Need some Linux Terminal Commands Help

[Lino]

So as a lot of you know I am becoming more and more involved with Linux with each passing day.

I am currently doing my Linux + and have its exams next week.

There are a few things I am unsure of.

1) Lets say I am currently in directory etc.

Right, now lets say I want to backup the file "motd" using tar and I want the file to be backed up onto the desktop.

All I can do so far is

tar -cvf nameofthefile.tar /etc/motd

what do I have to add to that?


2) Lets say I want to automate it by adding it to the "crontab" file located in "etc."

What do I add exactly? I can do basic things in crontab but making an action occur in directory other than /etc is a wonder for me.

 

[thisgeek]

1) tar cvf ~/Desktop/nameofthefile.tar /etc/motd

2) Usually you edit the crontab via 'crontab -e', and not via editing the files directly. I suppose it depends on the version of cron that you're using. Also, 'crontab -e' will edit your user crontab.

The format is usually something along the lines of

#* * * * * <command>
# Runs at 2am
00 02 * * * /usr/bin/tar cvf /home/<user>/Desktop/file.tar /etc/motd

each line consisting of 6 fields separated by spaces
Fields

1. minute of the hour, 00 to 59
2. hour of the day, 00 to 32 (military time)
3. day of the month, 1 to 31
4. month of the year, 1 to 12
5. day of the week, sun, mon, tue,....
6. actual command to execute

* an asterix that matches all possible values,
* a single integer that matches that exact value,
* a list of integers separated by commas (no spaces)
used to match any one of the values
* two integers separated by a dash (a range)
used to match any value within the range.

 

[w1z4rd]

Is that cron supposed to be:

00 02 * * * /usr/bin/tar cvf /home/<user>/Desktop/file.tar /etc/motd

and not:

00 02 * * * /usr/bin/tar -cvf /home/<user>/Desktop/file.tar /etc/motd ?

 

[Lino]

Thank you very much gentleman this has helped me a great deal. Now to be more annoying. How do I connect a Linux Box (RH/Cent/Fedora using Samba) to a Windows machine?

So that the Windows machine can see a file on the linux box?

 

[Nod]

Thank you very much gentleman this has helped me a great deal. Now to be more annoying. How do I connect a Linux Box (RH/Cent/Fedora using Samba) to a Windows machine?

So that the Windows machine can see a file on the linux box?

Samba by example: http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-Guide/
Samba HOWTO's: http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/
Those two sources should get you going.

 

[Lino]

Samba by example: http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-Guide/
Samba HOWTO's: http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/
Those two sources should get you going.

Thank you very much

 

[koffiejunkie]

Is that cron supposed to be:

00 02 * * * /usr/bin/tar cvf /home/<user>/Desktop/file.tar /etc/motd

and not:

00 02 * * * /usr/bin/tar -cvf /home/<user>/Desktop/file.tar /etc/motd ?

Doesn't matter, in the case of tar. It likes it both ways

But that will just overwrite the same file every day. What if you discovered that you accidentally deleted something while modifying the file three days ago?

/usr/bin/tar cvf /home/<user>/Desktop/file-`date +%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M`.tar /etc/motd

 

[Lino]

Hey guys me again. I need a bit of help with "env" Environment Variables.

For example I know that if I type in $USER the system will show the current user.

Now how do I alter these for example lets say I want

$PS1 to display the time and date? How on earth would I do this?

 

[redarrow]

You can assign environment variables just like any other variables..
e.g.

PS1="[\T \W$]"

The above example will show the current time and current working directory in your prompt like:

[12:16:52 ~$]

\T is for the time \W for working directory.
I can't remember all the codes you could use here but there are quite a few..


If you want to make permanent changes to your environment variables just append them to your ~/.bashrc file like:

export PS1="[\T \W$]"

 

[Lino]

You can assign environment variables just like any other variables..
e.g.

PS1="[\T \W$]"

The above example will show the current time and current working directory in your prompt like:

[12:16:52 ~$]

\T is for the time \W for working directory.
I can't remember all the codes you could use here but there are quite a few..


If you want to make permanent changes to your environment variables just append them to your ~/.bashrc file like:

export PS1="[\T \W$]"

Thank you so much, you have been a huge life saver

 

[Lino]

Guys one last command line question here.

How do I get text to blink? Say in the terminal?

 

[koffiejunkie]

Read this:

http://networking.ringofsaturn.com/Unix/Bash-prompts.php