Hype for the Future 43J: How Many Commands are in a Linux System?
Linux is not an operating system by nature of being a software kernel. However, numerous distributions have been derived from the kernel, resulting in hundreds to thousands of clearly distinct operating systems. Every distinct distribution has unique characteristics, yet in most cases even the characteristics themselves are not clearly defined. With these facts, one can expect the vast majority of Linux systems to have at least one thousand separate shell commands, total, with BSD- and […]#Unix
Hype for the Future 43I: Programming Style
When compiling most software packages from source, the GNU Three-Step Method is as follows: ./autogen.sh # With this command, four steps, if necessary ./configure make sudo make install The configuration commands may also contain parameters and options, depending on the specific source and related content type. With the Linux kernel, the command to `make` can also be utilized with different configuration utilities, each with clearly different options as well, as in graphical and terminal […]https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2025/12/13/hype-for-the-future-43i-programming-style/
2038 is coming #Unix
⚪ Linux Audit Basics: Setting Up auditd to Log Critical Security Events
🗨️ The Linux Audit subsystem lets you track security-relevant activity based on preconfigured rules and generates log records for investigating policy violations. Today we’ll take a closer look at this key part of the security stack—useful to both attackers and administrators.
I had an idea for a #plan9 inspired job manager.
There are four folders: pending, current, failed, complete.
To create a job, write the job name as title and command to execute as content.
The job gets moved from pending to current. Current has one directory per attempt, and attempts up to X times.
On failure, the job file gets moved to failure. To retry, move the failed job back to pending.
Success contains all completed jobs, with the content being log output. old jobs can be deleted by just removing the file.
For periodic jobs, you can just use cron to write files to pending.
The system uses fuse to expose the files and is backed by sqlite or a distributed DB later on.
Might try to create a poc later today
I am tired of saying "I use NixOS btw." so from now on this responsibility is delegated to my new keyring.
Did you know you can still get the src for the DICE C compiler (68000 #ANSI C #compiler) written for the #Amiga in the early 90's by Matthew Dillon?
Itll run on #BSD or #Linux host and can generate generic 68000 output that doesn't have to be targeted to the Amiga. It contains all utilities required to compile, assemble, link, rom, etc, and it's BSD licensed. dmake is needed to compile it on #Unix. It will generate 68K code, Amiga bin, obj, etc
https://apollo.backplane.com/FreeSrc/
#RetroComputing #Commodore
Based on
https://bsd.network/@ed1conf/115708857607924814
I added to .zshrc:
# XMAS
export XMAS=(
'🎄' '🌲' '🌟' '🎁' '🔔' '❄️' '☃️' '⛄'
'🎅' '🤶' '🦌' '🍪' '🥛'
)
xmasch() {
xmasi=$(( int(rand48()*13+1) ))
echo -n -e $XMAS[xmasi]
}
export PS1='%F{red} $(xmasch) %n@%m:%~%#%f '
I might add more intelligence to xmasch and use that for other calendar things.
Still using nvi on Slackware.
No plugins. No syntax highlighting. Just speed, predictability, and classic vi behavior, even with multi-GB files.
I wrote a short guide explaining why nvi still matters and how its architecture enables fast, low-memory editing.
📄 https://4c6e.xyz/code_notes.html (NVI Editor Guide)
📄 https://git.sr.ht/~r1w1s1/code-notes/blob/main/notes/NVI_Editor_Guide.txt (plain text)
#slackware #editor #nvi #vi #unix #minimalism
No plugins. No syntax highlighting. Just speed, predictability, and classic vi behavior, even with multi-GB files.
I wrote a short guide explaining why nvi still matters and how its architecture enables fast, low-memory editing.
📄 https://4c6e.xyz/code_notes.html (NVI Editor Guide)
📄 https://git.sr.ht/~r1w1s1/code-notes/blob/main/notes/NVI_Editor_Guide.txt (plain text)
#slackware #editor #nvi #vi #unix #minimalism
Think it is time to give the #iwlwifi driver a try on #FreeBSD 15.0 for my Intel 8260 wireless card. So far so good, might get some speed gain compared with #iwm driver but I need to run a few days to make a conclusion. Wiki page here is helpful: https://wiki.freebsd.org/WiFi/Iwlwifi
#BSD #RUNBSD #FOSS #Unix
#BSD #RUNBSD #FOSS #Unix
This post
https://mstdn.social/@osnews/115708949285022093
pointed me to a wonderful bit of Unix history that somehow manages to capture so much of the Unix philosophy in a fun and enlightening way.
More shell, less egg
http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2011/12/more-shell-less-egg/
Read about Donald Knuth, Doug McIlroy, Jon Bentley, literate programming, intelligible vs wise programming, Fabergé eggs and brass balls.
One too many words on AT&T’s $2000 Korn shell and other Usenet topics
Unix has been enormously successful over the past 55 years.
It started out as a small experiment to develop a time-sharing system (i.e., a multi-user operating system) at AT&T Bell Labs. The goal was to take a few core principles to their logical conclusion. The OS bundled many small tools that were
In our college #Unix labs, if an email had a \b character in it, the command line mail reader would beep. Naturally when you see your friend in the lab you’d send them an email with a thousand bell characters.
Here is a small tip: to easily configure your installed FreeBSD, use the `bsdconfig` command as the root user. A lot of FreeBSD users or developers (including some IT/sysadmin folks) don't know this, but you can use `bsdconfig` to set up many system configuration settings, both for new systems and for changing settings on existing systems.
Rethinking sudo with object capabilities
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://ariadne.space/2025/12/12/rethinking-sudo-with-object-capabilities.html
@davepolaschek Well, who said ChatGPT doesn't make some jobs obsolete.
Like the job of people on IRC #Unix telling people to `rm -rf /` when they barged in with stupid Linux questions despite the /topic clearly saying this was not a help channel }:->
Just like then, that person learnt a lesson today 😸
Rethinking sudo with object capabilities via @RunxiYu https://lobste.rs/s/ytelgx #security #unix
https://ariadne.space/2025/12/12/rethinking-sudo-with-object-capabilities.html
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