System

Work with yum history

# List yum history (e.g install, update)
sudo yum history
# Example output:
# Loaded plugins: extras_suggestions, langpacks, priorities, update-motd
# ID     | Login user               | Date and time    | Action(s)      | Altered
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#     11 |  ... <myuser>       | 2020-04-10 10:57 | Install        |    1 P<
#     10 |  ... <myuser>       | 2020-03-27 05:21 | Install        |    1 >P
#      9 |  ... <myuser>       | 2020-03-05 11:57 | I, U           |   56 *<
# ...

# Show more details of a yum history (e.g. history #11)
sudo yum history info 11

# Undo a yum history (e.g. history #11, this will uninstall some packages)
sudo yum history undo 11

Audit files to see who made changes to a file [RedHat based system only]

# To audit a directory recursively for changes (e.g. myproject)
auditctl -w /path/to/myproject/ -p wa

# If you delete a file name "VIPfile", the deletion is recorded in /var/log/audit/audit.log
sudo grep VIPfile /var/log/audit/audit.log
#type=PATH msg=audit(1581417313.678:113): item=1 name="VIPfile" inode=300115 dev=ca:01 mode=0100664 ouid=1000 ogid=1000 rdev=00:00 nametype=DELETE cap_fp=0000000000000000 cap_fi=0000000000000000 cap_fe=0 cap_fver=0

Check out whether SELinux is enabled

sestatus
# SELinux status:                 enabled
# SELinuxfs mount:                /sys/fs/selinux
# SELinux root directory:         /etc/selinux
# Loaded policy name:             targeted
# Current mode:                   enforcing
# Mode from config file:          enforcing
# Policy MLS status:              enabled
# Policy deny_unknown status:     allowed
# Max kernel policy version:      31

Generate public key from private key

ssh-keygen -y -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa > ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Copy your default public key to remote user

ssh-copy-id <user_name>@<server_IP>
# then you need to enter the password
# and next time you won't need to enter password when ssh to that user

Copy default public key to remote user using the required private key (e.g. use your mykey.pem key to copy your id_rsa.pub to the remote user)

# before you need to use mykey.pem to ssh to remote user.
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub -o "IdentityFile ~/Downloads/mykey.pem" <user_name>@<server_IP>
# now you don't need to use key to ssh to that user.

SSH Agent Forwarding

# To bring your key with you when ssh to serverA, then ssh to serverB from serverA using the key.
ssh-agent
ssh-add /path/to/mykey.pem
ssh -A <username>@<IP_of_serverA>
# Next you can ssh to serverB
ssh <username>@<IP_of_serverB>

Set the default user and key for a host when using SSH

# add the following to ~/.ssh/config
Host myserver
  User myuser
  IdentityFile ~/path/to/mykey.pem

# Next, you could run "ssh myserver" instead of "ssh -i ~/path/to/mykey.pem myuser@myserver"

Follow the most recent logs from service

journalctl -u <service_name> -f

Eliminate the zombie

# A zombie is already dead, so you cannot kill it. You can eliminate the zombie by killing its parent.
# First, find PID of the zombie
ps aux| grep 'Z'
# Next find the PID of zombie's parent
pstree -p -s <zombie_PID>
# Then you can kill its parent and you will notice the zombie is gone.
sudo kill 9 <parent_PID>

Show memory usage

free -c 10 -mhs 1
# print 10 times, at 1 second interval

Display CPU and IO statistics for devices and partitions.

# refresh every second
iostat -x -t 1

Display bandwidth usage on an network interface (e.g. enp175s0f0)

iftop -i enp175s0f0

Tell how long the system has been running and number of users

uptime

Check if it's root running

if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Please run this as root"
        exit 1
fi

Change shell of a user (e.g. bonnie)

chsh -s /bin/sh bonnie
# /etc/shells: valid login shells

Change root / fake root / jail (e.g. change root to newroot)

chroot /home/newroot /bin/bash

# To exit chroot
exit

Display file status (size; access, modify and change time, etc) of a file (e.g. filename.txt)

stat filename.txt

Snapshot of the current processes

ps aux

Display a tree of processes

pstree

Find maximum number of processes

cat /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max

Print or control the kernel ring buffer

dmesg

Show IP address

$ip add show

# or
ifconfig

Print previous and current SysV runlevel

runlevel

# or
who -r

Change SysV runlevel (e.g. 5)

init 5
#or
telinit 5

Display all available services in all runlevels,

chkconfig --list
# update-rc.d equivalent to chkconfig in ubuntu

Check system version

cat /etc/*-release

Linux Programmer's Manuel: hier- description of the filesystem hierarchy

man hier

Control the systemd system and service manager

# e.g. check the status of cron service
systemctl status cron.service

# e.g. stop cron service
systemctl stop cron.service

List job

jobs -l

Run a program with modified priority (e.g. ./test.sh)

# nice value is adjustable from -20 (most favorable) to +19
# the nicer the application, the lower the priority
# Default niceness: 10; default priority: 80

nice -10 ./test.sh

Export PATH

export PATH=$PATH:~/path/you/want

Make file executable

chmod +x filename
# you can now ./filename to execute it

Print system information

uname -a

# Check system hardware-platform (x86-64)
uname -i

Surf the net

links www.google.com

Add user, set passwd

useradd username
passwd username

Edit PS1 variable for bash (e.g. displaying the whole path)

1. vi ~/.bash_profile
2. export PS1='\u@\h:\w\$'
# $PS1 is a variable that defines the makeup and style of the command prompt
# You could use emojis and add timestamp to every prompt using the following value:
# export PS1="\t@🦁:\w\$ "
3. source ~/.bash_profile

Edit environment setting (e.g. alias)

1. vi ~/.bash_profile
2. alias pd="pwd" //no more need to type that 'w'!
3. source ~/.bash_profile

Print all alias

alias -p

Unalias (e.g. after alias ls='ls --color=auto')

unalias ls

Set and unset shell options

# print all shell options
shopt

# to unset (or stop) alias
shopt -u expand_aliases

# to set (or start) alias
shopt -s expand_aliases

List environment variables (e.g. PATH)

echo $PATH
# list of directories separated by a colon

List all environment variables for current user

env

Unset environment variable (e.g. unset variable 'MYVAR')

unset MYVAR

Show partition format

lsblk

Inform the OS of partition table changes

partprobe

Soft link program to bin

ln -s /path/to/program /home/usr/bin
# must be the whole path to the program

Show hexadecimal view of data

hexdump -C filename.class

Jump to different node

rsh node_name

Check port (active internet connection)

netstat -tulpn

Print resolved symbolic links or canonical file names

readlink filename

Find out the type of command and where it link to (e.g. python)

type python
# python is /usr/bin/python
# There are 5 different types, check using the 'type -f' flag
# 1. alias    (shell alias)
# 2. function (shell function, type will also print the function body)
# 3. builtin  (shell builtin)
# 4. file     (disk file)
# 5. keyword  (shell reserved word)

# You can also use `which`
which python
# /usr/bin/python

List all functions names

declare -F

List total size of a directory

du -hs .

# or
du -sb

Copy directory with permission setting

cp -rp /path/to/directory

Store current directory

pushd .

# then pop
popd

#or use dirs to display the list of currently remembered directories.
dirs -l

Show disk usage

df -h

# or
du -h

#or
du -sk /var/log/* |sort -rn |head -10

check the Inode utilization

df -i
# Filesystem      Inodes  IUsed   IFree IUse% Mounted on
# devtmpfs        492652    304  492348    1% /dev
# tmpfs           497233      2  497231    1% /dev/shm
# tmpfs           497233    439  496794    1% /run
# tmpfs           497233     16  497217    1% /sys/fs/cgroup
# /dev/nvme0n1p1 5037976 370882 4667094    8% /
# tmpfs           497233      1  497232    1% /run/user/1000

Show all file system type

df -TH

Show current runlevel

runlevel

Switch runlevel

init 3

#or
telinit 3

Permanently modify runlevel

1. edit /etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf
2. env DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2

Become root

su

Become somebody

su somebody

Report user quotes on device

repquota -auvs

Get entries in a number of important databases

getent database_name

# (e.g. the 'passwd' database)
getent passwd
# list all user account (all local and LDAP)

# (e.g. fetch list of grop accounts)
getent group
# store in database 'group'

Change owner of file

chown user_name filename
chown -R user_name /path/to/directory/
# chown user:group filename

Mount and unmount

# e.g. Mount /dev/sdb to /home/test
mount /dev/sdb /home/test

# e.g. Unmount /home/test
umount /home/test

List current mount detail

mount
# or
df

List current usernames and user-numbers

cat /etc/passwd

Get all username

getent passwd| awk '{FS="[:]"; print $1}'

Show all users

compgen -u

Show all groups

compgen -g

Show group of user

group username

Show uid, gid, group of user

id username

# variable for UID
echo $UID

Check if it's root

if [ $(id -u) -ne 0 ];then
    echo "You are not root!"
    exit;
fi
# 'id -u' output 0 if it's not root

Find out CPU information

more /proc/cpuinfo

# or
lscpu

Set quota for user (e.g. disk soft limit: 120586240; hard limit: 125829120)

setquota username 120586240 125829120 0 0 /home

Show quota for user

quota -v username

Display current libraries from the cache

ldconfig -p

Print shared library dependencies (e.g. for 'ls')

ldd /bin/ls

lastlog

Check last reboot history

last reboot

Edit path for all users

joe /etc/environment
# edit this file

Show and set user limit

ulimit -u

Print out number of cores/ processors

nproc --all

Check status of each core

1. top
2. press '1'

Show jobs and PID

jobs -l

List all running services

service --status-all

Schedule shutdown server

shutdown -r +5 "Server will restart in 5 minutes. Please save your work."

Cancel scheduled shutdown

shutdown -c

Broadcast to all users

wall -n hihi

Kill all process of a user

pkill -U user_name

Kill all process of a program

kill -9 $(ps aux | grep 'program_name' | awk '{print $2}')

Set gedit preference on server

# You might have to install the following:

apt-get install libglib2.0-bin;
# or
yum install dconf dconf-editor;
yum install dbus dbus-x11;

# Check list
gsettings list-recursively

# Change some settings
gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.editor highlight-current-line true
gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.editor scheme 'cobalt'
gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.editor use-default-font false
gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.editor editor-font 'Cantarell Regular 12'

Add user to a group (e.g add user 'nice' to the group 'docker', so that he can run docker without sudo)

sudo gpasswd -a nice docker

Pip install python package without root

1. pip install --user package_name
2. You might need to export ~/.local/bin/ to PATH: export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin/

Removing old linux kernels (when /boot almost full...)

1. uname -a  #check current kernel, which should NOT be removed
2. sudo apt-get purge linux-image-X.X.X-X-generic  #replace old version

Change hostname

sudo hostname your-new-name

# if not working, do also:
hostnamectl set-hostname your-new-hostname
# then check with:
hostnamectl
# Or check /etc/hostname

# If still not working..., edit:
/etc/sysconfig/network
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ensxxx
#add HOSTNAME="your-new-hostname"

List installed packages

apt list --installed

# or on Red Hat:
yum list installed

Check for package update

apt list --upgradeable

# or
sudo yum check-update

Run yum update excluding a package (e.g. do not update php packages)

sudo yum update --exclude=php*

Check which file make the device busy on umount

lsof /mnt/dir

When sound not working

killall pulseaudio
# then press Alt-F2 and type in pulseaudio

When sound not working

killall pulseaudio

List information about SCSI devices

lsscsi

Using telnet to test open ports, test if you can connect to a port (e.g 53) of a server (e.g 192.168.2.106)

telnet 192.168.2.106 53

Change network maximum transmission unit (mtu) (e.g. change to 9000)

ifconfig eth0 mtu 9000

Get pid of a running process (e.g python)

pidof python

# or
ps aux|grep python

Check status of a process using PID

ps -p <PID>

#or
cat /proc/<PID>/status
cat /proc/<PID>/stack
cat /proc/<PID>/stat

NTP

# Start ntp:
ntpd

# Check ntp:
ntpq -p

Remove unnecessary files to clean your server

sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get clean
sudo rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/*

# Remove old kernal:
sudo dpkg --list 'linux-image*'
sudo apt-get remove linux-image-OLDER_VERSION

Increase/ resize root partition (root partition is an LVM logical volume)

pvscan
lvextend -L +130G /dev/rhel/root -r
# Adding -r will grow filesystem after resizing the volume.

Create a UEFI Bootable USB drive (e.g. /dev/sdc1)

sudo dd if=~/path/to/isofile.iso of=/dev/sdc1 oflag=direct bs=1048576

Locate and remove a package

sudo dpkg -l | grep <package_name>
sudo dpkg --purge <package_name>

Create a ssh tunnel

ssh -f -L 9000:targetservername:8088 root@192.168.14.72 -N
#-f: run in background; -L: Listen; -N: do nothing
#the 9000 of your computer is now connected to the 8088 port of the targetservername through 192.168.14.72
#so that you can see the content of targetservername:8088 by entering localhost:9000 from your browser.

Get process ID of a process (e.g. sublime_text)

#pidof
pidof sublime_text

#pgrep, you don't have to type the whole program name
pgrep sublim

#pgrep, echo 1 if process found, echo 0 if no such process
pgrep -q sublime_text && echo 1 || echo 0

#top, takes longer time
top|grep sublime_text

Some benchmarking tools for your server

aio-stress - AIO benchmark. bandwidth - memory bandwidth benchmark. bonnie++ - hard drive and file system performance benchmark. dbench - generate I/O workloads to either a filesystem or to a networked CIFS or NFS server. dnsperf - authorative and recursing DNS servers. filebench - model based file system workload generator. fio - I/O benchmark. fs_mark - synchronous/async file creation benchmark. httperf - measure web server performance. interbench - linux interactivity benchmark. ioblazer - multi-platform storage stack micro-benchmark. iozone - filesystem benchmark. iperf3 - measure TCP/UDP/SCTP performance. kcbench - kernel compile benchmark, compiles a kernel and measures the time it takes. lmbench - Suite of simple, portable benchmarks. netperf - measure network performance, test unidirectional throughput, and end-to-end latency. netpipe - network protocol independent performance evaluator. nfsometer - NFS performance framework. nuttcp - measure network performance. phoronix-test-suite - comprehensive automated testing and benchmarking platform. seeker - portable disk seek benchmark. siege - http load tester and benchmark. sockperf - network benchmarking utility over socket API. spew - measures I/O performance and/or generates I/O load. stress - workload generator for POSIX systems. sysbench - scriptable database and system performance benchmark. tiobench - threaded IO benchmark. unixbench - the original BYTE UNIX benchmark suite, provide a basic indicator of the performance of a Unix-like system. wrk - HTTP benchmark.

Performance monitoring tool - sar

# installation
# It collects the data every 10 minutes and generate its report daily. crontab file (/etc/cron.d/sysstat) is responsible for collecting and generating reports.
yum install sysstat
systemctl start sysstat
systemctl enable sysstat

# show CPU utilization 5 times every 2 seconds.
sar 2 5

# show memory  utilization 5 times every 2 seconds.
sar -r 2 5

# show paging statistics 5 times every 2 seconds.
sar -B 2 5

# To generate all network statistic:
sar -n ALL

# reading SAR log file using -f
sar -f /var/log/sa/sa31|tail

Reading from journal file

journalctl --file ./log/journal/a90c18f62af546ccba02fa3734f00a04/system.journal  --since "2020-02-11 00:00:00"

Show a listing of last logged in users.

lastb

Show a listing of current logged in users, print information of them

who

Show who is logged on and what they are doing

Print the user names of users currently logged in to the current host.

users

Stop tailing a file on program terminate

tail -f --pid=<PID> filename.txt
# replace <PID> with the process ID of the program.

List all enabled services

systemctl list-unit-files|grep enabled

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Last updated 3 years ago