How to find out things in Linux with bash commands
Don't forget that re-direction and piping add to the power in bash, so some of these tips use them.
# Basic piping
some_command | another_command
See Linux and the tools philosophy
# Basic re-direction:
command > textfile_name
See this Text Manipulation Article
# Basic concantenation:
If you don't want to overwrite a file but add to the bottom of an existing file, concantenate it:
command >> exisiting_text_file
The bash commands:
# Find CPU specifications
cat /proc/cpuinfo
# What pci cards are installed and what irq/port is used
cat /proc/pci
# Memory information
free
# How is the hard drive partitioned
fdisk /dev/hdXX -l
# How much free drive space
df -h
# Show disk usage by current directory and all subdirectories
du | less
# Find running kernel version
uname -r
# Find X server version
X -showconfig
# What is the distribution
cat /etc/.product
cat /etc/.issue
cat /etc/issue
cat /etc/issue.net
sysinfo
# For finding or locating files
find
locate
which
whereis
# Use dmesg to view the kernel ring buffer (error messages)
dmesg | less
# Watch error messages as they happen (sysklog needed)
as root, tail -f /var/log/messages (shows last 10 lines, use a number in front of f for more lines)
# What processes are running
ps -A
# Find a process by name
ps -ef | grep -i
For example, XCDroast
ps -ef | grep -i xcdroast /* Case Insensitive */
# See current environment list, or pipe to file
env | more
env > environmentvariablelist.txt
# Show current userid and assigned groups
id
# See all command aliases for the current user
alias
# See rpms installed on current system
rpmquery --all | more
rpmquery --all > .txt
rpmquery --all | grep -i <![CDATA[ /* find specific rpms with name in them */ <br />
<br />
# What directory am I using <br />
pwd <br />
<br />
Look at man <command> or info <command> for the flags and options you can use for bash commands
</div>
<!--INFOLINKS_OFF-->
<!-- / message -->
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="alt2" style="border: 1px solid #D1D1E1; border-top: 0px">
<img class="inlineimg" src="images/statusicon/user_offline.gif" alt="healtheworld is offline" border="0" />
</td>
<td class="alt1" align="right" style="border: 1px solid #D1D1E1; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px">
<!-- controls -->
<a href="http://www.pcmech.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=546250" rel="nofollow"><img src="images/buttons/quote.gif" alt="Reply With Quote" border="0" /></a>
<!-- / controls -->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- post 546250 popup menu -->
<div class="vbmenu_popup" id="postmenu_546250_menu" style="display:none">
<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0">
<tr>
<td class="thead">healtheworld</td>
</tr>
<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="http://www.pcmech.com/forum/members/healtheworld.html">View Public Profile</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="http://www.pcmech.com/forum/search.php?do=finduser&u=15660" rel="nofollow">Find More Posts by healtheworld</a></td></tr>
</table>
</div>
<!-- / post 546250 popup menu -->
<!-- / post #546250 -->
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="1" border="0" width="100%" style="border-top-width:0px">
<tr>
<td class="tfoot" align="center">
<input type="button" class="button" value="Close this window" id="close_button" style="display: none;" />
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
if (self.opener)
{
var close_button = fetch_object('close_button');
close_button.style.display = '';
close_button.onclick = function() { self.close(); };
}
//-->
</script>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
// Main vBulletin Javascript Initialization
vBulletin_init();
//-->
</script>
</body>
</html>
]]></plaintext></filename></plain></div></div>