Have you ever run the ls command on the root of a Linux system and wonder what all the directories are and what they contain? The root directory layout of a Linux system can initially seem a little confusing, with directories like /usr being name user but not really being used as a location for … Continue reading Linux Root Directory (Linux)

Log files are a brilliant feature of any piece of software / operating system. However, over time they can take up space and become a pain to remove. In this blog post I am going to look at a quick bash script that can be used via cron to delete older log files. The Set … Continue reading Deleting Old Files With BASH / Removing Old Log Files with BASH (Linux)

When it comes to text editors in Linux there are varying opinions on which to use, and just like the spaces vs tabs discussion this can lead to arguments. I started out and still use nano as my Linux text editor, however today I want to look at Vi. vi or vim? Vi was created … Continue reading Text Editing With Vim / Vi (Linux)

If you have ever found yourself launching multiple terminal / command line windows and then losing the window you needed, or find that your remote session to your Linux device has lost connectivity which means an active process also ending then tmux may be of help to you. tmux is a terminal multiplexer that allows … Continue reading The Basics Of tmux – The Terminal Multiplexer (Linux)

If you are moving files between computers then you may be doing this by transferring the files to a physical medium (e.g. a USB pen drive), via email or via scp. However, there are other options including Ansible which has two modules to help, Copy and Fetch. Copy The Copy module can be used to … Continue reading Ansible’s Copy and Fetch Modules

Today I am looking at installing and configuring NGINX with an Ansible playbook. In my previous blog posts I have looked at using an Ansible playbook to install the ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack across three different computers, and then how Ansible roles can be used to organise a playbook. Note: The files for this … Continue reading Installing And Configuring NGINX As A Reverse Proxy Via An Ansible Playbook

I have a working Ansible Playbook that installs the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana and for this example, Filebeat) across three different computers. I have tested the playbook several times and it works each time which is a great sign, however the playbook itself is a little messy. Note: All the files for my ELK … Continue reading Using Ansible Roles, aka ELK Stack Ansible Playbook (V2)

I'm currently spending time learning more about the ELK stack, which is made up of ElasticSearch, Logstash, Kibana (ELK) and Beats. The ELK stack can be created and run within containers (e.g. Docker) but I am going to use an Ansible Playbook to install and configure the ELK stack. You may ask why? Well I'm … Continue reading Creating An ELK Stack Via An Ansible Playbook (V1)

When using the terminal or command line in a Linux operating system you can recall your previous commands using the up arrow but did you know that you can also potentially recall commands from a lot further back? This functionality is provided via a command called history. "I go into my library and all history … Continue reading The Power Of History (Linux)

With an understanding on how permissions work in Linux, and how to change them, it is probably time for a blog post on chown. Before jumping into chown, let's look at the permission of an object in more detail using stat, and a little bit of an overview on Linux IDs as this will be … Continue reading Chown, Stat, Id And Some More Permissions (Linux)