Check if a file is really a file, whether a string contains anything, and whether you can run a program with these vital patterns.

I've never done shell scripting before so be easy. I'm working on converting a bunch of .mkv files I have to .mp4 for playback on my AppleTV. I've installed handbrake onto my server and all the files ...

Here are some basic skills to get started with bash, one of the best shells for preparing and using scripts on Linux. Scripting in Linux–putting commands into a file so you can run them as a group—is ...

I’m going to go ahead and admit it: I really have too many tray icons. You know the ones. They sit on your taskbar, perhaps doing something in the background or, at least, giving you fingertip access ...

Oh happy day! I got an e-mail from a reader with a shell script question that didn't appear to be homework from a programming class or anything to do with hacking passwords. The reader wrote: I am ...

Shell scripting is one of those skills that are absolutely invaluable on especially UNIX and BSD-based systems like the BSDs, the two zillion Linux distributions as well as MacOS. Yet not every shell ...

I've got a little FreeBSD box running as a web/mail server. Every so often I'll make some tarball backups of important files and directories. First, there's the important system configuration stuff, ...

Jack Wallen shows how you can create a Linux shell script that requires a password without having to save a password within the script. Image: dennizn/Adobe Stock ...