Search Results for: Linux

Ansible #3: Finishing our Ansible playbook to manage workstation and server updates

In part two of this series on writing Ansible playbooks, “Ansible #2 How to create an Ansible Playbook,” we examined the task of installing updates for servers and workstations. This playbook is intended to manage updates differently depending on the role the systems play on the network. Last time we created the play designed to install updates on the Ansible hub. This time we add two more plays; one to install updates on the servers and another to install updates on the regular workstations.

Regular Expressions #2: An example

In the previous article, Regular Expressions #1: Introduction, I covered what they are and why they’re useful.

The example in this article highlights the power and flexibility of the Linux command line, especially regular expressions, for their ability to automate common tasks.

Regular Expressions #1: Introduction

Regular expressions don’t have to invoke anxiety and fear, although they do for many of us. The function of regular expressions is to provide a highly flexible tool for matching strings of characters in a stream of data. When a match is found, the program’s action can be as simple as to pass the line of data in which it’s found on to STDOUT, or as copmplex as replacing that string with another.

Open Source and Music Playback

For me at least, music is an indispensable part of my day; much more so than streaming video or television. I tend to be an...

How to use udev

Udev is flexible but complex. Learn how to use udev so you can customize how Linux recognizes your devices.

Use rclone to put your files in the cloud

There are lots of third party applications out there that purport to solve my sharing-with-the-cloud problem. I chose Rclone – an open source command-line program that can be used to copy files between computer file systems and the cloud, providing backup, restore, duplication, one-way and bi-directional synchronization and even “file streaming” – making a folder appear virtually in your physical filesystem. Not just with Google Drive, but with all sorts of cloud providers, both proprietary and open source.

Using rsync for Backup

There are many options for performing backups. Most Linux distributions are provided with one or more open source programs especially designed to perform backups. There are many commercial options available as well. But none of those directly met my needs so I decided to use basic Linux tools to do the job.

Using tar and ssh for backups

Couples complement each other and each member of the couple contributes unique and irreplaceable parts to the whole. But some couples are very odd. Such is the case with this couple of commands – the tar and ssh commands.