Author Archives: geoffm
How to see lines that exceed the vi buffer
I ran into this problem again today. While analyzing a huge file I needed to see the contents of lines that were well past the vi buffer. Yes, I could have tweaked the vi settings and gained a greater buffer … Continue reading
Java VM thread dumps
I have a love hate relationship with Java. It is important to understand that my inclinations are focused on system admin engineering and not on development. It seems everywhere I work java plays a major role. There are lots of … Continue reading
*nix shell profiles – order is important!
Often I hear the question “How should I update my profile?” and then that usually leads to what file should I use. It is important to understand the file loading order and why this adds flexibility. My comments here will … Continue reading
Use awk to grab the remaing X fields.
I needed to grab all the fields (command line args) from the “history” command output. I started to do what I have always done in the past (assuming you need fields 4 through the end). history | awk -v col=4 … Continue reading
A simple shell calculator
As a System Engineer the command line is where I live most of the time. So having a quick means of calculating is needed. The tool “bc” (think: binary calculator) is your friend here but you must be aware of … Continue reading