en-us https://unixdigest.com Tutorials related to open source, BSD, GNU/Linux, system administration, programming, and other stuff - the pragmatic way In this small tutorial I am going to show you how you can change the init system on Artix Linux from e.g. OpenRC or runit to Dinit. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-change-the-init-system-in-artix-linux-to-dinit.html Tue, 13 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT FreeBSD provides optional binary compatibility with Linux, commonly referred to as Linuxulator, allowing users to install and run unmodified Linux binaries without the need for virtualization or emulation. In this tutorial I am going to show you how you can use it to install the Signal Desktop application for Linux. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-install-signal-desktop-on-freebsd-using-the-linux-binary-compatibility.html Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT A lot of people running ZFS zroot have managed to break their FreeBSD systems upgrading from 13.2 to the new 14.0 release because of a broken BIOS bootcode. In this tutorial I'll show you how you can fix that without having to reinstall. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/upgrading-to-freebsd-14-how-to-fix-a-broken-bios-bootcode.html Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT Version controlling (also called revision control or source control) your database data is pretty easy as long as you don't have any binary content stored in the database, you just commit your SQL dump to the version control software, it's just SQL in plain text. But what about database schema changes? In this small tutorial I'll address two simple ways you can version control your MariaDB schema changes without using any third party tools. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/two-simple-ways-to-version-control-your-mariadb-schema-changes.html Sat, 21 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial I am going to use Void Linux to "replicate" how FreeBSD is utilizing ZFS snapshots for boot environments. I am going to use a MBR based setup with a native ZFS encrypted root mirror. With a ZFS root mirror we not only get the benefits of ZFS snapshots, but we also get the benefits of ZFS' ability to auto repair any corrupted data (from things like bit rot). And in case one of the hard drives fail, we can quickly replace the broken disk with a new disk and have everything up and running again in a very short time. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/void-linux-root-on-an-encrypted-zfs-mirror-with-syslinux-mbr-and-zfsbootmenu.html Sun, 23 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial I am going to show you how to replace a broken hard drive in a FreeBSD GELI encryptet ZFS mirror root installation. I'll assume that you have installed FreeBSD using the FreeBSD installer and used encryption on a guided (auto) ZFS installation. The installer partitions the two hard drives in an identical partition scheme, in which one of the partitions is fully encryptet using GELI. This is a great setup, but it requires a little knowledge of the internals to replace one of the drives. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-replace-a-failed-hard-drive-in-a-geli-encrypted-zfs-root-mirror-installation-on-freebsd.html Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT Hard drives fail in all kinds of strange ways, when they do, you really appreciate all the hard work the programmers and engineers has put into ZFS because it is truly amazing! https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/drive-failure-and-io-errors-zfs-to-the-rescue.html Thu, 29 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT So, I saw the Hacker News post about h-m-m (hackers mind map) and thought, "We could do something similar with just the terminal and tree". https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/poor-mans-mind-mapping-tool-with-just-the-terminal.html Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT One of the main benefits of Git is that it is an extremely flexible set of tools with which you can build many development models and branching strategies from. In this tutorial I'll show you my favorite Git workflow that works very well both as a solo developer and in a team with many developers. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/a-simple-git-workflow-using-main-as-the-development-branch.html Thu, 02 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT There exist a bunch of really cool open source backup tools such as Borg and Restic, but did you know that you can use GNU Tar and GnuPG to create encrypted incremental snapshots? https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-do-encrypted-incremental-backups-and-snapshots-with-gnu-tar-and-gnupg.html Sat, 24 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT Some people argue that you cannot test procedural PHP code, but that is not true. In this small tutorial I am going to show you how you can use PHPUnit to test your procedural functions. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-test-procedural-functions-with-phpunit.html Tue, 30 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial we're going to take a look at setting up full disk encryption on the Artix Linux base system using GRUB for both a BIOS/MBR based setup and a UEFI based setup. While the choice to install in UEFI mode is encouraging, vendor UEFI implementations still carry more bugs than their BIOS/MBR counterparts. You are advised to do a search relating to your particular motherboard model before proceeding. Contrary to "modern" advice I still haven't found any compelling reason to use UEFI yet. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/real-full-disk-encryption-using-grub-on-artix-linux-for-bios-and-uefi.html Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/openbsd-router-guide.html Thu, 05 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial I'll show you a simple way you can manage the configuration of i3 across multiple computers with different setups on each computer. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-you-can-manage-the-i3-window-manager-on-multiple-computers.html Sat, 21 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT ZFS on Linux might get a lot of the latest features, and with a distribution like Arch Linux you have the bleeding edge, but it makes great sense to migrate everything ZFS related to FreeBSD. On FreeBSD ZFS is a first class citizen. This means that you don't have to worry about hostile kernel commits that suddenly breaks ZFS, or kernel modules that has to be re-compiled every time the kernel is updated. Being a first class citizen also means that the entire operating system is tailored to work really well with ZFS. The installer makes it really easy to get ZFS on root, with support for all the different possible configurations, and all the relevant tools know about ZFS, even the 'top' commando shows the memory usage of the ZFS ARC! https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/migrating-zfs-from-linux-to-freebsd.html Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT In this part we're going to install i3 and rice it bit. You can look further down in the tutorial at the screenshots in order to determine if you like the results. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-setup-freebsd-with-a-riced-desktop-part-3-i3.html Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT This is the second part of the tutorial. In this part we're going to install Xfce and rice it a bit. You can look further down in the tutorial at the screenshots in order to determine if you like the results. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-setup-freebsd-with-a-riced-desktop-part-2-xfce.html Thu, 23 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT In this three part tutorial I am going to show you how you can setup FreeBSD with a riced Xfce or i3 desktop. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-setup-freebsd-with-a-riced-desktop-part-1-basic-setup.html Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial I am going to show you how you can make a working Arch Linux USB stick with ZFS. This can be useful if you're running a homelab NAS and you want to boot of the USB stick and only use your drives for ZFS. It can also be used as a diagnostic or administration tool for dealing with ZFS on Arch Linux or some other Linux distribution. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/installing-arch-linux-with-zfs-on-a-usb-stick.html Thu, 28 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/remuxing-iso-dvd-or-bluray-using-cat-and-ffmpeg-on-linux.html Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT I decided it was time to try and revive my old Cubox that has been lying around unused for a very long time. Back then it was running a custom Armbian (Debian for ARM) release from SolidRun, but SolidRun have long since abandoned the old Cubox and deleted all content from their servers. In this tutorial I'll share how I got the Cubox up and running again with the latest Linux kernel. It is currently working as a small backup server running two USB harddrives in a Btrfs mirror. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/reviving-cubox-with-arch-linux-arm.html Sun, 11 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial we're going to take a look at setting up full disk encryption on the Void Linux base system using GRUB for a BIOS/MBR based setup. While the choice to install in UEFI mode is encouraging, vendor UEFI implementations still carry more bugs than their BIOS/MBR counterparts. Contrary to "modern" advice I still haven't found any compelling reason to use UEFI yet. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/real-full-disk-encryption-using-grub-on-void-linux-for-bios.html Fri, 30 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT If you have experience running any of the popular Linux distributions like Debian GNU/Linux, Arch Linux, Fedora, OpenSUSE, etc., and are trying out OpenBSD, one of the easiest things to get confused about is the package management, it's a bit different on OpenBSD. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/package-management-in-openbsd.html Thu, 29 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT In this part of the tutorial we're going to take a look at the important parts of setting up DNS in order to run a mail server. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/arch-linux-mail-server-tutorial-part-3-get-dns-right-it-is-important.html Fri, 29 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT This is the second part of the mail server tutorial in which we'll install and setup OpenSMTPD, Dovecot, DKIMproxy, and Let's Encrypt. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/arch-linux-mail-server-tutorial-part-2-opensmtpd-dovecot-dkimproxy-and-lets-encrypt.html Thu, 28 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial we're going to setup Arch Linux as a mail server for virtual users using openSMTPD and Dovecot. The setup I am going to use is a simple setup for home usage or office usage without webmail or database management of virtual users (though you can easily add that). Instead the users are managed using a simple flat file and they connect to the server using an email client. The setup is very easy to manage and it is very well suited for home usage, if you want to manage your own email, and perhaps friends and family email as well. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/arch-linux-mail-server-tutorial-part-1-what-is-email.html Wed, 27 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial we're gonna take a look at how you can make the current commit in your Git repository the initial and only commit. This is useful if you're using Git as a backup solution and you want to clean out old files. It also works on GitHub. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/make-the-current-commit-the-initial-commit-in-a-git-repository.html Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial we're gonna take a look at setting up full disk encryption on a BIOS MBR based system using GRUB on Debian GNU/Linux - the KISS way. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/real-full-disk-encryption-using-grub-on-debian-linux-for-bios.html Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT In this tutorial we're gonna take a look at setting up full disk encryption on Arch Linux using GRUB for both a BIOS/MBR based setup and a UEFI based setup. While the choice to install in UEFI mode is encouraging, early vendor UEFI implementations carry more bugs than their BIOS/MBR counterparts. You are advised to do a search relating to your particular motherboard model before proceeding. Contrary to "modern" advice I haven't personally found any compelling reason to use UEFI. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/real-full-disk-encryption-using-grub-on-arch-linux-for-bios-and-uefi.html Tue, 30 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT This tutorial describes how you can split your DNS requests between a local DNS resolver and remote DNS resolvers in order to prevent a DNS leak when you use a VPN connection. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-split-your-dns-requests-when-using-vpn.html Mon, 14 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMT This tutorial describes how you can keep your home directory in a Git repository. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/keeping-your-home-in-git.html Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/be-careful-when-using-docking-stations.html Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT This tutorial was written when it was only possible to view videos on YouTube via Flash, however the tutorial is still useful if you need to download videos from YouTube, or some other video service, in an easily manner and watch them on your favorite video player. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/an-alternative-way-to-play-youtube-videos-without-using-flash.html Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-new-and-empty-branch-in-git.html Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT This tutorial describes how to set your hostname, domain name and fully qualified domain name properly. Both a mail server and a web server needs to run with the right hostname and domain name. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-set-your-hostname-and-domain-name-correctly.html Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT This is a minor tutorial in the usage of GnuPG to encrypt, decrypt, and sign emails and files. The examples provided in this tutorial has been tested on Debian GNU/Linux, Devuan GNU/Linux, Arch Linux and Ubuntu GNU/Linux. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/gnupg-tutorial.html Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT This tutorial explains how you can enforce a strong password for users on Debian. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/enforce-strong-passwords-in-debian.html Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/unloading-of-modules-at-boot-time-in-debian.html Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT The Git revision control system has something called a "bare" and a "non-bare" repository. This tutorial deals with the issue and also compares the Git design to the design of Mercurial and Bazaar. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/git-bare-vs-non-bare-repositories.html Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/what-does-grub-see.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/windows-xp-nv4-disp-infinite-loop-problem.html Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/what-package-does-that-file-belong-to.html Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Have you ever tried to unmount a partition only to get the message "device is busy"? Well, there's a reason for that and here's what you can do. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/umount-device-is-busy.html Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/simple-chm-to-pdf-conversion-on-linux-and-bsd.html Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/resume-sftp-transfer-with-rsync.html Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/localized-version-in-the-console-no-thanks.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT Man pages (short for "manual pages") are the extensive documentation that comes preinstalled with almost all substantial Unix-like operating systems. The Unix command used to display them is `man`. Each page is a self-contained document. This how-to is about how to convert a man page into a PS or PDF document. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/how-to-convert-a-man-page-into-ps-pdf-or-dvi.html Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT Software projects, whether small or big, often needs to go trough periodic official releases. Often you need to release a stable branch of a project while at the same time development continues on the main branch. This small tutorial is about how this can be done using the Mercurial revision control system. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/mercurial-branching-main-and-stable-a-possible-workflow.html Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT Working with include paths in PHP can sometimes provide quite a challenge. When everything resides in the document root there are no problems, but once the files are moved into one or more subdirectories difficulty may arise. This article uses Unix paths, not Microsoft Windows paths. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/php-include-path-problems.html Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/mount-an-openbsd-slice-from-linux.html Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/finding-and-removing-duplicate-files-with-fdupes.html Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/mozilla-firefox-keywords-shortcuts.html Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT How to encrypt and decrypt a file with GnuPG, OpenSSL or LibreSSL, or Mcrypt using the Advanced Encryption Standard and a password phrase. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/encrypting-and-decrypting-files-using-gnupg-openssl-or-mcrypt.html Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/cd-or-dvd-boot-problems-with-mac.html Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT This tutorial describes how you can speed up DNS requests using BIND as a local cache. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/cache-your-dns-requests.html Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT This small tutorial describes how you can get rid of the `-- MARK --` message on Debian GNU/Linux in the message log. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/remove-mark-from-the-message-log.html Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT This tutorial describes how you can keep the system time precise using a NTP server. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/keeping-the-system-time-precise-using-ntp.html Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/resume-sftp-transfer-with-putty.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT PHP web applications are one of the most commonly attacked pieces of software on the Internet today. Anyone who has looked at their web server logs can attest to the frequency of probes for vulnerable PHP applications. PHP's easy learning curve has lead to its popularity and breadth of applications, but not without some hard learned lessons on the way. This document serves as a reminder of some of the important security related issues when programming in PHP. The paper is not a security manual. The paper is just a collection of notes. If you are writing PHP applications I strongly suggest that you research the subject in depth. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/php-security.html Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT EncFS provides an encrypted filesystem in user-space. It runs without any special permissions and uses the FUSE library and Linux kernel module to provide the filesystem interface. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/using-encfs-to-encrypt-some-of-your-files.html Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT Currently I am using Mercurial revision control system to version control my programming files and written articles etc. Other important files I manually tar up and encrypt and upload to my backup server using sftp from OpenSSH. I decided that it was time to take a look at a better way to deal with my personal backups. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/choosing-a-new-backup-solution-duplicity-rdiff-backup-or-rsnapshot.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT Getting the CPU to slow down using a lower frequency when not used can save you power and noise. Note, this is automatically setup on laptops on Debian stable aka (currently) Lenny during installation. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/speed-down-your-cpu.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT This is tutorial on how pointers work in the C programming language. The tutorial is addressed at beginners. Rather than focusing a lot on the more technical aspects of pointers, and using complex examples, the tutorial focuses on a deeper understanding of the subject so that the issue is understood firmly. The tutorial assumes prior knowledge of C, such as assigning values to variables, compiling, printing to the screen and using comments, but it is not necessary. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/pointers-in-c.html Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT This is a mini tutorial in solving problems with the Apache webserver encoding specifications. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/wrong-default-encoding-on-the-apache-webserver.html Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT This is a mini tutorial in how to figure out what applications are listening on your ports on GNU/Linux, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/who-is-listening-on-my-ports.html Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT A mini tutorial in the usage of diff and patch. https://unixdigest.com/tutorials/diff-and-patch.html Mon, 22 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT