Fixing Ansible playbooks
I've been using Ansible for several years to perform different tasks on my many physical and virtual hosts. It's an excellent tool for defining the...
How I reverted to Name Service Switch (NSS) for name resolution — And why
There are problems with the new systemd-resolved resolver and that gives us some good reasons to keep or revert to the NSSwitch resolver. The Domain...
How I automate file edits with ‘sed’
Here’s a neat command line trick to make changes to a text file.
How ActivityPub is Reshaping Social Networking
I have been a Mastodon user for nearly six years. I started on Fosstodon and have since moved to Mastodon. social but that’s unimportant because both Mastodon instances are...
My Go-To Podcasts for Linux and Open Source
I spend much time on the road or walking around my village and enjoy listening to podcasts about various topics. One of my interests is...
New book announcement
I'm currently working on a new book that will be available in July 2025, "systemd for Linux SysAdmins: All You Need to Know About The...
Using the dmesg command
As a SysAdmin I frequently need to access the kernel log to obtain information of various types. This can range from searching for why a...
How Linux keeps time
Knowing the exact time is important to computers for many reasons. A GPS, which is a computer, needs to know the exact time so it...
Personal backups with ‘rsync’
Make backups of your personal data in case your laptop is lost, stolen, or damaged.
How to get a clean screen — on the command line
After some time using terminal sessions they can get a bit cluttered with previous commands and their output data streams. At other times, I want...
How to do updates on the command line
Keeping your Linux computer as safe as possible from various types of cyber attacks is only possible if you perform updates regularly and upgrade to...
The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins, Tenet 16 —Find the simplicity
Author’s note: This article is excerpted in part from chapter 18 of my book, The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins, with some changes to update the...
For a traditional Unix experience, try Crux Linux
The Linux operating system can be implemented in many ways, and these implementations can very generally be divided into "traditional" Unix and modern Linux. This...
Empowering Everyone: Accessibility Features in LibreOffice
LibreOffice.org is my preferred productivity suite, and I've covered how I use it both as a graphical office suite and a terminal command in the past. In this article,...
The secrets of the usermod command
Most SysAdmins use a diverse set of commands, but it's usually the same set of commands. And, most frequently, the same set of options for...