Unix Toolbox

Unix Toolbox

This document is a collection of Unix/Linux/BSD commands and tasks which are useful for IT
work or for advanced users. This is a practical guide with concise explanations, however
the reader is supposed to know what s/he is doing.

Unix Toolbox revision 14.4
The latest version of this document can be found at http://cb.vu/unixtoolbox.xhtml. Replace
.xhtml on the link with .pdf for the PDF version and with .book.pdf for the booklet
version. On a duplex printer the booklet will create a small book ready to bind. This XHTML
page can be converted into a nice PDF document with a CSS3 compliant application (see the
script example). See also the about page.
Error reports and comments are most welcome - [email protected] Colin Barschel.

© Colin Barschel 2007-2012. Some rights reserved under Creative Commons.

1. System
2. Processes
3. File System
4. Network
5. SSH SCP
6. VPN with SSH
7. RSYNC
8. SUDO
9. Encrypt Files
10. Encrypt Partitions
11. SSL Certificates
12. CVS
13. SVN
14. Useful Commands
15. Install Software
16. Convert Media
17. Printing
18. Databases
19. Disk Quota
20. Shells
21. Scripting
22. Programming
23. Online Help

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System

Hardware | Statistics | Users | Limits | Runlevels | root password | Compile kernel |
Repair grub | Misc
Running kernel and system information
# uname -a # Get the kernel version (and BSD version)
# lsb_release -a # Full release info of any LSB distribution
# cat /etc/SuSE-release # Get SuSE version
# cat /etc/debian_version # Get Debian version

Use /etc/DISTR-release with DISTR= lsb (Ubuntu), redhat, gentoo, mandrake, sun (Solaris),
and so on. See also /etc/issue.
# uptime # Show how long the system has been running + load
# hostname # system's host name
# hostname -i # Display the IP address of the host. (Linux only)
# man hier # Description of the file system hierarchy
# last reboot # Show system reboot history

Hardware Informations

Kernel detected hardware
# dmesg # Detected hardware and boot messages
# lsdev # information about installed hardware
# dd if=/dev/mem bs=1k skip=768 count=256 2>/dev/null | strings -n 8 # Read BIOS

Linux

# cat /proc/cpuinfo # CPU model
# cat /proc/meminfo # Hardware memory
# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo # Display the physical memory
# watch -n1 'cat /proc/interrupts' # Watch changeable interrupts continuously
# free -m # Used and free memory (-m for MB)
# cat /proc/devices # Configured devices
# lspci -tv # Show PCI devices
# lsusb -tv # Show USB devices
# lshal # Show a list of all devices with their properties
# dmidecode # Show DMI/SMBIOS: hw info from the BIOS

FreeBSD

# sysctl hw.model # CPU model
# sysctl hw # Gives a lot of hardware information
# sysctl hw.ncpu # number of active CPUs installed
# sysctl vm # Memory usage
# sysctl hw.realmem # Hardware memory
# sysctl -a | grep mem # Kernel memory settings and info
# sysctl dev # Configured devices
# pciconf -l -cv # Show PCI devices
# usbdevs -v # Show USB devices
# atacontrol list # Show ATA devices
# camcontrol devlist -v # Show SCSI devices

Load, statistics and messages

The following commands are useful to find out what is going on on the system.
# top # display and update the top cpu processes
# mpstat 1 # display processors related statistics
# vmstat 2 # display virtual memory statistics
# iostat 2 # display I/O statistics (2 s intervals)
# systat -vmstat 1 # BSD summary of system statistics (1 s intervals)
# systat -tcp 1 # BSD tcp connections (try also -ip)
# systat -netstat 1 # BSD active network connections
# systat -ifstat 1 # BSD network traffic through active interfaces
# systat -iostat 1 # BSD CPU and and disk throughput
# ipcs -a # information on System V interprocess
# tail -n 500 /var/log/messages # Last 500 kernel/syslog messages
# tail /var/log/warn # System warnings messages see syslog.conf

Users

# id # Show the active user id with login and group
# last # Show last logins on the system
# who # Show who is logged on the system
# groupadd admin # Add group "admin" and user colin (Linux/Solaris)
# useradd -c "Colin Barschel" -g admin -m colin
# usermod -a -G <group> <user> # Add existing user to group (Debian)
# groupmod -A <user> <group> # Add existing user to group (SuSE)
# userdel colin # Delete user colin (Linux/Solaris)
# adduser joe # FreeBSD add user joe (interactive)
# rmuser joe # FreeBSD delete user joe (interactive)
# pw groupadd admin # Use pw on FreeBSD
# pw groupmod admin -m newmember # Add a new member to a group
# pw useradd colin -c "Colin Barschel" -g admin -m -s /bin/tcsh
# pw userdel colin; pw groupdel admin

Encrypted passwords are stored in /etc/shadow for Linux and Solaris and /etc/master.passwd
on FreeBSD. If the master.passwd is modified manually (say to delete a password), run #
pwd_mkdb -p master.passwd to rebuild the database.
To temporarily prevent logins system wide (for all users but root) use nologin. The message
in nologin will be displayed (might not work with ssh pre-shared keys).
# echo "Sorry no login now" > /etc/nologin # (Linux)
# echo "Sorry no login now" > /var/run/nologin # (FreeBSD)

Limits

Some application require higher limits on open files and sockets (like a proxy web server,
database). The default limits are usually too low.

Linux

Per shell/script

The shell limits are governed by ulimit. The status is checked with ulimit -a. For example
to change the open files limit from 1024 to 10240 do:
# ulimit -n 10240 # This is only valid within the shell

The ulimit command can be used in a script to change the limits for the script only.

Per user/process

Login users and applications can be configured in /etc/security/limits.conf. For example:
# cat /etc/security/limits.conf
* hard nproc 250 # Limit user processes
asterisk hard nofile 409600 # Limit application open files

System wide

Kernel limits are set with sysctl. Permanent limits are set in /etc/sysctl.conf.
# sysctl -a # View all system limits
# sysctl fs.file-max # View max open files limit
# sysctl fs.file-max=102400 # Change max open files limit
# echo "1024 50000" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range # port range
# cat /etc/sysctl.conf
fs.file-max=102400 # Permanent entry in sysctl.conf
# cat /proc/sys/fs/file-nr # How many file descriptors are in use

FreeBSD

Per shell/script

Use the command limits in csh or tcsh or as in Linux, use ulimit in an sh or bash shell.

Per user/process

The default limits on login are set in /etc/login.conf. An unlimited value is still limited
by the system maximal value.

System wide

Kernel limits are also set with sysctl. Permanent limits are set in /etc/sysctl.conf or
/boot/loader.conf. The syntax is the same as Linux but the keys are different.
# sysctl -a # View all system limits
# sysctl kern.maxfiles=XXXX # maximum number of file descriptors
kern.ipc.nmbclusters=32768 # Permanent entry in /etc/sysctl.conf
kern.maxfiles=65536 # Typical values for Squid
kern.maxfilesperproc=32768
kern.ipc.somaxconn=8192 # TCP queue. Better for apache/sendmail
# sysctl kern.openfiles # How many file descriptors are in use
# sysctl kern.ipc.numopensockets # How many open sockets are in use
# sysctl net.inet.ip.portrange.last=50000 # Default is 1024-5000
# netstat -m # network memory buffers statistics

See The FreeBSD handbook Chapter
11http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/configtuning-kernel-limits.html for details. And also
FreeBSD performance
tuninghttp://serverfault.com/questions/64356/freebsd-performance-tuning-sysctls-loader-conf
-kernel

Solaris

The following values in /etc/system will increase the maximum file descriptors per proc:
set rlim_fd_max = 4096 # Hard limit on file descriptors for a single proc
set rlim_fd_cur = 1024 # Soft limit on file descriptors for a single proc

Runlevels

Linux

Once booted, the kernel starts init which then starts rc which starts all scripts belonging
to a runlevel. The scripts are stored in /etc/init.d and are linked into /etc/rc.d/rcN.d
with N the runlevel number.
The default runlevel is configured in /etc/inittab. It is usually 3 or 5:
# grep default: /etc/inittab
id:3:initdefault:

The actual runlevel can be changed with init. For example to go from 3 to 5:
# init 5 # Enters runlevel 5
* 0 Shutdown and halt
* 1 Single-User mode (also S)
* 2 Multi-user without network
* 3 Multi-user with network
* 5 Multi-user with X
* 6 Reboot

Use chkconfig to configure the programs that will be started at boot in a runlevel.
# chkconfig --list # List all init scripts
# chkconfig --list sshd # Report the status of sshd
# chkconfig sshd --level 35 on # Configure sshd for levels 3 and 5
# chkconfig sshd off # Disable sshd for all runlevels

Debian and Debian based distributions like Ubuntu or Knoppix use the command update-rc.d to
manage the runlevels scripts. Default is to start in 2,3,4 and 5 and shutdown in 0,1 and 6.
# update-rc.d sshd defaults # Activate sshd with the default runlevels
# update-rc.d sshd start 20 2 3 4 5 . stop 20 0 1 6 . # With explicit arguments
# update-rc.d -f sshd remove # Disable sshd for all runlevels
# shutdown -h now (or # poweroff) # Shutdown and halt the system

FreeBSD

The BSD boot approach is different from the SysV, there are no runlevels. The final boot
state (single user, with or without X) is configured in /etc/ttys. All OS scripts are
located in /etc/rc.d/ and in /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ for third-party applications. The
activation of the service is configured in /etc/rc.conf and /etc/rc.conf.local. The default
behavior is configured in /etc/defaults/rc.conf. The scripts responds at least to
start|stop|status.
# /etc/rc.d/sshd status
sshd is running as pid 552.
# shutdown now # Go into single-user mode
# exit # Go back to multi-user mode
# shutdown -p now # Shutdown and halt the system
# shutdown -r now # Reboot

The process init can also be used to reach one of the following states level. For example #
init 6 for reboot.
* 0 Halt and turn the power off (signal USR2)
* 1 Go to single-user mode (signal TERM)
* 6 Reboot the machine (signal INT)
* c Block further logins (signal TSTP)
* q Rescan the ttys(5) file (signal HUP)

Windows

Start and stop a service with either the service name or "service description" (shown in
the Services Control Panel) as follows:
net stop WSearch
net start WSearch # start search service
net stop "Windows Search"
net start "Windows Search" # same as above using descr.

Reset root password

Linux method 1

At the boot loader (lilo or grub), enter the following boot option:
init=/bin/sh

The kernel will mount the root partition and init will start the bourne shell instead of rc
and then a runlevel. Use the command passwd at the prompt to change the password and then
reboot. Forget the single user mode as you need the password for that.
If, after booting, the root partition is mounted read only, remount it rw:
# mount -o remount,rw /
# passwd # or delete the root password (/etc/shadow)
# sync; mount -o remount,ro / # sync before to remount read only
# reboot

FreeBSD method 1

On FreeBSD, boot in single user mode, remount / rw and use passwd. You can select the
single user mode on the boot menu (option 4) which is displayed for 10 seconds at startup.
The single user mode will give you a root shell on the / partition.
# mount -u /; mount -a # will mount / rw
# passwd
# reboot

Unixes and FreeBSD and Linux method 2

Other Unixes might not let you go away with the simple init trick. The solution is to mount
the root partition from an other OS (like a rescue CD) and change the password on the disk.
* Boot a live CD or installation CD into a rescue mode which will give you a shell.
* Find the root partition with fdisk e.g. fdisk /dev/sda
* Mount it and use chroot:

# mount -o rw /dev/ad4s3a /mnt
# chroot /mnt # chroot into /mnt
# passwd
# reboot

Kernel modules

Linux

# lsmod # List all modules loaded in the kernel
# modprobe isdn # To load a module (here isdn)

FreeBSD

# kldstat # List all modules loaded in the kernel
# kldload crypto # To load a module (here crypto)

Compile Kernel

Linux

# cd /usr/src/linux
# make mrproper # Clean everything, including config files
# make oldconfig # Reuse the old .config if existent
# make menuconfig # or xconfig (Qt) or gconfig (GTK)
# make # Create a compressed kernel image
# make modules # Compile the modules
# make modules_install # Install the modules
# make install # Install the kernel
# reboot

FreeBSD

Optionally update the source tree (in /usr/src) with csup (as of FreeBSD 6.2 or later):
# csup <supfile>

I use the following supfile:
*default host=cvsup5.FreeBSD.org # www.freebsd.org/handbook/cvsup.html#CVSUP-MIRRORS
*default prefix=/usr
*default base=/var/db
*default release=cvs delete tag=RELENG_7
src-all

To modify and rebuild the kernel, copy the generic configuration file to a new name and
edit it as needed (you can also edit the file GENERIC directly). To restart the build after
an interruption, add the option NO_CLEAN=YES to the make command to avoid cleaning the
objects already build.
# cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/
# cp GENERIC MYKERNEL
# cd /usr/src
# make buildkernel KERNCONF=MYKERNEL
# make installkernel KERNCONF=MYKERNEL

To rebuild the full OS:
# make buildworld # Build the full OS but not the kernel
# make buildkernel # Use KERNCONF as above if appropriate
# make installkernel
# reboot
# mergemaster -p # Compares only files known to be essential
# make installworld
# mergemaster -i -U # Update all configurations and other files
# reboot

For small changes in the source you can use NO_CLEAN=yes to avoid rebuilding the whole
tree.
# make buildworld NO_CLEAN=yes # Don't delete the old objects
# make buildkernel KERNCONF=MYKERNEL NO_CLEAN=yes

Repair grub

So you broke grub? Boot from a live cd, [find your linux partition under /dev and use fdisk
to find the linux partion] mount the linux partition, add /proc and /dev and use
grub-install /dev/xyz. Suppose linux lies on /dev/sda6:
# mount /dev/sda6 /mnt # mount the linux partition on /mnt
# mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc # mount the proc subsystem into /mnt
# mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev # mount the devices into /mnt
# chroot /mnt # change root to the linux partition
# grub-install /dev/sda # reinstall grub with your old settings

Misc

Disable OSX virtual memory (repeat with load to re-enable). Faster system, but a little
risky.
# sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
# sleep 3600; pmset sleepnow # go to standby in one hour (OSX)
# defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling -float 8
# OSX mouse acceleration (use -1 to reverse)

Processes

Listing | Priority | Background/Foreground | Top | Kill

Listing and PIDs

Each process has a unique number, the PID. A list of all running process is retrieved with
ps.
# ps -auxefw # Extensive list of all running process

However more typical usage is with a pipe or with pgrep (for OS X install proctools from
MacPorts):
# ps axww | grep cron
586 ?? Is 0:01.48 /usr/sbin/cron -s
# ps axjf # All processes in a tree format (Linux)
# ps aux | grep 'ss[h]' # Find all ssh pids without the grep pid
# pgrep -l sshd # Find the PIDs of processes by (part of) name
# echo $$ # The PID of your shell
# fuser -va 22/tcp # List processes using port 22 (Linux)
# pmap PID # Memory map of process (hunt memory leaks) (Linux)
# fuser -va /home # List processes accessing the /home partition
# strace df # Trace system calls and signals
# truss df # same as above on FreeBSD/Solaris/Unixware

Priority

Change the priority of a running process with renice. Negative numbers have a higher
priority, the lowest is -20 and "nice" have a positive value.
# renice -5 586 # Stronger priority
586: old priority 0, new priority -5

Start the process with a defined priority with nice. Positive is "nice" or weak, negative
is strong scheduling priority. Make sure you know if /usr/bin/nice or the shell built-in is
used (check with # which nice).
# nice -n -5 top # Stronger priority (/usr/bin/nice)
# nice -n 5 top # Weaker priority (/usr/bin/nice)
# nice +5 top # tcsh builtin nice (same as above!)

While nice changes the CPU scheduler, an other useful command ionice will schedule the disk
IO. This is very useful for intensive IO application (e.g. compiling). You can select a
class (idle - best effort - real time), the man page is short and well explained.
# ionice c3 -p123 # set idle class for pid 123 (Linux only)
# ionice -c2 -n0 firefox # Run firefox with best effort and high priority
# ionice -c3 -p$$ # Set the actual shell to idle priority

The last command is very useful to compile (or debug) a large project. Every command
launched from this shell will have a lover priority. $$ is your shell pid (try echo $$).
FreeBSD uses idprio/rtprio (0 = max priority, 31 = most idle):
# idprio 31 make # compile in the lowest priority
# idprio 31 -1234 # set PID 1234 with lowest priority
# idprio -t -1234 # -t removes any real time/idle priority

Background/Foreground

When started from a shell, processes can be brought in the background and back to the
foreground with [Ctrl]-[Z] (^Z), bg and fg. List the processes with jobs. When needed
detach from the terminal with disown.
# ping cb.vu > ping.log
^Z # ping is suspended (stopped) with [Ctrl]-[Z]
# bg # put in background and continues running
# jobs -l # List processes in background
[1] - 36232 Running ping cb.vu > ping.log
[2] + 36233 Suspended (tty output) top
# fg %2 # Bring process 2 back in foreground

# make # start a long compile job but need to leave the terminal
^Z # suspended (stopped) with [Ctrl]-[Z]
# bg # put in background and continues running
# disown -h %1 # detatch process from terminal, won't be killed at logout

No straight forward way to re-attach the process to a new terminal, try reptyr (Linux).
Use nohup to start a process which has to keep running when the shell is closed (immune to
hangups).
# nohup ping -i 60 > ping.log &

Top

The program top displays running information of processes. See also the program htop from
htop.sourceforge.net (a more powerful version of top) which runs on Linux and FreeBSD
(ports/sysutils/htop/). While top is running press the key h for a help overview. Useful
keys are:
* u [user name] To display only the processes belonging to the user. Use + or blank to
see all users
* k [pid] Kill the process with pid.
* 1 To display all processors statistics (Linux only)
* R Toggle normal/reverse sort.

Signals/Kill

Terminate or send a signal with kill or killall.
# ping -i 60 cb.vu > ping.log &
[1] 4712
# kill -s TERM 4712 # same as kill -15 4712
# killall -1 httpd # Kill HUP processes by exact name
# pkill -9 http # Kill TERM processes by (part of) name
# pkill -TERM -u www # Kill TERM processes owned by www
# fuser -k -TERM -m /home # Kill every process accessing /home (to umount)

Important signals are:
* 1 HUP (hang up)
* 2 INT (interrupt)
* 3 QUIT (quit)
* 9 KILL (non-catchable, non-ignorable kill)
* 15 TERM (software termination signal)

File System

Disk info | Boot | Disk usage | Opened files | Mount/remount | Mount SMB | Mount image |
Burn ISO | Create image | Memory disk | Disk performance

Permissions

Change permission and ownership with chmod and chown. The default umask can be changed for
all users in /etc/profile for Linux or /etc/login.conf for FreeBSD. The default umask is
usually 022. The umask is subtracted from 777, thus umask 022 results in a permission 0f
755.
1 --x execute # Mode 764 = exec/read/write | read/write | read
2 -w- write # For: |-- Owner --| |- Group-| |Oth|
4 r-- read
ugo=a u=user, g=group, o=others, a=everyone

# chmod [OPTION] MODE[,MODE] FILE # MODE is of the form [ugoa]*([-+=]([rwxXst]))
# chmod 640 /var/log/maillog # Restrict the log -rw-r-----
# chmod u=rw,g=r,o= /var/log/maillog # Same as above
# chmod -R o-r /home/* # Recursive remove other readable for all users
# chmod u+s /path/to/prog # Set SUID bit on executable (know what you do!)
# find / -perm -u+s -print # Find all programs with the SUID bit
# chown user:group /path/to/file # Change the user and group ownership of a file
# chgrp group /path/to/file # Change the group ownership of a file
# chmod 640 `find ./ -type f -print` # Change permissions to 640 for all files
# chmod 751 `find ./ -type d -print` # Change permissions to 751 for all directories

Disk information

# diskinfo -v /dev/ad2 # information about disk (sector/size) FreeBSD
# hdparm -I /dev/sda # information about the IDE/ATA disk (Linux)
# fdisk /dev/ad2 # Display and manipulate the partition table
# smartctl -a /dev/ad2 # Display the disk SMART info

Boot

FreeBSD

To boot an old kernel if the new kernel doesn't boot, stop the boot at during the count
down.
# unload
# load kernel.old
# boot

System mount points/Disk usage

# mount | column -t # Show mounted file-systems on the system
# df # display free disk space and mounted devices
# cat /proc/partitions # Show all registered partitions (Linux)

Disk usage

# du -sh * # Directory sizes as listing
# du -csh # Total directory size of the current directory
# du -ks * | sort -n -r # Sort everything by size in kilobytes
# ls -lSr # Show files, biggest last

Who has which files opened

This is useful to find out which file is blocking a partition which has to be unmounted and
gives a typical error of:
# umount /home/
umount: unmount of /home # umount impossible because a file is locking home
failed: Device busy

FreeBSD and most Unixes

# fstat -f /home # for a mount point
# fstat -p PID # for an application with PID
# fstat -u user # for a user name

Find opened log file (or other opened files), say for Xorg:
# ps ax | grep Xorg | awk '{print $1}'
1252
# fstat -p 1252
USER CMD PID FD MOUNT INUM MODE SZ|DV R/W
root Xorg 1252 root / 2 drwxr-xr-x 512 r
root Xorg 1252 text /usr 216016 -rws--x--x 1679848 r
root Xorg 1252 0 /var 212042 -rw-r--r-- 56987 w

The file with inum 212042 is the only file in /var:
# find -x /var -inum 212042
/var/log/Xorg.0.log

Linux

Find opened files on a mount point with fuser or lsof:
# fuser -m /home # List processes accessing /home
# lsof /home
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
tcsh 29029 eedcoba cwd DIR 0,18 12288 1048587 /home/eedcoba (guam:/home)
lsof 29140 eedcoba cwd DIR 0,18 12288 1048587 /home/eedcoba (guam:/home)

About an application:
ps ax | grep Xorg | awk '{print $1}'
3324
# lsof -p 3324
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
Xorg 3324 root 0w REG 8,6 56296 12492 /var/log/Xorg.0.log

About a single file:
# lsof /var/log/Xorg.0.log
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
Xorg 3324 root 0w REG 8,6 56296 12492 /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Mount/remount a file system

For example the cdrom. If listed in /etc/fstab:
# mount /cdrom

Or find the device in /dev/ or with dmesg

FreeBSD

# mount -v -t cd9660 /dev/cd0c /mnt # cdrom
# mount_cd9660 /dev/wcd0c /cdrom # other method
# mount -v -t msdos /dev/fd0c /mnt # floppy

Entry in /etc/fstab:
# Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass#
/dev/acd0 /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0

To let users do it:
# sysctl vfs.usermount=1 # Or insert the line "vfs.usermount=1" in /etc/sysctl.conf

Linux

# mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom # typical cdrom mount command
# mount /dev/hdc -t iso9660 -r /cdrom # typical IDE
# mount /dev/scd0 -t iso9660 -r /cdrom # typical SCSI cdrom
# mount /dev/sdc0 -t ntfs-3g /windows # typical SCSI

Entry in /etc/fstab:
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom subfs noauto,fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec 0 0

Mount a FreeBSD partition with Linux

Find the partition number containing with fdisk, this is usually the root partition, but it
could be an other BSD slice too. If the FreeBSD has many slices, they are the one not
listed in the fdisk table, but visible in /dev/sda* or /dev/hda*.
# fdisk /dev/sda # Find the FreeBSD partition
/dev/sda3 * 5357 7905 20474842+ a5 FreeBSD
# mount -t ufs -o ufstype=ufs2,ro /dev/sda3 /mnt
/dev/sda10 = /tmp; /dev/sda11 /usr # The other slices

Remount

Remount a device without unmounting it. Necessary for fsck for example
# mount -o remount,ro / # Linux
# mount -o ro -u / # FreeBSD

Copy the raw data from a cdrom into an iso image (default 512 blocksize might cause
problems):
# dd if=/dev/cd0c of=file.iso bs=2048

Virtualbox

Allow a share on the host:
# VBoxManage sharedfolder add "GuestName" --name "share" --hostpath "C:\hostshare"

Mount share on guest (linux, FreeBSD)
# sudo mount -t vboxsf share /home/vboxshare # -o uid=1000,gid=1000 (as appropriate)
share /home/colin/share vboxsf defaults,uid=colin 0 0 # fstab entry

OSX

# diskutil list # List the partitions of a disk
# diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1 # Unmount an entire disk (all volumes)
# chflags hidden ~/Documents/folder # Hide folder (reverse with unhidden)

Add swap on-the-fly

Suppose you need more swap (right now), say a 2GB file /swap2gb (Linux only).
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap2gb bs=1024k count=2000
# mkswap /swap2gb # create the swap area
# swapon /swap2gb # activate the swap. It now in use
# swapoff /swap2gb # when done deactivate the swap
# rm /swap2gb

Mount an SMB share

Suppose we want to access the SMB share myshare on the computer smbserver, the address as
typed on a Windows PC is \\smbserver\myshare\. We mount on /mnt/smbshare. Warning> cifs
wants an IP or DNS name, not a Windows name.

Linux/OSX

# smbclient -U user -I 192.168.16.229 -L //smbshare/ # List the shares
# mount -t smbfs -o username=winuser //smbserver/myshare /mnt/smbshare
# mount -t cifs -o username=winuser,password=winpwd //192.168.16.229/myshare /mnt/share

Mound Samba share through ssh tunnel
# ssh -C -f -N -p 20022 -L 445:127.0.0.1:445 me@server # connect on 20022, tunnel 445
# mount -t smbfs //colin@localhost/colin ~/mnt
# mount_smbfs //colin:[email protected]/private /Volumes/private # I use this on OSX + ssh

Additionally with the package mount.cifs it is possible to store the credentials in a file,
for example /home/user/.smb:
username=winuser
password=winpwd

And mount as follow:
# mount -t cifs -o credentials=/home/user/.smb //192.168.16.229/myshare /mnt/smbshare

FreeBSD

Use -I to give the IP (or DNS name); smbserver is the Windows name.
# smbutil view -I 192.168.16.229 //winuser@smbserver # List the shares
# mount_smbfs -I 192.168.16.229 //winuser@smbserver/myshare /mnt/smbshare

Mount an image

# hdiutil mount image.iso # OS X

Linux loop-back

# mount -t iso9660 -o loop file.iso /mnt # Mount a CD image
# mount -t ext3 -o loop file.img /mnt # Mount an image with ext3 fs

FreeBSD

With memory device (do # kldload md.ko if necessary):
# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f file.iso -u 0
# mount -t cd9660 /dev/md0 /mnt
# umount /mnt; mdconfig -d -u 0 # Cleanup the md device

Or with virtual node:
# vnconfig /dev/vn0c file.iso; mount -t cd9660 /dev/vn0c /mnt
# umount /mnt; vnconfig -u /dev/vn0c # Cleanup the vn device

Solaris and FreeBSD

with loop-back file interface or lofi:
# lofiadm -a file.iso
# mount -F hsfs -o ro /dev/lofi/1 /mnt
# umount /mnt; lofiadm -d /dev/lofi/1 # Cleanup the lofi device

Create and burn an ISO image

This will copy the cd or DVD sector for sector. Without conv=notrunc, the image will be
smaller if there is less content on the cd. See below and the dd examples.
# dd if=/dev/hdc of=/tmp/mycd.iso bs=2048 conv=notrunc

Use mkisofs to create a CD/DVD image from files in a directory. To overcome the file names
restrictions: -r enables the Rock Ridge extensions common to UNIX systems, -J enables
Joliet extensions used by Microsoft systems. -L allows ISO9660 filenames to begin with a
period.
# mkisofs -J -L -r -V TITLE -o imagefile.iso /path/to/dir
# hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o dir.iso dir/ # OS X

On FreeBSD, mkisofs is found in the ports in sysutils/cdrtools.

Burn a CD/DVD ISO image

FreeBSD

FreeBSD does not enable DMA on ATAPI drives by default. DMA is enabled with the sysctl
command and the arguments below, or with /boot/loader.conf with the following entries:
hw.ata.ata_dma="1"
hw.ata.atapi_dma="1"

Use burncd with an ATAPI device (burncd is part of the base system) and cdrecord (in
sysutils/cdrtools) with a SCSI drive.
# burncd -f /dev/acd0 data imagefile.iso fixate # For ATAPI drive
# cdrecord -scanbus # To find the burner device (like 1,0,0)
# cdrecord dev=1,0,0 imagefile.iso

Linux

Also use cdrecord with Linux as described above. Additionally it is possible to use the
native ATAPI interface which is found with:
# cdrecord dev=ATAPI -scanbus

And burn the CD/DVD as above.

dvd+rw-tools

The dvd+rw-tools package (FreeBSD: ports/sysutils/dvd+rw-tools) can do it all and includes
growisofs to burn CDs or DVDs. The examples refer to the dvd device as /dev/dvd which could
be a symlink to /dev/scd0 (typical scsi on Linux) or /dev/cd0 (typical FreeBSD) or
/dev/rcd0c (typical NetBSD/OpenBSD character SCSI) or /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2 (Solaris example
of a character SCSI/ATAPI CD-ROM device). There is a nice documentation with examples on
the FreeBSD handbook chapter 18.7http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/creating-dvds.html.
# -dvd-compat closes the disk
# growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=imagefile.iso # Burn existing iso image
# growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd -J -R /p/to/data # Burn directly

Convert a Nero .nrg file to .iso

Nero simply adds a 300Kb header to a normal iso image. This can be trimmed with dd.
# dd bs=1k if=imagefile.nrg of=imagefile.iso skip=300

Convert a bin/cue image to .iso

The little bchunk programhttp://freshmeat.net/projects/bchunk/ can do this. It is in the
FreeBSD ports in sysutils/bchunk.
# bchunk imagefile.bin imagefile.cue imagefile.iso

Create a file based image

For example a partition of 1GB using the file /usr/vdisk.img. Here we use the vnode 0, but
it could also be 1.

FreeBSD

# dd if=/dev/random of=/usr/vdisk.img bs=1K count=1M
# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /usr/vdisk.img -u 0 # Creates device /dev/md1
# bsdlabel -w /dev/md0
# newfs /dev/md0c
# mount /dev/md0c /mnt
# umount /mnt; mdconfig -d -u 0; rm /usr/vdisk.img # Cleanup the md device

The file based image can be automatically mounted during boot with an entry in /etc/rc.conf
and /etc/fstab. Test your setup with # /etc/rc.d/mdconfig start (first delete the md0
device with # mdconfig -d -u 0).
Note however that this automatic setup will only work if the file image is NOT on the root
partition. The reason is that the /etc/rc.d/mdconfig script is executed very early during
boot and the root partition is still read-only. Images located outside the root partition
will be mounted later with the script /etc/rc.d/mdconfig2.
/boot/loader.conf:
md_load="YES"

/etc/rc.conf:
# mdconfig_md0="-t vnode -f /usr/vdisk.img" # /usr is not on the root partition

/etc/fstab: (The 0 0 at the end is important, it tell fsck to ignore this device, as is
does not exist yet)
/dev/md0 /usr/vdisk ufs rw 0 0

It is also possible to increase the size of the image afterward, say for example 300 MB
larger.
# umount /mnt; mdconfig -d -u 0
# dd if=/dev/zero bs=1m count=300 >> /usr/vdisk.img
# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /usr/vdisk.img -u 0
# growfs /dev/md0
# mount /dev/md0c /mnt # File partition is now 300 MB larger

Linux

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/vdisk.img bs=1024k count=1024
# mkfs.ext3 /usr/vdisk.img
# mount -o loop /usr/vdisk.img /mnt
# umount /mnt; rm /usr/vdisk.img # Cleanup

Linux with losetup

/dev/zero is much faster than urandom, but less secure for encryption.
# dd if=/dev/urandom of=/usr/vdisk.img bs=1024k count=1024
# losetup /dev/loop0 /usr/vdisk.img # Creates and associates /dev/loop0
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/loop0
# mount /dev/loop0 /mnt
# losetup -a # Check used loops
# umount /mnt
# losetup -d /dev/loop0 # Detach
# rm /usr/vdisk.img

Create a memory file system

A memory based file system is very fast for heavy IO application. How to create a 64 MB
partition mounted on /memdisk:

FreeBSD

# mount_mfs -o rw -s 64M md /memdisk
# umount /memdisk; mdconfig -d -u 0 # Cleanup the md device
md /memdisk mfs rw,-s64M 0 0 # /etc/fstab entry

Linux

# mount -t tmpfs -osize=64m tmpfs /memdisk

Disk performance

Read and write a 1 GB file on partition ad4s3c (/home)
# time dd if=/dev/ad4s3c of=/dev/null bs=1024k count=1000
# time dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k count=1000 of=/home/1Gb.file
# hdparm -tT /dev/hda # Linux only

Network

Routing | Additional IP | Change MAC | Ports | Firewall | IP Forward | NAT | DNS | DHCP |
Traffic | QoS | NIS | Netcat

Debugging (See also Traffic analysis)

Linux

# ethtool eth0 # Show the ethernet status (replaces mii-diag)
# ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full # Force 100Mbit Full duplex
# ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off # Disable auto negotiation
# ethtool -p eth1 # Blink the ethernet led - very useful when supported
# ip link show # Display all interfaces on Linux (similar to ifconfig)
# ip link set eth0 up # Bring device up (or down). Same as "ifconfig eth0 up"
# ip addr show # Display all IP addresses on Linux (similar to ifconfig)
# ip neigh show # Similar to arp -a

Other OSes

# ifconfig fxp0 # Check the "media" field on FreeBSD
# arp -a # Check the router (or host) ARP entry (all OS)
# ping cb.vu # The first thing to try...
# traceroute cb.vu # Print the route path to destination
# ifconfig fxp0 media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex # 100Mbit full duplex (FreeBSD)
# netstat -s # System-wide statistics for each network protocol

Additional commands which are not always installed per default but easy to find:
# arping 192.168.16.254 # Ping on ethernet layer
# tcptraceroute -f 5 cb.vu # uses tcp instead of icmp to trace through firewalls

Routing

Print routing table

# route -n # Linux or use "ip route"
# netstat -rn # Linux, BSD and UNIX
# route print # Windows

Add and delete a route

FreeBSD

# route add 212.117.0.0/16 192.168.1.1
# route delete 212.117.0.0/16
# route add default 192.168.1.1

Add the route permanently in /etc/rc.conf
static_routes="myroute"
route_myroute="-net 212.117.0.0/16 192.168.1.1"

Linux

# route add -net 192.168.20.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.16.254
# ip route add 192.168.20.0/24 via 192.168.16.254 # same as above with ip route
# route add -net 192.168.20.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev eth0
# route add default gw 192.168.51.254
# ip route add default via 192.168.51.254 dev eth0 # same as above with ip route
# route delete -net 192.168.20.0 netmask 255.255.255.0

Solaris

# route add -net 192.168.20.0 -netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.16.254
# route add default 192.168.51.254 1 # 1 = hops to the next gateway
# route change default 192.168.50.254 1

Permanent entries are set in entry in /etc/defaultrouter.

Windows

# Route add 192.168.50.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.51.253
# Route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.51.254

Use add -p to make the route persistent.

Configure additional IP addresses

Linux

# ifconfig eth0 192.168.50.254 netmask 255.255.255.0 # First IP
# ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.51.254 netmask 255.255.255.0 # Second IP
# ip addr add 192.168.50.254/24 dev eth0 # Equivalent ip commands
# ip addr add 192.168.51.254/24 dev eth0 label eth0:1

FreeBSD

# ifconfig fxp0 inet 192.168.50.254/24 # First IP
# ifconfig fxp0 alias 192.168.51.254 netmask 255.255.255.0 # Second IP
# ifconfig fxp0 -alias 192.168.51.254 # Remove second IP alias

Permanent entries in /etc/rc.conf
ifconfig_fxp0="inet 192.168.50.254 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias0="192.168.51.254 netmask 255.255.255.0"

Solaris

Check the settings with ifconfig -a
# ifconfig hme0 plumb # Enable the network card
# ifconfig hme0 192.168.50.254 netmask 255.255.255.0 up # First IP
# ifconfig hme0:1 192.168.51.254 netmask 255.255.255.0 up # Second IP

Change MAC address

Normally you have to bring the interface down before the change. Don't tell me why you want
to change the MAC address...
# ifconfig eth0 down
# ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:01:02:03:04:05 # Linux
# ifconfig fxp0 link 00:01:02:03:04:05 # FreeBSD
# ifconfig hme0 ether 00:01:02:03:04:05 # Solaris
# sudo ifconfig en0 ether 00:01:02:03:04:05 # OS X Tiger, Snow Leopard LAN*
# sudo ifconfig en0 lladdr 00:01:02:03:04:05 # OS X Leopard

*Typical wireless interface is en1 and needs do disassociate from any network first
(osxdaily howto).
# echo "alias airport='/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport'"\
>> ~/.bash_profile # or symlink to /usr/sbin
# airport -z # Disassociate from wireless networks
# airport -I # Get info from wireless network

Many tools exist for Windows. For example
etherchangehttp://ntsecurity.nu/toolbox/etherchange. Or look for "Mac Makeup", "smac".

Ports in use

Listening open ports:
# netstat -an | grep LISTEN
# lsof -i # Linux list all Internet connections
# socklist # Linux display list of open sockets
# sockstat -4 # FreeBSD application listing
# netstat -anp --udp --tcp | grep LISTEN # Linux
# netstat -tup # List active connections to/from system (Linux)
# netstat -tupl # List listening ports from system (Linux)
# netstat -ano # Windows

Firewall

Check if a firewall is running (typical configuration only):

Linux

# iptables -L -n -v # For status
Open the iptables firewall
# iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT # Open everything
# iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
# iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
# iptables -Z # Zero the packet and byte counters in all chains
# iptables -F # Flush all chains
# iptables -X # Delete all chains

FreeBSD

# ipfw show # For status
# ipfw list 65535 # if answer is "65535 deny ip from any to any" the fw is disabled
# sysctl net.inet.ip.fw.enable=0 # Disable
# sysctl net.inet.ip.fw.enable=1 # Enable

IP Forward for routing

Linux

Check and then enable IP forward with:
# cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward # Check IP forward 0=off, 1=on
# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

or edit /etc/sysctl.conf with:
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

FreeBSD

Check and enable with:
# sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding # Check IP forward 0=off, 1=on
# sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
# sysctl net.inet.ip.fastforwarding=1 # For dedicated router or firewall
Permanent with entry in /etc/rc.conf:
gateway_enable="YES" # Set to YES if this host will be a gateway.

Solaris

# ndd -set /dev/ip ip_forwarding 1 # Set IP forward 0=off, 1=on

NAT Network Address Translation

Linux

# iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE # to activate NAT
# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -d 78.31.70.238 --dport 20022 -j DNAT \
--to 192.168.16.44:22 # Port forward 20022 to internal IP port ssh
# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -d 78.31.70.238 --dport 993:995 -j DNAT \
--to 192.168.16.254:993-995 # Port forward of range 993-995
# ip route flush cache
# iptables -L -t nat # Check NAT status

Delete the port forward with -D instead of -A. The program
netstat-nathttp://tweegy.nl/projects/netstat-nat is very useful to track connections (it
uses /proc/net/ip_conntrack or /proc/net/nf_conntrack).
# netstat-nat -n # show all connections with IPs

FreeBSD

# natd -s -m -u -dynamic -f /etc/natd.conf -n fxp0
Or edit /etc/rc.conf with:
firewall_enable="YES" # Set to YES to enable firewall functionality
firewall_type="open" # Firewall type (see /etc/rc.firewall)
natd_enable="YES" # Enable natd (if firewall_enable == YES).
natd_interface="tun0" # Public interface or IP address to use.
natd_flags="-s -m -u -dynamic -f /etc/natd.conf"

Port forward with:
# cat /etc/natd.conf
same_ports yes
use_sockets yes
unregistered_only
# redirect_port tcp insideIP:2300-2399 3300-3399 # port range
redirect_port udp 192.168.51.103:7777 7777

DNS

On Unix the DNS entries are valid for all interfaces and are stored in /etc/resolv.conf.
The domain to which the host belongs is also stored in this file. A minimal configuration
is:
nameserver 78.31.70.238
search sleepyowl.net intern.lab
domain sleepyowl.net

Check the system domain name with:
# hostname -d # Same as dnsdomainname

Windows

On Windows the DNS are configured per interface. To display the configured DNS and to flush
the DNS cache use:
# ipconfig /? # Display help
# ipconfig /all # See all information including DNS

Flush DNS

Flush the OS DNS cache, some application using their own cache (e.g. Firefox) and will be
unaffected.
# /etc/init.d/nscd restart # Restart nscd if used - Linux/BSD/Solaris
# lookupd -flushcache # OS X Tiger
# dscacheutil -flushcache # OS X Leopard and newer
# ipconfig /flushdns # Windows

Forward queries

Dig is you friend to test the DNS settings. For example the public DNS server 213.133.105.2
ns.second-ns.de can be used for testing. See from which server the client receives the
answer (simplified answer).
# dig sleepyowl.net
sleepyowl.net. 600 IN A 78.31.70.238
;; SERVER: 192.168.51.254#53(192.168.51.254)

The router 192.168.51.254 answered and the response is the A entry. Any entry can be
queried and the DNS server can be selected with @:
# dig MX google.com
# dig @127.0.0.1 NS sun.com # To test the local server
# dig @204.97.212.10 NS MX heise.de # Query an external server
# dig AXFR @ns1.xname.org cb.vu # Get the full zone (zone transfer)

The program host is also powerful.
# host -t MX cb.vu # Get the mail MX entry
# host -t NS -T sun.com # Get the NS record over a TCP connection
# host -a sleepyowl.net # Get everything

Reverse queries

Find the name belonging to an IP address (in-addr.arpa.). This can be done with dig, host
and nslookup:
# dig -x 78.31.70.238
# host 78.31.70.238
# nslookup 78.31.70.238

/etc/hosts

Single hosts can be configured in the file /etc/hosts instead of running named locally to
resolve the hostname queries. The format is simple, for example:
78.31.70.238 sleepyowl.net sleepyowl

The priority between hosts and a dns query, that is the name resolution order, can be
configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf AND /etc/host.conf. The file also exists on Windows, it is
usually in:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC

DHCP

Linux

Some distributions (SuSE) use dhcpcd as client. The default interface is eth0.
# dhcpcd -n eth0 # Trigger a renew (does not always work)
# dhcpcd -k eth0 # release and shutdown

The lease with the full information is stored in:
/var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-eth0.info

FreeBSD

FreeBSD (and Debian) uses dhclient. To configure an interface (for example bge0) run:
# dhclient bge0

The lease with the full information is stored in:
/var/db/dhclient.leases.bge0

Use
/etc/dhclient.conf

to prepend options or force different options:
# cat /etc/dhclient.conf
interface "rl0" {
prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;
default domain-name "sleepyowl.net";
supersede domain-name "sleepyowl.net";
}

Windows

The dhcp lease can be renewed with ipconfig:
# ipconfig /renew # renew all adapters
# ipconfig /renew LAN # renew the adapter named "LAN"
# ipconfig /release WLAN # release the adapter named "WLAN"

Yes it is a good idea to rename you adapter with simple names!

Traffic analysis

Bmonhttp://people.suug.ch/~tgr/bmon/ is a small console bandwidth monitor and can display
the flow on different interfaces.

Sniff with tcpdump

# tcpdump -nl -i bge0 not port ssh and src $192.168.16.121 or 192.168.16.54$
# tcpdump -n -i eth1 net 192.168.16.121 # select to/from a single IP
# tcpdump -n -i eth1 net 192.168.16.0/24 # select traffic to/from a network
# tcpdump -l > dump && tail -f dump # Buffered output
# tcpdump -i rl0 -w traffic.rl0 # Write traffic headers in binary file
# tcpdump -i rl0 -s 0 -w traffic.rl0 # Write traffic + payload in binary file
# tcpdump -r traffic.rl0 # Read from file (also for ethereal
# tcpdump port 80 # The two classic commands
# tcpdump host google.com
# tcpdump -i eth0 -X port $110 or 143$ # Check if pop or imap is secure
# tcpdump -n -i eth0 icmp # Only catch pings
# tcpdump -i eth0 -s 0 -A port 80 | grep GET # -s 0 for full packet -A for ASCII

Additional important options:
* -A Print each packets in clear text (without header)
* -X Print packets in hex and ASCII
* -l Make stdout line buffered
* -D Print all interfaces available

On Windows use windump from www.winpcap.org. Use windump -D to list the interfaces.

Scan with nmap

Nmaphttp://insecure.org/nmap/ is a port scanner with OS detection, it is usually installed
on most distributions and is also available for Windows. If you don't scan your servers,
hackers do it for you...
# nmap cb.vu # scans all reserved TCP ports on the host
# nmap -sP 192.168.16.0/24 # Find out which IP are used and by which host on 0/24
# nmap -sS -sV -O cb.vu # Do a stealth SYN scan with version and OS detection
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 3.8.1p1 FreeBSD-20060930 (protocol 2.0)
25/tcp open smtp Sendmail smtpd 8.13.6/8.13.6
80/tcp open http Apache httpd 2.0.59 ((FreeBSD) DAV/2 PHP/4.
[...]
Running: FreeBSD 5.X
Uptime 33.120 days (since Fri Aug 31 11:41:04 2007)

Other non standard but useful tools are hping (www.hping.org) an IP packet
assembler/analyzer and fping (fping.sourceforge.net). fping can check multiple hosts in a
round-robin fashion.

Traffic control (QoS)

Traffic control manages the queuing, policing, scheduling, and other traffic parameters for
a network. The following examples are simple practical uses of the Linux and FreeBSD
capabilities to better use the available bandwidth.

Limit upload

DSL or cable modems have a long queue to improve the upload throughput. However filling the
queue with a fast device (e.g. ethernet) will dramatically decrease the interactivity. It
is therefore useful to limit the device upload rate to match the physical capacity of the
modem, this should greatly improve the interactivity. Set to about 90% of the modem maximal
(cable) speed.

Linux

For a 512 Kbit upload modem.
# tc qdisc add dev eth0 root tbf rate 480kbit latency 50ms burst 1540
# tc -s qdisc ls dev eth0 # Status
# tc qdisc del dev eth0 root # Delete the queue
# tc qdisc change dev eth0 root tbf rate 220kbit latency 50ms burst 1540

FreeBSD

FreeBSD uses the dummynet traffic shaper which is configured with ipfw. Pipes are used to
set limits the bandwidth in units of [K|M]{bit/s|Byte/s}, 0 means unlimited bandwidth.
Using the same pipe number will reconfigure it. For example limit the upload bandwidth to
500 Kbit.
# kldload dummynet # load the module if necessary
# ipfw pipe 1 config bw 500Kbit/s # create a pipe with limited bandwidth
# ipfw add pipe 1 ip from me to any # divert the full upload into the pipe

Quality of service

Linux

Priority queuing with tc to optimize VoIP. See the full example on voip-info.org or
www.howtoforge.com. Suppose VoIP uses udp on ports 10000:11024 and device eth0 (could also
be ppp0 or so). The following commands define the QoS to three queues and force the VoIP
traffic to queue 1 with QoS 0x1e (all bits set). The default traffic flows into queue 3 and
QoS Minimize-Delay flows into queue 2.
# tc qdisc add dev eth0 root handle 1: prio priomap 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
# tc qdisc add dev eth0 parent 1:1 handle 10: sfq
# tc qdisc add dev eth0 parent 1:2 handle 20: sfq
# tc qdisc add dev eth0 parent 1:3 handle 30: sfq
# tc filter add dev eth0 protocol ip parent 1: prio 1 u32 \
match ip dport 10000 0x3C00 flowid 1:1 # use server port range
match ip dst 123.23.0.1 flowid 1:1 # or/and use server IP

Status and remove with
# tc -s qdisc ls dev eth0 # queue status
# tc qdisc del dev eth0 root # delete all QoS

Calculate port range and mask

The tc filter defines the port range with port and mask which you have to calculate. Find
the 2^N ending of the port range, deduce the range and convert to HEX. This is your mask.
Example for 10000 -> 11024, the range is 1024.
# 2^13 (8192) < 10000 < 2^14 (16384) # ending is 2^14 = 16384
# echo "obase=16;(2^14)-1024" | bc # mask is 0x3C00

FreeBSD

The max link bandwidth is 500Kbit/s and we define 3 queues with priority 100:10:1 for
VoIP:ssh:all the rest.
# ipfw pipe 1 config bw 500Kbit/s
# ipfw queue 1 config pipe 1 weight 100
# ipfw queue 2 config pipe 1 weight 10
# ipfw queue 3 config pipe 1 weight 1
# ipfw add 10 queue 1 proto udp dst-port 10000-11024
# ipfw add 11 queue 1 proto udp dst-ip 123.23.0.1 # or/and use server IP
# ipfw add 20 queue 2 dsp-port ssh
# ipfw add 30 queue 3 from me to any # all the rest

Status and remove with
# ipfw list # rules status
# ipfw pipe list # pipe status
# ipfw flush # deletes all rules but default

NIS Debugging

Some commands which should work on a well configured NIS client:
# ypwhich # get the connected NIS server name
# domainname # The NIS domain name as configured
# ypcat group # should display the group from the NIS server
# cd /var/yp && make # Rebuild the yp database
# rpcinfo -p servername # Report RPC services of the server

Is ypbind running?
# ps auxww | grep ypbind
/usr/sbin/ypbind -s -m -S servername1,servername2 # FreeBSD
/usr/sbin/ypbind # Linux
# yppoll passwd.byname
Map passwd.byname has order number 1190635041. Mon Sep 24 13:57:21 2007
The master server is servername.domain.net.

Linux

# cat /etc/yp.conf
ypserver servername
domain domain.net broadcast

Netcat

Netcathttp://netcat.sourceforge.net (nc) is better known as the "network Swiss Army Knife",
it can manipulate, create or read/write TCP/IP connections. Here some useful examples,
there are many more on the net, for example
g-loaded.eu[...]http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/11/06/netcat-a-couple-of-useful-examples and
herehttp://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/08/07/few-useful-netcat-tricks.
You might need to use the command netcat instead of nc. Also see the similar command socat.

File transfer

Copy a large folder over a raw tcp connection. The transfer is very quick (no protocol
overhead) and you don't need to mess up with NFS or SMB or FTP or so, simply make the file
available on the server, and get it from the client. Here 192.168.1.1 is the server IP
address.
server# tar -cf - -C VIDEO_TS . | nc -l -p 4444 # Serve tar folder on port 4444
client# nc 192.168.1.1 4444 | tar xpf - -C VIDEO_TS # Pull the file on port 4444
server# cat largefile | nc -l 5678 # Server a single file
client# nc 192.168.1.1 5678 > largefile # Pull the single file
server# dd if=/dev/da0 | nc -l 4444 # Server partition image
client# nc 192.168.1.1 4444 | dd of=/dev/da0 # Pull partition to clone
client# nc 192.168.1.1 4444 | dd of=da0.img # Pull partition to file

Other hacks

Specially here, you must know what you are doing.

Remote shell

Option -e only on the Windows version? Or use nc 1.10.
# nc -lp 4444 -e /bin/bash # Provide a remote shell (server backdoor)
# nc -lp 4444 -e cmd.exe # remote shell for Windows

Emergency web server

Serve a single file on port 80 in a loop.
# while true; do nc -l -p 80 < unixtoolbox.xhtml; done

Chat

Alice and Bob can chat over a simple TCP socket. The text is transferred with the enter
key.
alice# nc -lp 4444
bob # nc 192.168.1.1 4444

SSH SCP

Public key | Fingerprint | SCP | Tunneling
See other tricks 25 ssh cmdhttp://blog.urfix.com/25-ssh-commands-tricks/

Public key authentication

Connect to a host without password using public key authentication. The idea is to append
your public key to the authorized_keys2 file on the remote host. For this example let's
connect host-client to host-server, the key is generated on the client. With cygwin you
might have to create your home directoy and the .ssh directory with # mkdir -p
/home/USER/.ssh
* Use ssh-keygen to generate a key pair. ~/.ssh/id_dsa is the private key,
~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub is the public key.
* Copy only the public key to the server and append it to the file
~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 on your home on the server.

# ssh-keygen -t dsa -N ''
# cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub | ssh you@host-server "cat - >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2"

Using the Windows client from ssh.com

The non commercial version of the ssh.com client can be downloaded the main ftp site:
ftp.ssh.com/pub/ssh/. Keys generated by the ssh.com client need to be converted for the
OpenSSH server. This can be done with the ssh-keygen command.
* Create a key pair with the ssh.com client: Settings - User Authentication - Generate
New....
* I use Key type DSA; key length 2048.
* Copy the public key generated by the ssh.com client to the server into the ~/.ssh
folder.
* The keys are in C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application Data\SSH\UserKeys.
* Use the ssh-keygen command on the server to convert the key:
# cd ~/.ssh
# ssh-keygen -i -f keyfilename.pub >> authorized_keys2

Notice: We used a DSA key, RSA is also possible. The key is not protected by a password.

Using putty for Windows

Puttyhttp://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html is a simple and free
ssh client for Windows.
* Create a key pair with the puTTYgen program.
* Save the public and private keys (for example into C:\Documents and
Settings\%USERNAME%\.ssh).
* Copy the public key to the server into the ~/.ssh folder:
# scp .ssh/puttykey.pub [email protected]:.ssh/
* Use the ssh-keygen command on the server to convert the key for OpenSSH:
# cd ~/.ssh
# ssh-keygen -i -f puttykey.pub >> authorized_keys2

* Point the private key location in the putty settings: Connection - SSH - Auth

Check fingerprint

At the first login, ssh will ask if the unknown host with the fingerprint has to be stored
in the known hosts. To avoid a man-in-the-middle attack the administrator of the server can
send you the server fingerprint which is then compared on the first login. Use ssh-keygen
-l to get the fingerprint (on the server):
# ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub # For RSA key
2048 61:33:be:9b:ae:6c:36:31:fd:83:98:b7:99:2d:9f:cd /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
# ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub # For DSA key (default)
2048 14:4a:aa:d9:73:25:46:6d:0a:48:35:c7:f4:16:d4:ee /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub

Now the client connecting to this server can verify that he is connecting to the right
server:
# ssh linda
The authenticity of host 'linda (192.168.16.54)' can't be established.
DSA key fingerprint is 14:4a:aa:d9:73:25:46:6d:0a:48:35:c7:f4:16:d4:ee.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

Secure file transfer

Some simple commands:
# scp file.txt host-two:/tmp
# scp joe@host-two:/www/*.html /www/tmp
# scp -r joe@host-two:/www /www/tmp

In Konqueror or Midnight Commander it is possible to access a remote file system with the
address fish://user@gate. However the implementation is very slow.
Furthermore it is possible to mount a remote folder with sshfs a file system client based
on SCP. See fuse sshfshttp://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html.
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

With this error try the following on the server:
echo 'SSHD: ALL' >> /etc/hosts.allow
/etc/init.d/sshd restart

Tunneling

SSH tunneling allows to forward or reverse forward a port over the SSH connection, thus
securing the traffic and accessing ports which would otherwise be blocked. This only works
with TCP. The general nomenclature for forward and reverse is (see also ssh and NAT
example):
# ssh -L localport:desthost:destport user@gate # desthost as seen from the gate
# ssh -R destport:desthost:localport user@gate # forwards your localport to destination
# desthost:localport as seen from the client initiating the tunnel
# ssh -X user@gate # To force X forwarding

This will connect to gate and forward the local port to the host desthost:destport. Note
desthost is the destination host as seen by the gate, so if the connection is to the gate,
then desthost is localhost. More than one port forward is possible.

Direct forward on the gate

Let say we want to access the CVS (port 2401) and http (port 80) which are running on the
gate. This is the simplest example, desthost is thus localhost, and we use the port 8080
locally instead of 80 so we don't need to be root. Once the ssh session is open, both
services are accessible on the local ports.
# ssh -L 2401:localhost:2401 -L 8080:localhost:80 user@gate

Netbios and remote desktop forward to a second server

Let say a Windows smb server is behind the gate and is not running ssh. We need access to
the smb share and also remote desktop to the server.
# ssh -L 139:smbserver:139 -L 3388:smbserver:3389 user@gate

The smb share can now be accessed with \\127.0.0.1\, but only if the local share is
disabled, because the local share is listening on port 139.
It is possible to keep the local share enabled, for this we need to create a new virtual
device with a new IP address for the tunnel, the smb share will be connected over this
address. Furthermore the local RDP is already listening on 3389, so we choose 3388. For
this example let's use a virtual IP of 10.1.1.1.
* With putty use Source port=10.1.1.1:139. It is possible to create multiple loop devices
and tunnel. On Windows 2000, only putty worked for me. On Windows Vista also forward
the port 445 in addition to the port 139. Also on Vista the patch KB942624 prevents the
port 445 to be forwarded, so I had to uninstall this path in Vista.
* With the ssh.com client, disable "Allow local connections only". Since ssh.com will
bind to all addresses, only a single share can be connected.

Now create the loopback interface with IP 10.1.1.1:
* # System->Control Panel->Add Hardware # Yes, Hardware is already connected # Add a new
hardware device (at bottom).
* # Install the hardware that I manually select # Network adapters # Microsoft ,
Microsoft Loopback Adapter.
* Configure the IP address of the fake device to 10.1.1.1 mask 255.255.255.0, no gateway.
* advanced->WINS, Enable LMHosts Lookup; Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.
* # Enable Client for Microsoft Networks. # Disable File and Printer Sharing for
Microsoft Networks.

I HAD to reboot for this to work. Now connect to the smb share with \\10.1.1.1 and remote
desktop to 10.1.1.1:3388.

Debug

If it is not working:
* Are the ports forwarded: netstat -an? Look at 0.0.0.0:139 or 10.1.1.1:139
* Does telnet 10.1.1.1 139 connect?
* You need the checkbox "Local ports accept connections from other hosts".
* Is "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" disabled on the loopback
interface?

Connect two clients behind NAT

Suppose two clients are behind a NAT gateway and client cliadmin has to connect to client
cliuser (the destination), both can login to the gate with ssh and are running Linux with
sshd. You don't need root access anywhere as long as the ports on gate are above 1024. We
use 2022 on gate. Also since the gate is used locally, the option GatewayPorts is not
necessary.
On client cliuser (from destination to gate):
# ssh -R 2022:localhost:22 user@gate # forwards client 22 to gate:2022

On client cliadmin (from host to gate):
# ssh -L 3022:localhost:2022 admin@gate # forwards client 3022 to gate:2022

Now the admin can connect directly to the client cliuser with:
# ssh -p 3022 admin@localhost # local:3022 -> gate:2022 -> client:22

Connect to VNC behind NAT

Suppose a Windows client with VNC listening on port 5900 has to be accessed from behind
NAT. On client cliwin to gate:
# ssh -R 15900:localhost:5900 user@gate

On client cliadmin (from host to gate):
# ssh -L 5900:localhost:15900 admin@gate

Now the admin can connect directly to the client VNC with:
# vncconnect -display :0 localhost

Dig a multi-hop ssh tunnel

Suppose you can not reach a server directly with ssh, but only via multiple intermediate
hosts (for example because of routing issues). Sometimes it is still necessary to get a
direct client - server connection, for example to copy files with scp, or forward other
ports like smb or vnc. One way to do this is to chain tunnels together to forward a port to
the server along the hops. This "carrier" port only reaches its final destination on the
last connection to the server.
Suppose we want to forward the ssh port from a client to a server over two hops. Once the
tunnel is build, it is possible to connect to the server directly from the client (and also
add an other port forward).

Create tunnel in one shell

client -> host1 -> host2 -> server and dig tunnel 5678
client># ssh -L5678:localhost:5678 host1 # 5678 is an arbitrary port for the tunnel
host_1># ssh -L5678:localhost:5678 host2 # chain 5678 from host1 to host2
host_2># ssh -L5678:localhost:22 server # end the tunnel on port 22 on the server

Use tunnel with an other shell

client -> server using tunnel 5678
# ssh -p 5678 localhost # connect directly from client to server
# scp -P 5678 myfile localhost:/tmp/ # or copy a file directly using the tunnel
# rsync -e 'ssh -p 5678' myfile localhost:/tmp/ # or rsync a file directly to the server

Autoconnect and keep alive script

I use variations of the following script to keep a machine reacheable over a reverse ssh
tunnel. The connection is automatically rebuilt if closed. You can add multiple -L or -R
tunnels on one line.
#!/bin/sh
COMMAND="ssh -N -f -g -R 3022:localhost:22 [email protected]"
pgrep -f -x "$COMMAND" > /dev/null 2>&1 || $COMMAND
exit 0

1 * * * * colin /home/colin/port_forward.sh # crontab entry (here hourly)

VPN with SSH

As of version 4.3, OpenSSH can use the tun/tap device to encrypt a tunnel. This is very
similar to other TLS based VPN solutions like OpenVPN. One advantage with SSH is that there
is no need to install and configure additional software. Additionally the tunnel uses the
SSH authentication like pre shared keys. The drawback is that the encapsulation is done
over TCP which might result in poor performance on a slow link. Also the tunnel is relying
on a single (fragile) TCP connection. This technique is very useful for a quick IP based
VPN setup. There is no limitation as with the single TCP port forward, all layer 3/4
protocols like ICMP, TCP/UDP, etc. are forwarded over the VPN. In any case, the following
options are needed in the sshd_conf file:
PermitRootLogin yes
PermitTunnel yes

Single P2P connection

Here we are connecting two hosts, hclient and hserver with a peer to peer tunnel. The
connection is started from hclient to hserver and is done as root. The tunnel end points
are 10.0.1.1 (server) and 10.0.1.2 (client) and we create a device tun5 (this could also be
an other number). The procedure is very simple:
* Connect with SSH using the tunnel option -w
* Configure the IP addresses of the tunnel. Once on the server and once on the client.

Connect to the server

Connection started on the client and commands are executed on the server.

Server is on Linux

cli># ssh -w5:5 root@hserver
srv># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.252 # Executed on the server shell

Server is on FreeBSD

cli># ssh -w5:5 root@hserver
srv># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.1 10.0.1.2 # Executed on the server shell

Configure the client

Commands executed on the client:
cli># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.252 # Client is on Linux
cli># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.2 10.0.1.1 # Client is on FreeBSD

The two hosts are now connected and can transparently communicate with any layer 3/4
protocol using the tunnel IP addresses.

Connect two networks

In addition to the p2p setup above, it is more useful to connect two private networks with
an SSH VPN using two gates. Suppose for the example, netA is 192.168.51.0/24 and netB
192.168.16.0/24. The procedure is similar as above, we only need to add the routing. NAT
must be activated on the private interface only if the gates are not the same as the
default gateway of their network.
192.168.51.0/24 (netA)|gateA <-> gateB|192.168.16.0/24 (netB)
* Connect with SSH using the tunnel option -w.
* Configure the IP addresses of the tunnel. Once on the server and once on the client.
* Add the routing for the two networks.
* If necessary, activate NAT on the private interface of the gate.

The setup is started from gateA in netA.

Connect from gateA to gateB

Connection is started from gateA and commands are executed on gateB.

gateB is on Linux

gateA># ssh -w5:5 root@gateB
gateB># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.252 # Executed on the gateB shell
gateB># route add -net 192.168.51.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev tun5
gateB># echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward # Only needed if not default gw
gateB># iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

gateB is on FreeBSD

gateA># ssh -w5:5 root@gateB # Creates the tun5 devices
gateB># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.1 10.0.1.2 # Executed on the gateB shell
gateB># route add 192.168.51.0/24 10.0.1.2
gateB># sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1 # Only needed if not default gw
gateB># natd -s -m -u -dynamic -n fxp0 # see NAT
gateA># sysctl net.inet.ip.fw.enable=1

Configure gateA

Commands executed on gateA:

gateA is on Linux

gateA># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.252
gateA># route add -net 192.168.16.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev tun5
gateA># echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
gateA># iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

gateA is on FreeBSD

gateA># ifconfig tun5 10.0.1.2 10.0.1.1
gateA># route add 192.168.16.0/24 10.0.1.2
gateA># sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
gateA># natd -s -m -u -dynamic -n fxp0 # see NAT
gateA># sysctl net.inet.ip.fw.enable=1

The two private networks are now transparently connected via the SSH VPN. The IP forward
and NAT settings are only necessary if the gates are not the default gateways. In this case
the clients would not know where to forward the response, and nat must be activated.

RSYNC

Rsync can almost completely replace cp and scp, furthermore interrupted transfers are
efficiently restarted. A trailing slash (and the absence thereof) has different meanings,
the man page is good... Here some examples:
Copy the directories with full content:
# rsync -a /home/colin/ /backup/colin/ # "archive" mode. e.g keep the same
# rsync -a /var/ /var_bak/
# rsync -aR --delete-during /home/user/ /backup/ # use relative (see below)
# /opt/local/bin/rsync -azv --iconv=UTF-8-MAC,UTF-8 ~/Music/flac/ me@server:/dst/
# convert filenames OSX UTF8 to Windows UTF8

Same as before but over the network and with compression. Rsync uses SSH for the transport
per default and will use the ssh key if they are set. Use ":" as with SCP. A typical remote
copy:
# rsync -axSRzv /home/user/ user@server:/backup/user/ # Copy to remote
# rsync -a 'user@server:My\ Documents' My\ Documents # Quote AND escape spaces for the remote shell

Exclude any directory tmp within /home/user/ and keep the relative folders hierarchy, that
is the remote directory will have the structure /backup/home/user/. This is typically used
for backups.
# rsync -azR --exclude=tmp/ /home/user/ user@server:/backup/

Use port 20022 for the ssh connection:
# rsync -az -e 'ssh -p 20022' /home/colin/ user@server:/backup/colin/

Using the rsync daemon (used with "::") is much faster, but not encrypted over ssh. The
location of /backup is defined by the configuration in /etc/rsyncd.conf. The variable
RSYNC_PASSWORD can be set to avoid the need to enter the password manually.
# rsync -axSRz /home/ ruser@hostname::rmodule/backup/
# rsync -axSRz ruser@hostname::rmodule/backup/ /home/ # To copy back

Some important options:
* -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
* -r, --recursive recurse into directories
* -R, --relative use relative path names
* -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
* -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
* -x, --one-file-system don't cross file system boundaries
* --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
* --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
* --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before

Rsync on Windows

Rsync is available for Windows through cygwin or as stand-alone packaged in
cwrsynchttp://sourceforge.net/projects/sereds. This is very convenient for automated
backups. Install one of them (not both) and add the path to the Windows system variables: #
Control Panel -> System -> tab Advanced, button Environment Variables. Edit the "Path"
system variable and add the full path to the installed rsync, e.g. C:\Program
Files\cwRsync\bin or C:\cygwin\bin. This way the commands rsync and ssh are available in a
Windows command shell.

Public key authentication

Rsync is automatically tunneled over SSH and thus uses the SSH authentication on the
server. Automatic backups have to avoid a user interaction, for this the SSH public key
authentication can be used and the rsync command will run without a password.
All the following commands are executed within a Windows console. In a console (Start ->
Run -> cmd) create and upload the key as described in SSH, change "user" and "server" as
appropriate. If the file authorized_keys2 does not exist yet, simply copy id_dsa.pub to
authorized_keys2 and upload it.
# ssh-keygen -t dsa -N '' # Creates a public and a private key
# rsync user@server:.ssh/authorized_keys2 . # Copy the file locally from the server
# cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys2 # Or use an editor to add the key
# rsync authorized_keys2 user@server:.ssh/ # Copy the file back to the server
# del authorized_keys2 # Remove the local copy

Now test it with (in one line):
rsync -rv "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/%USERNAME%/My Documents/" \
'user@server:My\ Documents/'

Automatic backup

Use a batch file to automate the backup and add the file in the scheduled tasks (Programs
-> Accessories -> System Tools -> Scheduled Tasks). For example create the file backup.bat
and replace user@server.
@ECHO OFF
REM rsync the directory My Documents
SETLOCAL
SET CWRSYNCHOME=C:\PROGRAM FILES\CWRSYNC
SET CYGWIN=nontsec
SET CWOLDPATH=%PATH%
REM uncomment the next line when using cygwin
SET PATH=%CWRSYNCHOME%\BIN;%PATH%
echo Press Control-C to abort
rsync -av "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/%USERNAME%/My Documents/" \
'user@server:My\ Documents/'
pause

SUDO

Sudo is a standard way to give users some administrative rights without giving out the root
password. Sudo is very useful in a multi user environment with a mix of server and
workstations. Simply call the command with sudo:
# sudo /etc/init.d/dhcpd restart # Run the rc script as root
# sudo -u sysadmin whoami # Run cmd as an other user

Configuration

Sudo is configured in /etc/sudoers and must only be edited with visudo. The basic syntax is
(the lists are comma separated):
user hosts = (runas) commands # In /etc/sudoers
* users one or more users or %group (like %wheel) to gain the rights
* hosts list of hosts (or ALL)
* runas list of users (or ALL) that the command rule can be run as. It is enclosed in (
)!
* commands list of commands (or ALL) that will be run as root or as (runas)

Additionally those keywords can be defined as alias, they are called User_Alias,
Host_Alias, Runas_Alias and Cmnd_Alias. This is useful for larger setups. Here a sudoers
example:
# cat /etc/sudoers
# Host aliases are subnets or hostnames.
Host_Alias DMZ = 212.118.81.40/28
Host_Alias DESKTOP = work1, work2

# User aliases are a list of users which can have the same rights
User_Alias ADMINS = colin, luca, admin
User_Alias DEVEL = joe, jack, julia
Runas_Alias DBA = oracle,pgsql

# Command aliases define the full path of a list of commands
Cmnd_Alias SYSTEM = /sbin/reboot,/usr/bin/kill,/sbin/halt,/sbin/shutdown,/etc/init.d/
Cmnd_Alias PW = /usr/bin/passwd [A-z]*, !/usr/bin/passwd root # Not root pwd!
Cmnd_Alias DEBUG = /usr/sbin/tcpdump,/usr/bin/wireshark,/usr/bin/nmap

# The actual rules
root,ADMINS ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL # ADMINS can do anything w/o a password.
DEVEL DESKTOP = (ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL # Developers have full right on desktops
DEVEL DMZ = (ALL) NOPASSWD: DEBUG # Developers can debug the DMZ servers.

# User sysadmin can mess around in the DMZ servers with some commands.
sysadmin DMZ = (ALL) NOPASSWD: SYSTEM,PW,DEBUG
sysadmin ALL,!DMZ = (ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL # Can do anything outside the DMZ.
%dba ALL = (DBA) ALL # Group dba can run as database user.

# anyone can mount/unmount a cd-rom on the desktop machines
ALL DESKTOP = NOPASSWD: /sbin/mount /cdrom,/sbin/umount /cdrom

Encrypt Files

OpenSSL

A single file

Encrypt and decrypt:
# openssl aes-128-cbc -salt -in file -out file.aes
# openssl aes-128-cbc -d -salt -in file.aes -out file

Note that the file can of course be a tar archive.

tar and encrypt a whole directory

# tar -cf - directory | openssl aes-128-cbc -salt -out directory.tar.aes # Encrypt
# openssl aes-128-cbc -d -salt -in directory.tar.aes | tar -x -f - # Decrypt

tar zip and encrypt a whole directory

# tar -zcf - directory | openssl aes-128-cbc -salt -out directory.tar.gz.aes # Encrypt
# openssl aes-128-cbc -d -salt -in directory.tar.gz.aes | tar -xz -f - # Decrypt

* Use -k mysecretpassword after aes-128-cbc to avoid the interactive password request.
However note that this is highly insecure.
* Use aes-256-cbc instead of aes-128-cbc to get even stronger encryption. This uses also
more CPU.

GPG

GnuPG is well known to encrypt and sign emails or any data. Furthermore gpg and also
provides an advanced key management system. This section only covers files encryption, not
email usage, signing or the Web-Of-Trust.
The simplest encryption is with a symmetric cipher. In this case the file is encrypted with
a password and anyone who knows the password can decrypt it, thus the keys are not needed.
Gpg adds an extention ".gpg" to the encrypted file names.
# gpg -c file # Encrypt file with password
# gpg file.gpg # Decrypt file (optionally -o otherfile)

Using keys

For more details see GPG Quick Starthttp://www.madboa.com/geek/gpg-quickstart and GPG/PGP
Basicshttp://aplawrence.com/Basics/gpg.html and the gnupg
documentationhttp://gnupg.org/documentation among others.
The private and public keys are the heart of asymmetric cryptography. What is important to
remember:
* Your public key is used by others to encrypt files that only you as the receiver can
decrypt (not even the one who encrypted the file can decrypt it). The public key is
thus meant to be distributed.
* Your private key is encrypted with your passphrase and is used to decrypt files which
were encrypted with your public key. The private key must be kept secure. Also if the
key or passphrase is lost, so are all the files encrypted with your public key.
* The key files are called keyrings as they can contain more than one key.

First generate a key pair. The defaults are fine, however you will have to enter at least
your full name and email and optionally a comment. The comment is useful to create more
than one key with the same name and email. Also you should use a "passphrase", not a simple
password.
# gpg --gen-key # This can take a long time

The keys are stored in ~/.gnupg/ on Unix, on Windows they are typically stored in
C:/Documents and Settings/%USERNAME%/Application Data/gnupg/.
~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg # Contains your public keys and all others imported
~/.gnupg/secring.gpg # Can contain more than one private key

Short reminder on most used options:
* -e encrypt data
* -d decrypt data
* -r NAME encrypt for recipient NAME (or 'Full Name' or 'email@domain')
* -a create ascii armored output of a key
* -o use as output file

The examples use 'Your Name' and 'Alice' as the keys are referred to by the email or full
name or partial name. For example I can use 'Colin' or '[email protected]' for my key [Colin Barschel
(cb.vu) <[email protected]>].

Encrypt for personal use only

No need to export/import any key for this. You have both already.
# gpg -e -r 'Your Name' file # Encrypt with your public key
# gpg -o file -d file.gpg # Decrypt. Use -o or it goes to stdout

Encrypt - Decrypt with keys

First you need to export your public key for someone else to use it. And you need to import
the public say from Alice to encrypt a file for her. You can either handle the keys in
simple ascii files or use a public key server.
For example Alice export her public key and you import it, you can then encrypt a file for
her. That is only Alice will be able to decrypt it.
# gpg -a -o alicekey.asc --export 'Alice' # Alice exported her key in ascii file.
# gpg --send-keys --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net KEYID # Alice put her key on a server.
# gpg --import alicekey.asc # You import her key into your pubring.
# gpg --search-keys --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net 'Alice' # or get her key from a server.

Once the keys are imported it is very easy to encrypt or decrypt a file:
# gpg -e -r 'Alice' file # Encrypt the file for Alice.
# gpg -d file.gpg -o file # Decrypt a file encrypted by Alice for you.

Key administration

# gpg --list-keys # list public keys and see the KEYIDS
The KEYID follows the '/' e.g. for: pub 1024D/D12B77CE the KEYID is D12B77CE
# gpg --gen-revoke 'Your Name' # generate revocation certificate
# gpg --list-secret-keys # list private keys
# gpg --delete-keys NAME # delete a public key from local key ring
# gpg --delete-secret-key NAME # delete a secret key from local key ring
# gpg --fingerprint KEYID # Show the fingerprint of the key
# gpg --edit-key KEYID # Edit key (e.g sign or add/del email)

Encrypt Partitions

Linux with LUKS | Linux dm-crypt only | FreeBSD GELI | FBSD pwd only | OS X image
There are (many) other alternative methods to encrypt disks, I only show here the methods I
know and use. Keep in mind that the security is only good as long the OS has not been
tempered with. An intruder could easily record the password from the keyboard events.
Furthermore the data is freely accessible when the partition is attached and will not
prevent an intruder to have access to it in this state.

Linux

Those instructions use the Linux dm-crypt (device-mapper) facility available on the 2.6
kernel. In this example, lets encrypt the partition /dev/sdc1, it could be however any
other partition or disk, or USB or a file based partition created with losetup. In this
case we would use /dev/loop0. See file image partition. The device mapper uses labels to
identify a partition. We use sdc1 in this example, but it could be any string.

dm-crypt with LUKS

LUKS with dm-crypt has better encryption and makes it possible to have multiple passphrase
for the same partition or to change the password easily. To test if LUKS is available,
simply type # cryptsetup --help, if nothing about LUKS shows up, use the instructions below
Without LUKS. First create a partition if necessary: fdisk /dev/sdc.

Create encrypted partition

# dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdc1 # Optional. For paranoids only (takes days)
# cryptsetup -y luksFormat /dev/sdc1 # This destroys any data on sdc1
# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdc1 sdc1
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/mapper/sdc1 # create ext3 file system
# mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/sdc1 /mnt
# umount /mnt
# cryptsetup luksClose sdc1 # Detach the encrypted partition

Attach

# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdc1 sdc1
# mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/sdc1 /mnt

Detach

# umount /mnt
# cryptsetup luksClose sdc1

dm-crypt without LUKS

# cryptsetup -y create sdc1 /dev/sdc1 # or any other partition like /dev/loop0
# dmsetup ls # check it, will display: sdc1 (254, 0)
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/mapper/sdc1 # This is done only the first time!
# mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/sdc1 /mnt
# umount /mnt/
# cryptsetup remove sdc1 # Detach the encrypted partition

Do exactly the same (without the mkfs part!) to re-attach the partition. If the password is
not correct, the mount command will fail. In this case simply remove the map sdc1
(cryptsetup remove sdc1) and create it again.

FreeBSD

The two popular FreeBSD disk encryption modules are gbde and geli. I now use geli because
it is faster and also uses the crypto device for hardware acceleration. See The FreeBSD
handbook Chapter 18.6http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/disks-encrypting.html for all the
details. The geli module must be loaded or compiled into the kernel:
options GEOM_ELI
device crypto # or as module:
# echo 'geom_eli_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf # or do: kldload geom_eli

Use password and key

I use those settings for a typical disk encryption, it uses a passphrase AND a key to
encrypt the master key. That is you need both the password and the generated key
/root/ad1.key to attach the partition. The master key is stored inside the partition and is
not visible. See below for typical USB or file based image.

Create encrypted partition

# dd if=/dev/random of=/root/ad1.key bs=64 count=1 # this key encrypts the mater key
# geli init -s 4096 -K /root/ad1.key /dev/ad1 # -s 8192 is also OK for disks
# geli attach -k /root/ad1.key /dev/ad1 # DO make a backup of /root/ad1.key
# dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/ad1.eli bs=1m # Optional and takes a long time
# newfs /dev/ad1.eli # Create file system
# mount /dev/ad1.eli /mnt

Attach

# geli attach -k /root/ad1.key /dev/ad1
# fsck -ny -t ffs /dev/ad1.eli # In doubt check the file system
# mount /dev/ad1.eli /mnt

Detach

The detach procedure is done automatically on shutdown.
# umount /mnt
# geli detach /dev/ad1.eli

/etc/fstab

The encrypted partition can be configured to be mounted with /etc/fstab. The password will
be prompted when booting. The following settings are required for this example:
# grep geli /etc/rc.conf
geli_devices="ad1"
geli_ad1_flags="-k /root/ad1.key"
# grep geli /etc/fstab
/dev/ad1.eli /home/private ufs rw 0 0

Use password only

It is more convenient to encrypt a USB stick or file based image with a passphrase only and
no key. In this case it is not necessary to carry the additional key file around. The
procedure is very much the same as above, simply without the key file. Let's encrypt a file
based image /cryptedfile of 1 GB.
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/cryptedfile bs=1M count=1000 # 1 GB file
# mdconfig -at vnode -f /cryptedfile
# geli init /dev/md0 # encrypts with password only
# geli attach /dev/md0
# newfs -U -m 0 /dev/md0.eli
# mount /dev/md0.eli /mnt
# umount /dev/md0.eli
# geli detach md0.eli

It is now possible to mount this image on an other system with the password only.
# mdconfig -at vnode -f /cryptedfile
# geli attach /dev/md0
# mount /dev/md0.eli /mnt

OS X Encrypted Disk Image

Don't know by command line only. See OS X Encrypted Disk
Imagehttps://wiki.thayer.dartmouth.edu/display/computing/Creating+a+Mac+OS+X+Encrypted+Disk
+Image and Apple supporthttp://support.apple.com/kb/ht1578

SSL Certificates

So called SSL/TLS certificates are cryptographic public key certificates and are composed
of a public and a private key. The certificates are used to authenticate the endpoints and
encrypt the data. They are used for example on a web server (https) or mail server (imaps).

Procedure

* We need a certificate authority to sign our certificate. This step is usually provided
by a vendor like Thawte, Verisign, etc., however we can also create our own.
* Create a certificate signing request. This request is like an unsigned certificate (the
public part) and already contains all necessary information. The certificate request is
normally sent to the authority vendor for signing. This step also creates the private
key on the local machine.
* Sign the certificate with the certificate authority.
* If necessary join the certificate and the key in a single file to be used by the
application (web server, mail server etc.).

Configure OpenSSL

We use /usr/local/certs as directory for this example check or edit /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf
accordingly to your settings so you know where the files will be created. Here are the
relevant part of openssl.cnf:
[ CA_default ]
dir = /usr/local/certs/CA # Where everything is kept
certs = $dir/certs # Where the issued certs are kept
crl_dir = $dir/crl # Where the issued crl are kept
database = $dir/index.txt # database index file.

Make sure the directories exist or create them
# mkdir -p /usr/local/certs/CA
# cd /usr/local/certs/CA
# mkdir certs crl newcerts private
# echo "01" > serial # Only if serial does not exist
# touch index.txt

If you intend to get a signed certificate from a vendor, you only need a certificate
signing request (CSR). This CSR will then be signed by the vendor for a limited time (e.g.
1 year).

Create a certificate authority

If you do not have a certificate authority from a vendor, you'll have to create your own.
This step is not necessary if one intend to use a vendor to sign the request. To make a
certificate authority (CA):
# openssl req -new -x509 -days 730 -config /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf \
-keyout CA/private/cakey.pem -out CA/cacert.pem

Create a certificate signing request

To make a new certificate (for mail server or web server for example), first create a
request certificate with its private key. If your application do not support encrypted
private key (for example UW-IMAP does not), then disable encryption with -nodes.
# openssl req -new -keyout newkey.pem -out newreq.pem \
-config /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf
# openssl req -nodes -new -keyout newkey.pem -out newreq.pem \
-config /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf # No encryption for the key

Keep this created CSR (newreq.pem) as it can be signed again at the next renewal, the
signature onlt will limit the validity of the certificate. This process also created the
private key newkey.pem.

Sign the certificate

The certificate request has to be signed by the CA to be valid, this step is usually done
by the vendor. Note: replace "servername" with the name of your server in the next
commands.
# cat newreq.pem newkey.pem > new.pem
# openssl ca -policy policy_anything -out servernamecert.pem \
-config /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf -infiles new.pem
# mv newkey.pem servernamekey.pem

Now servernamekey.pem is the private key and servernamecert.pem is the server certificate.

Create united certificate

The IMAP server wants to have both private key and server certificate in the same file. And
in general, this is also easier to handle, but the file has to be kept securely!. Apache
also can deal with it well. Create a file servername.pem containing both the certificate
and key.
* Open the private key (servernamekey.pem) with a text editor and copy the private key
into the "servername.pem" file.
* Do the same with the server certificate (servernamecert.pem).

The final servername.pem file should look like this:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIICXQIBAAKBgQDutWy+o/XZ/[...]qK5LqQgT3c9dU6fcR+WuSs6aejdEDDqBRQ
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIERzCCA7CgAwIBAgIBBDANB[...]iG9w0BAQQFADCBxTELMAkGA1UEBhMCREUx
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

What we have now in the directory /usr/local/certs/:
* CA/private/cakey.pem (CA server private key)
* CA/cacert.pem (CA server public key)
* certs/servernamekey.pem (server private key)
* certs/servernamecert.pem (server signed certificate)
* certs/servername.pem (server certificate with private key)

Keep the private key secure!

View certificate information

To view the certificate information simply do:
# openssl x509 -text -in servernamecert.pem # View the certificate info
# openssl req -noout -text -in server.csr # View the request info
# openssl s_client -connect cb.vu:443 # Check a web server certificate

CVS

Server setup | CVS test | SSH tunneling | CVS usage

Server setup

Initiate the CVS

Decide where the main repository will rest and create a root cvs. For example
/usr/local/cvs (as root):
# mkdir -p /usr/local/cvs
# setenv CVSROOT /usr/local/cvs # Set CVSROOT to the new location (local)
# cvs init # Creates all internal CVS config files
# cd /root
# cvs checkout CVSROOT # Checkout the config files to modify them
# cd CVSROOT
edit config ( fine as it is)
# cvs commit config
cat >> writers # Create a writers file (optionally also readers)
colin
^D # Use [Control][D] to quit the edit
# cvs add writers # Add the file writers into the repository
# cvs edit checkoutlist
# cat >> checkoutlist
writers
^D # Use [Control][D] to quit the edit
# cvs commit # Commit all the configuration changes

Add a readers file if you want to differentiate read and write permissions Note: Do not
(ever) edit files directly into the main cvs, but rather checkout the file, modify it and
check it in. We did this with the file writers to define the write access.
There are three popular ways to access the CVS at this point. The first two don't need any
further configuration. See the examples on CVSROOT below for how to use them:
* Direct local access to the file system. The user(s) need sufficient file permission to
access the CS directly and there is no further authentication in addition to the OS
login. However this is only useful if the repository is local.
* Remote access with ssh with the ext protocol. Any use with an ssh shell account and
read/write permissions on the CVS server can access the CVS directly with ext over ssh
without any additional tunnel. There is no server process running on the CVS for this
to work. The ssh login does the authentication.
* Remote access with pserver (default port: 2401/tcp). This is the preferred use for
larger user base as the users are authenticated by the CVS pserver with a dedicated
password database, there is therefore no need for local users accounts. This setup is
explained below.

Network setup with inetd

The CVS can be run locally only if a network access is not needed. For a remote access, the
daemon inetd can start the pserver with the following line in /etc/inetd.conf
(/etc/xinetd.d/cvs on SuSE):
cvspserver stream tcp nowait cvs /usr/bin/cvs cvs \
--allow-root=/usr/local/cvs pserver

It is a good idea to block the cvs port from the Internet with the firewall and use an ssh
tunnel to access the repository remotely.

Separate authentication

It is possible to have cvs users which are not part of the OS (no local users). This is
actually probably wanted too from the security point of view. Simply add a file named
passwd (in the CVSROOT directory) containing the users login and password in the crypt
format. This is can be done with the apache htpasswd tool.
Note: This passwd file is the only file which has to be edited directly in the CVSROOT
directory. Also it won't be checked out. More info with htpasswd --help
# htpasswd -cb passwd user1 password1 # -c creates the file
# htpasswd -b passwd user2 password2

Now add :cvs at the end of each line to tell the cvs server to change the user to cvs (or
whatever your cvs server is running under). It looks like this:
# cat passwd
user1:xsFjhU22u8Fuo:cvs
user2:vnefJOsnnvToM:cvs

Test it

Test the login as normal user (for example here me)
# cvs -d :pserver:[email protected]:/usr/local/cvs login
Logging in to :pserver:[email protected]:2401/usr/local/cvs
CVS password:

CVSROOT variable

This is an environment variable used to specify the location of the repository we're doing
operations on. For local use, it can be just set to the directory of the repository. For
use over the network, the transport protocol must be specified. Set the CVSROOT variable
with setenv CVSROOT string on a csh, tcsh shell, or with export CVSROOT=string on a sh,
bash shell.
# setenv CVSROOT :pserver:<username>@<host>:/cvsdirectory
For example:
# setenv CVSROOT /usr/local/cvs # Used locally only
# setenv CVSROOT :local:/usr/local/cvs # Same as above
# setenv CVSROOT :ext:user@cvsserver:/usr/local/cvs # Direct access with SSH
# setenv CVS_RSH ssh # for the ext access
# setenv CVSROOT :pserver:[email protected]:/usr/local/cvs # network with pserver

When the login succeeded one can import a new project into the repository: cd into your
project root directory
cvs import <module name> <vendor tag> <initial tag>
cvs -d :pserver:[email protected]:/usr/local/cvs import MyProject MyCompany START

Where MyProject is the name of the new project in the repository (used later to checkout).
Cvs will import the current directory content into the new project.
To checkout:
# cvs -d :pserver:[email protected]:/usr/local/cvs checkout MyProject
or
# setenv CVSROOT :pserver:[email protected]:/usr/local/cvs
# cvs checkout MyProject

SSH tunneling for CVS

We need 2 shells for this. On the first shell we connect to the cvs server with ssh and
port-forward the cvs connection. On the second shell we use the cvs normally as if it where
running locally.
on shell 1:
# ssh -L2401:localhost:2401 colin@cvs_server # Connect directly to the CVS server. Or:
# ssh -L2401:cvs_server:2401 colin@gateway # Use a gateway to reach the CVS

on shell 2:
# setenv CVSROOT :pserver:colin@localhost:/usr/local/cvs
# cvs login
Logging in to :pserver:colin@localhost:2401/usr/local/cvs
CVS password:
# cvs checkout MyProject/src

CVS commands and usage

Import

The import command is used to add a whole directory, it must be run from within the
directory to be imported. Say the directory /devel/ contains all files and subdirectories
to be imported. The directory name on the CVS (the module) will be called "myapp".
# cvs import [options] directory-name vendor-tag release-tag
# cd /devel # Must be inside the project to import it
# cvs import myapp Company R1_0 # Release tag can be anything in one word

After a while a new directory "/devel/tools/" was added and it has to be imported too.
# cd /devel/tools
# cvs import myapp/tools Company R1_0

Checkout update add commit

# cvs co myapp/tools # Will only checkout the directory tools
# cvs co -r R1_1 myapp # Checkout myapp at release R1_1 (is sticky)
# cvs -q -d update -P # A typical CVS update
# cvs update -A # Reset any sticky tag (or date, option)
# cvs add newfile # Add a new file
# cvs add -kb newfile # Add a new binary file
# cvs commit file1 file2 # Commit the two files only
# cvs commit -m "message" # Commit all changes done with a message

Create a patch

It is best to create and apply a patch from the working development directory related to
the project, or from within the source directory.
# cd /devel/project
# diff -Naur olddir newdir > patchfile # Create a patch from a directory or a file
# diff -Naur oldfile newfile > patchfile

Apply a patch

Sometimes it is necessary to strip a directory level from the patch, depending how it was
created. In case of difficulties, simply look at the first lines of the patch and try -p0,
-p1 or -p2.
# cd /devel/project
# patch --dry-run -p0 < patchfile # Test the path without applying it
# patch -p0 < patchfile
# patch -p1 < patchfile # strip off the 1st level from the path

SVN

Server setup | SVN+SSH | SVN over http | SVN usage
Subversion (SVN)http://subversion.tigris.org/ is a version control system designed to be
the successor of CVS (Concurrent Versions System). The concept is similar to CVS, but many
shortcomings where improved. See also the SVN bookhttp://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/.

Server setup

The initiation of the repository is fairly simple (here for example /home/svn/ must exist):
# svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /home/svn/project1

Now the access to the repository is made possible with:
* file:// Direct file system access with the svn client with. This requires local
permissions on the file system.
* svn:// or svn+ssh:// Remote access with the svnserve server (also over SSH). This
requires local permissions on the file system (default port: 2690/tcp).
* http:// Remote access with webdav using apache. No local users are necessary for this
method.

Using the local file system, it is now possible to import and then check out an existing
project. Unlike with CVS it is not necessary to cd into the project directory, simply give
the full path:
# svn import /project1/ file:///home/svn/project1/trunk -m 'Initial import'
# svn checkout file:///home/svn/project1

The new directory "trunk" is only a convention, this is not required.

Remote access with ssh

No special setup is required to access the repository via ssh, simply replace file:// with
svn+ssh/hostname. For example:
# svn checkout svn+ssh://hostname/home/svn/project1

As with the local file access, every user needs an ssh access to the server (with a local
account) and also read/write access. This method might be suitable for a small group. All
users could belong to a subversion group which owns the repository, for example:
# groupadd subversion
# groupmod -A user1 subversion
# chown -R root:subversion /home/svn
# chmod -R 770 /home/svn

Remote access with http (apache)

Remote access over http (https) is the only good solution for a larger user group. This
method uses the apache authentication, not the local accounts. This is a typical but small
apache configuration:
LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
LoadModule dav_svn_module modules/mod_dav_svn.so
LoadModule authz_svn_module modules/mod_authz_svn.so # Only for access control

<Location /svn>
DAV svn
# any "/svn/foo" URL will map to a repository /home/svn/foo
SVNParentPath /home/svn
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Subversion repository"
AuthzSVNAccessFile /etc/apache2/svn.acl
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/svn-passwd
Require valid-user
</Location>

The apache server needs full access to the repository:
# chown -R www:www /home/svn

Create a user with htpasswd2:
# htpasswd -c /etc/svn-passwd user1 # -c creates the file

Access control svn.acl example

# Default it read access. "* =" would be default no access
[/]
* = r
[groups]
project1-developers = joe, jack, jane
# Give write access to the developers
[project1:]
@project1-developers = rw

SVN commands and usage

See also the Subversion Quick Reference
Cardhttp://www.cs.put.poznan.pl/csobaniec/Papers/svn-refcard.pdf. Tortoise
SVNhttp://tortoisesvn.tigris.org is a nice Windows interface.

Import

A new project, that is a directory with some files, is imported into the repository with
the import command. Import is also used to add a directory with its content to an existing
project.
# svn help import # Get help for any command
# Add a new directory (with content) into the src dir on project1
# svn import /project1/newdir http://host.url/svn/project1/trunk/src -m 'add newdir'

Typical SVN commands

# svn co http://host.url/svn/project1/trunk # Checkout the most recent version
# Tags and branches are created by copying
# svn mkdir http://host.url/svn/project1/tags/ # Create the tags directory
# svn copy -m "Tag rc1 rel." http://host.url/svn/project1/trunk \
http://host.url/svn/project1/tags/1.0rc1
# svn status [--verbose] # Check files status into working dir
# svn add src/file.h src/file.cpp # Add two files
# svn commit -m 'Added new class file' # Commit the changes with a message
# svn ls http://host.url/svn/project1/tags/ # List all tags
# svn move foo.c bar.c # Move (rename) files
# svn delete some_old_file # Delete files

Useful Commands

less | vi | mail | tar | zip | dd | screen | find | Miscellaneous

less

The less command displays a text document on the console. It is present on most
installation.
# less unixtoolbox.xhtml

Some important commands are (^N stands for [control]-[N]):
* h H good help on display
* f ^F ^V SPACE Forward one window (or N lines).
* b ^B ESC-v Backward one window (or N lines).
* F Forward forever; like "tail -f".
* /pattern Search forward for (N-th) matching line.
* ?pattern Search backward for (N-th) matching line.
* n Repeat previous search (for N-th occurrence).
* N Repeat previous search in reverse direction.
* q quit

vi

Vi is present on ANY Linux/Unix installation (not gentoo?) and it is therefore useful to
know some basic commands. There are two modes: command mode and insertion mode. The
commands mode is accessed with [ESC], the insertion mode with i. Use : help if you are
lost.
The editors nano and pico are usually available too and are easier (IMHO) to use.

Quit

* :w newfilename save the file to newfilename
* :wq or :x save and quit
* :q! quit without saving

Search and move

* /string Search forward for string
* ?string Search back for string
* n Search for next instance of string
* N Search for previous instance of string
* { Move a paragraph back
* } Move a paragraph forward
* 1G Move to the first line of the file
* nG Move to the n th line of the file
* G Move to the last line of the file
* :%s/OLD/NEW/g Search and replace every occurrence

Delete copy paste text

* dd (dw) Cut current line (word)
* D Cut to the end of the line
* x Delete (cut) character
* yy (yw) Copy line (word) after cursor
* P Paste after cursor
* u Undo last modification
* U Undo all changes to current line

mail

The mail command is a basic application to read and send email, it is usually installed. To
send an email simply type "mail user@domain". The first line is the subject, then the mail
content. Terminate and send the email with a single dot (.) in a new line. Example:
# mail [email protected]
Subject: Your text is full of typos
"For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so,
nothing continued to happen."