Linux built-ins are commands that are built into the shell, much like shelves that are built into a wall. You won’t find them as stand-alone files the way standard Linux commands are stored in ...

Linux’s compgen command is not actually a Linux command. In other words, it’s not implemented as an executable file, but is instead a bash builtin. That means that it’s part of the bash executable. So ...

What happens when you run a Linux command? This simple act can appear straightforward, but many different things can actually occur, depending on whether you’re running an executable program, a shell ...

One of the most powerful features of Unix and Linux is that using traditional command line tools, everything is a stream of bytes. Granted, modern software has blurred this a bit, but at the command ...

If you're working in a Linux environment, chances are you've encountered environment variables—even if you didn’t realize it at the time. They quietly power much of what goes on behind the scenes in ...

It is easy to dismiss bash — the typical Linux shell program — as just a command prompt that allows scripting. Bash, however, is a full-blown programming language. I wouldn’t presume to tell you that ...

Imagine browsing the Web and having to type the full Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) path each time you visit a Web page—painful. However, since 1993, when browser bookmarks were added to the Mosaic ...

The developers of Ubuntu Linux have worked hard to make their operating system easy for businesses to set up, use and maintain. There are still occasions, however, when a member of your Information ...

This article is reprinted from the book A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming 3rd edition, with permission of the author and publisher ...