"Linux-in-a-console" tips

• To read the messages that are displayed at boot time: type
  dmesg
  in a console.
• When you compile a software, you sometimes need to know what environment variables are set. Type
  env
  in a console to get the list of all those variables. Equivalent to this is the use of set in the bash and of setenv in a csh.
• Want to know how much space is left on each of your partition? Type
  df -m
  to get the exact figures in Megabytes.
• Want to know which user or subdirectory on your hard disc needs the most space? Type
  du -s /home/* | sort -rn
  to find the "robber" of disk space in the /home partition.
• You don't know in which man page you have to search for a certain command or program? Use the command
  apropos
  (mostly man -k) to look it up.
• In /usr/share/doc/* you find on most distributions files like manual.gz - you can use
  zless or zmore
  to look into these compressed text files.
• Want to delete or move a "file with space" in its name or a "-file"? Try for example
  rm ./file with space or mv ./-file .
• If a process is frozen and you know its PID number, first try to kill it with
  kill PID_NUMBER
  If this doesn't help type kill -9 PID_NUMBER to kill it.

Last update: 2006-10-04