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 ...

Imagine that you want to output multiple lines of text in Bash, or any shell script. Maybe it’s for a help string for a particularly convoluted shell script you’re writing. You could have a separate ...

If you ever think about it, computers are exceedingly stupid. Even the most powerful CPU can’t do very much. However, it can do what it does very rapidly and repeatably. Computers are so fast, they ...

The shell does far more than run commands. Here’s how Bash expands your input behind the scenes so you can write cleaner, ...

Wicked Cool Shell Scripts: 101 Scripts for Linux, OS X, and Unix Systems by Dave Taylor and Brandon Perry, 2 nd edition, no starch press (2017) is a book that can lift you up a notch in the super Unix ...

For Linux users, the command line is a celebrated part of our entire experience. Unlike other popular operating systems, where the command line is a scary proposition for all but the most experienced ...

Last time, I talked about what's known informally as l33t-speak, a series of letter and letter-pair substitutions that marks the jargon of the hacker elite (or some subset of hacker elite, because I'm ...

Linux shells might appear similar to the Command Prompt, but if you're coming from the Windows command line, there's a lot to discover about them. One difference from the Windows Command Prompt in ...

The Windows Subsystem for Linux is bridging the divide between Windows and Linux by letting you run Windows 10 programs directly within a Linux shell. One of the strengths of the Windows Subsystem for ...