Dave McKay

The Linux dig command allows you to query DNS servers and perform DNS lookups. You can also find the domain an IP address leads back to. We’ll show you how!

Everything you need to know about Linux is in its man pages. For example, you can search for a command to accomplish a task, even if you don’t know what it’s called. But how can you find the man pages? Here are so...

With the Linux screen command, you can push running terminal applications to the background and pull them forward when you want to see them. It also supports split-screen displays and works over SSH connections, even after yo...

Wondering what those weird strings of symbols do on Linux? They give you command-line magic! We’ll teach you how to cast regular expression spells and level up your command-line skills.

When you install Linux software packages with snap, you can say goodbye to dependency hell and breaking other working applications. Snap packages were originally designed for Ubuntu, but they’re now available on a varie...

There are plenty of ways you can get the lowdown on memory usage within your Linux system. In this roundup, we’ll cover the most commonly used command-line methods: free, vmstat, and top. We’ll also look at readi...

Many Linux folks have never heard of pushd and popd, but they’ve been around forever. They can also dramatically speed up the process of navigating directories on the command line. We’ll walk you through how to us...

You can configure IP addresses, network interfaces, and routing rules on the fly with the Linux ip command. We’ll show you how you can use this modern replacement of the classic (and now deprecated) ifconfig....

When you type a command in a terminal window and press Enter, you kick off quite a lot of activity before your command is even executed.

You can use the Linux traceroute command to spot the slow leg of a network packet’s journey and troubleshoot sluggish network connections. We’ll show you how!

SUID, SGID, and Sticky Bits are powerful special permissions you can set for executables and directories on Linux. We’ll share the benefits—and potential pitfalls—of using them.

On Linux, awk is a command-line text manipulation dynamo, as well as a powerful scripting language. Here’s an introduction to some of its coolest features.

Deleting a user on Linux involves more than you think. If you’re a system administrator, you’ll want to purge all traces of the account and its access from your systems. We’ll show you the steps to take....

If you want to merge data from two text files by matching a common field, you can use the Linux join command. It adds a sprinkle of dynamism to your static data files. We’ll show you how to use it....

The Linux netstat command gives you a treasure-trove of information about your network connections, the ports that are in use, and the processes using them. Learn how to use it.

JSON is one of the most popular formats for transferring text-based data around the web. It’s everywhere, and you’re bound to come across it. We’ll show you how to handle it from the Linux command line using...

When does “changed” not mean “modified”? When we’re talking about Linux file timestamps. In this guide, we’ll explain how the system updates them, and how to alter them yourself....

The Linux fold command brings unruly output to heel. Read wide chunks of text, endless strings, and unformatted streams by controlling the width of the output. Learn how.

The Linux uniq command whips through your text files looking for unique or duplicate lines. In this guide, we cover its versatility and features, as well as how you can make the most of this nifty utility....

Need to identify the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) in a Linux computer? Here’s how you can identify the graphics card from the command line and in GNOME.

Linux’s shell saves a history of the commands you run, and you can search it to repeat commands you’ve run in the past. Once you understand the Linux history command and how to use it, it can significantly boost y...