Questions tagged [gnu]

GNU is a Unix-like operating system that is free software and developed by the GNU project. GNU is normally used with the Linux kernel. This tag can be used for questions relating to GNU software, particularly programs that differ from the POSIX standard or their BSD equivalents.

GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix.

The original kernel intended for GNU, Hurd, has been under development since 1984, and has yet to release a stable version. For this reason, most GNU operating systems use as their kernel.

The GNU tag can be used for any software developed by the GNU project.

211 questions
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Bash command to cut output after x number of lines

I'm looking for a bash command, which I can use to limit the number of lines of a file or another command output. E.g. ls -thor | limit 10 would limit the output of the ls command to 10 lines (in the example, the command "limit" is naturally a…
simon
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41
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4 answers

LANG and LANGUAGE environment variable in Debian based systems

It seems both the LANG and LANGUAGE environment variable are used by some programs to determine their user interface language. What are the exact semantics of these variables and where can I read about their correct usage? The manpage for locale(1)…
aef
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29
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5 answers

How to get the actual directory size (out of du)?

How do I get the actual directory size, using UNIX/Linux standard tools? Alternative question: How do I get du to show me the actual directory size (not disk usage)? Since people seem to have different definitions of the term "size": My definition…
basic6
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28
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3 answers

How to do a multiline search in less?

In less, can you search using / for a pattern that contains a carriage return and newline? I know your pattern can end with a line using $ (from How do I include newlines in a search in less?), but I need the pattern to match text that spans…
yonran
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27
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4 answers

Getting information from an armored gpg public key file

When given a file with an armored public GnuPG key, i.e. a file (pubkey.gpg) that was created with: gpg -r 0xDEADBEEF --export --armored > pubkey.gpg What is the best way to get information such as the finger print in that file, without importing…
Chen Levy
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25
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4 answers

GNU screen: change focus in split windows with mouse

Is there a way to enable proper mouse support in GNU screen so that I can switch the focus between split windows using my mouse? In other words, I'm looking for a mouse-driven alternative to typing 'C-a Tab'. Thanks,
23
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3 answers

Difference between UnxUtils and GnuWin32?

I am a Windows user who wants programs like grep and sed along with other utilities like ls, cut etc in my command prompt. I came across 2 packages which would accomplish this UnxUtils GnuWin32 I would like to know what is the difference between…
Stormshadow
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21
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6 answers

gnu screen not to change my window titles

I set meaningful names to new windows I create in gnu screen, but then when I 'cd' or open vim that name gets changed to 'pwd' for instance. Is there a way to prevent screen from changing the title? I know there's a setting like that in tmux, but…
21
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4 answers

Why does the output of some Linux programs go to neither STDOUT nor STDERR?

Why does the output of some Linux programs go to neither STDOUT nor STDERR? Actually, I want to know how to reliably capture all program output, no matter what 'stream' it uses. The problem I have is that some programs do not seem to let their…
21
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3 answers

How to Combine find and grep for a complex search? ( GNU/linux, find, grep )

I'm trying to do a text search in some files that share a similar directory structure, but are not in the same directory tree, in GNU/Linux. I have a web server with many sites that share the same tree structure (Code Igniter MVC PHP framework),…
Petruza
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20
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3 answers

Make GNU screen survive reboot

I am using GNU screen a lot. I find it very annoying that everytime the server has to be rebooted I lose all my sessions (even if I know in advance, I need to set-up everything again). I've searched the web for possibilities how to make screen…
19
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3 answers

How to install GNU make in Windows 7?

I am trying to install GNU make-3.82 on Windows 7. I downloaded the make-3.82.tar.gz setup but it does not have any setup file. There is process given on GNU site. But when I reach to the folder in command prompt and after extraction write…
Azhar
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14
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2 answers

What are the differences between multiplexing using tmux/screen and opening tabs in a terminal emulator?

I am trying to compare these two methods of running multiple shells/processes by measuring memory and cpu usage via htop. Can someone explain the differences in how each method functions, or if there are any? EDIT: From what I understand now,…
abdelmak
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13
votes
3 answers

Unix mail command: Sort by newest first

When I use the "mail" command, it prints a list of messages in my inbox in a format like this: 1 Super User Mon Jun 9 17:13 86/4716 Complete Registration With Stack Exchange However I've noticed that it does this with the oldest messages…
12
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5 answers

find: -exec vs xargs (aka Why does "find | xargs basename" break?)

I was trying to find all files of a certain type spread out in subdirectories, and for my purposes I only needed the filename. I tried stripping out the path component via basename, but it did't work with xargs: $ find . -name '*.deb' -print |…
quack quixote
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