling them "tryme" until they've been proven to work pretty well. Then I give them ...

Last week's post provided some tips and tricks for debugging scripts. This week's provides some even better ones! In last week’s posting, I mentioned the -x and -v options that can be used on the ...

There are several ways that a single file on a Unix system can be referenced by more than one name. By creating a symbolic link, for example, you might refer to a file both by the name of the file and ...

I really have too many tray icons. You know the ones. They sit on your taskbar, perhaps doing something in the background or, ...

Don't expose your system with sloppy scripts! Although a Linux desktop or server is less susceptible to viruses and malware than a typical Windows device, there isn't a device on the internet that isn ...

Jack Wallen shows how you can create a Linux shell script that requires a password without having to save a password within the script. Image: dennizn/Adobe Stock ...

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is warning government administrators not to use its Security Readiness Review (SRR) scripts to evaluate Unix computers because of a vulnerability that ...

Developer Andy Szybalski has released Shellsilver 1.0, a Mac OS X tool that lets you execute UNIX shell scripts directly from the Finder. You execute the scripts by double-clicking on them. When a ...