Top new questions this week:

for vs find in bash

When looping through files there are two ways: 1. use a for-loop for f in *; do echo "$f" done 2. use find find * -prune | while read f; do echo "$f" done Assuming these two loops will …

/ bash / shell-script / performance

asked by rubo77 17 votes answered by Phil 17 votes

Why does while [ 0 ] go into infinite loop?

I see the same behaviour for below loop as the loop with while [ 1 ]. Why is that so? while [ 0 ]; do echo "hello" done

/ bash / shell / test

asked by user13107 13 votes answered by wingedsubmariner 23 votes

How much RAM does the kernel use?

This question is motivated by my shock when I discovered that Mac OS X kernel uses 750MB of RAM. I have been using Linux for 20 years, and I always "knew" that the kernel RAM usage is dwarfed by X …

/ linux / kernel / ram

asked by sds 12 votes answered by slm 12 votes

pipe, { list; } only works with some programs

Need explanations from power users for such unpredictable behaviour: ps -eF | { head -n 1;grep worker; } UID PID PPID C SZ RSS PSR STIME TTY TIME CMD root 441 2 0 …

/ shell / pipe

asked by ast 12 votes answered by jordanm 7 votes

Are quotes needed for local variable assignment?

Can I safely omit quotes on the right side of a local assignment? function foo { local myvar=${bar} stuff() } I'm mainly interested in bash, but any info on corner cases in other shells are …

/ bash / shell-script / quoting

asked by rahmu 7 votes answered by Stephane Chazelas 6 votes

How am I supposed to edit files on a network with Vim?

Currently I'm doing it by SSHing into a server, and executing Vim on the server. This has the benefit of not having to deal with cumbersome syntax of opening files from a remote server over SCP, and, …

/ networking / files / vim / server

asked by yannbane 7 votes answered by Mircea Vutcovici 13 votes

Is `rm -rf` not atomic?

I've just caught a confusing error: rm: cannot remove `xxx/app/cache/prod': Directory not empty which was caused by the following command: rm -rf $cache_dir/* where $cache_dir is defined as …

/ rm / remove / concurrency

asked by zerkms 7 votes answered by slm 5 votes

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

Error using SCP: "not a regular file"

I have been searching for a while and I can't find the definition of a regular file. My path is permanent (I start at /) and I am connecting to scp root@IP: /path/to/picture.jpg Results in an …

/ scp / error

asked by JeffM 1 vote answered by Gilles 7 votes

What to do when a linux desktop freezes?

I'm a Windows guy, dual booted recently, and now I'm using Linux Mint 12 When a Windows desktop freezes I refresh, or if I am using a program I use alt + F4 to exit the program or I can use ctrl + …

/ linux / linux-mint / desktop

asked by Someone Like You 20 votes answered by purplepsycho 26 votes

Can you answer these?

gnome-terminal: cursor blinks in inactive window

I am using gnome-terminal in LXDE. When I have several gnome-terminal windows open, after some time the cursor in the inactive window starts to blink as well, as if the inactive window was actually …

/ debian / gnome-terminal / lxde

asked by Martin Vegter 2 votes

Connect to a Bluetooth device via Terminal

I'm using Mint 15 w/ cinammon. I bought a set of bluetooth speakers and i'm tring to connect to them via terminal. Via GUI i can see them normally and i am connected to them. I want to make a small …

/ command-line / terminal / linux-mint / bluetooth

asked by Zippie 3 votes

Manjaro Linux - Cable unplugged even if plugged

I have just installed the system (Manjaro) and I have one, major, problem: it says that my network cable is unplugged, even if it's plugged. I have a Realtek RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet and …

/ networkcard

asked by user162237 2 votes