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Category : Unix

Question : pauldoherty,
I have a question about unix to trouble you.That is:
How to create a user using "useradd" command that has a UID same to another user that already exists?

For example ,I have already created a user account "user_one",and its UID is 201.Now I want to create another user account "user_two",and its UID is also 201. I tried "# useradd -d /usr/user_two -u 201 user_two",but I failed.Can you help me?

Thank you very much.

Answer : Just vi the two following files (as root) and copy and paste the lines for the user you're attempting to duplicate, then change each occurrence of the old name in the copied lines to the new user name:

/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow

Afterwards issue:

passwd newuser

where 'newuser' is the name of the duplicate user.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :

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FAQId : 5006999
Subject : What i have to do to compress/uncompress a unix directory /test via gzip or tar

Question : What i have to do to compress/uncompress a unix directory (i.e. /test) via telnt using gzip or tar ?
Thank you

Answer : If you have a file that looks like this:

file1.tar

it's just tarred and you can extract it like this (assume that file1.tar is in your /home/user dir):

cd /tmp (or wherever you'd like the file extracted - can be the same dir as the tar file)
tar -xvf file1.tar

If the file looks like this:

file1.tar.gz

it's been tarred and then compressed with gzip as you mentioned. To get it out you can do this:

gunzip file1.tar.gz
tar -xvf file1.tar

OR if you have gzcat available you can leave the archive intact and get at the insides like this:

gzcat file1.tar.gz | tar -xvf -


Also sometimes you may see files like:

file1.tar.Z

This file was tarred and then compressed with "compress" - to get at it:

uncompress file1.tar.Z
tar -xvf file1.tar

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating :

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FAQId : 5097087
Subject : compress all files and folders in a directory

Question : Hi,

A quick question, how can i compress all files (including other folders) inside a particular folder?

gzip myfile * -only works on files inside the current folder and does not include folders

Thank you.

Answer : Try this (assuming you want to archive the /var/stuff directory and all files/dirs beneath it):

cd /var/stuff
tar -cvpf ..\stuff.tar .
cd ..
gzip stuff.tar

Now you have a file called stuff.tar.gz that contains a compressed version of all your subdirectory structure including all permissions. To retore it (to the same or a different system) ensure the /var/stuff dir exists, then:

cd /path/to/archive
gunzip stuff.tar.gz
cd /var/stuff
tar -xvpf /path/to/archive/stuff.tar

And everything is back!

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : Oops - realized I have a backslash instead of a forward slash in the tar command - change that from

tar -cvpf ..\stuff.tar .

to

tar -cvpf ../stuff.tar .

After the first two commands:

cd /var/stuff
tar -cvpf ../stuff.tar .

you will have created a 'stuff.tar' file in the directory above the one you're in. (You can also tar to any other directory you like by using it in place of "../" like /tmp/stuff.tar) That's where the next command:

cd ..

comes in - it moves you up one directory to where the file exists. then you compress that file with:

gzip stuff.tar

and gzip compresses the file into stuff.tar.gz and deletes the original .tar file.


--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities



Rating :

FUQuestion : The first command worked fine, but now i can't find the .tar file.

any ideas?

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FAQId : 5172809
Subject : installing solaris 8

Question : Hi,

I am trying to install solaris 8 on a sun microsystem ultra 10 elite 3D with two hard drives. It lets me enter all the info and then tells me that the name server is wrong it seems like its a hard drive problem.

heres the partition layout

o. c0t0d0 <seagate medalist 34342a cyl 8892 alt 2hd 15 sec 63> /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/dad@0,0
1. c0t1d0 <ST34342A cyl 8892 alt 2hd 15 sec 63> pci@1f, 0/pci@1/ide@3/dad@1,0

heres the full map

part tag flag cylinders size blocks

0 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
1 swap wu 0-1109 512.18Mb (1110/0/0) 1048950
2 backup wm 0-8891 4.01GB (8892/0/0) 8402940
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 " " " " " "
5 " " " " " "
6 " " " " " "
7 " " " " " "
I'm not sure how to prepare the disk if it isn't prepared properly.
can you advise?

thanks

Pat

Answer : Well it's a bit more than that. You'll need to find the line in nsswitch.conf that looks like this:

hosts: files nis

and make it like this:

hosts: files dns nis

(and remove nis altogether if you like)

In resolv.conf you'll need this:

domain wherever.com
nameserver 214.24.38.32
nameserver 214.24.38.33
search wherever.com

In the above info you'll use your own DNS domain and name server addresses.

/etc/defaultdomain is just a text file with the domain name (same as in the file above) in it.

/etc/hosts will contain information about any hosts (including your own machine) that you need to know about even if DNS fails.

For example:

#
# Internet host table
#
127.0.0.1 localhost
10.1.1.9 elfstone elfstone.wherever.com loghost

"elfstone" is the local machine I am configuring.

Finally you will need a file called:

/etc/nodename.xxx

where 'xxx' is the device name for your interface card. You can find it by typing:

ifconfig -a

"lo0" is the loopback device and can be ignored. We're after the other one - like hme0, or le0. Once you determine which it is make the file as above and put the hostname of your machine in it on a line by itself.

Reboot after this and you should be in business.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : That is a known bug with Solaris 8's install. It will never succeed at this point in the install if you select DNS. Just start a new install and select "no name service" when asked. After the install add the DNS info you need in the form of:

/etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/defaultdomain
/etc/hosts


--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :

FUQuestion : Hi,

thanks for the info do i just edit these files and put in my ip addresses? And finally
what book should i get if i want to be a solaris expert?

many many thanks

pat



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FAQId : 5274304
Subject : Changing IP on hme1

Question : Hi, Paul!
I inherited a Sun220R to admin. IPv4 on Solaris8. It has 2
ethernet interfaces set to local 'reserved network' static IP numbers. I'm being asked to put this machine on the outside of the firewall temporarily for testing. I can plug it into a hub for this purpose. I have an external IP number, netmask (not in hex though), and gateway router to point to for the hme1 interface.
'ifconfig -a' shows me the IP, netmask etc. I can 'ifconfig hme0 down' to take down temporarily the primary interface.
How do I change the address of the hme1 interface? What commands must be invoked to change the address so that I can then unplug it from the internal switch and plug it into the external hub? Do I have to reboot the 220R for this to change?
Can't seem to find a straight answer on Sun's BigAdmin.
Ultimately, I'd like to make this machine a multihomed host - hme0 live to the inside and hme1 live to the outside. There should be no packet forwarding between interfaces and I don't want this to be a router, but then this machine would be available for testing by engineers.
If you can help, thanks!
(please cc reply to kenzo562@iname.com if possible...)

Answer : Yes, just add extra lines for the backup default routes to defaultrouter and you're set.

As for packet-forwarding. Yes I'd lock that machine down if it's going to stay exposed to the internet at large. Unless this machine will be a firewall (in which case it pretty much needs to route :-) I'd leave routing disabled - and if someone does hack into it you're still at risk since they can potentially change the configuration and get into the internal network if you have it plugged into an ethernet cable.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : Yes just add lines as needed to /etc/netmasks for each network interface. Follow the same format as the line you quoted. Your new line would then be (if that was indeed your network and subnet mask):

63.81.163.0 255.255.255.240

Any access to a 63.81.163.0 address, or any interface that talks on a network listed in netmasks, will be assumed to use that netmask unless overridden by an ifconfig statement later.

I don't think you will want to be running route statements after disabling the routed daemon and touching the /etc/notrouter file. Just create a single line text file /etc/defaultrouter that has the IP of the interface you want to go to as your default. So for instance it might be:

63.81.163.1

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : You won't need a reboot - you just need some more ifconfig commands. To change the IP of an interface do it like this:

ifconfig hme1 123.12.13.14 netmask 255.255.255.240 up

Make sure your default router (gateway/router port) is defined on a single line in /etc/defaultrouter and that your netmasks are defined in /etc/netmasks.

To stop the machine from routing you only need to do this:

touch /etc/notrouter

and reboot.

To be really sure it doesn't get turned on disable the routed daemon in /etc/inet/services.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :
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FUQuestion : Thanks Paul!
Turns out that the ethernet interface on the motherboard is multihomed with two internal addresses.
I shut down both, detached the wire from the internal switch and attached it to the external hub, assigned hme1 the external address and it was pingable from the outside. I did not change the defaultrouter content which is an internal address but it still worked. Can defaultrouter have two lines with unique addresses?

In the future, I'd like to remain connected externally and use the second physical interface connected internally but I don't want the fat pipe from the external thru the CPU to the internal. Will turning off packet forwarding accomplish this or is it just too dangerous once the CPU is penetrated?

FUQuestion : Thanks for your quick response!
In /etc/netmasks, I have the original
<subnet> <netmask> in place:
172.16.0.0 255.255.255.0

Do I add the lines of the outside network right under the lines of the internal network as part ofthe process of moving the machine outside of the private network? That would be:

63.81.163.xxx 255.255.255.240

About /etc/defaultrouter: Is running:

# /usr/sbin/route add default 63.81.163.yyy 1

....the way to add a line in /etc/defaultrouter?

Thanks!

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FAQId : 5509521
Subject : mail

Question : On Solaris, I entered this command "mail cindy@localhome.com < "filename"
It works ok. Now, I would like to enter a subject when mailing this file, but cannot figure out how.

Thank you, Cindy

Answer : mailx -s "Check this out!" email@home.com < /wherever/filename

Paul Doherty, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, CCSA, CCSE
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Free Utilities
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FAQId : 5685813
Subject : how do I write a korn script to ftp files from one server to another

Question : how do I write a korn script to ftp files from one server to another

Answer : Here is an example of a ksh script to do just that:

#!/usr/bin/ksh

# for auto FTP to work you will need a chmod 600 file in the originating user's dir
# with the following line (.netrc file):
# machine mymachine.wherever.com login myusername password mypassword

ftp mymachine.wherever.com 1>/dev/null <<!EOF
bin
lcd /var/log/
cd log
put myfile.tar.gz
bye
!EOF


--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :
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FAQId : 6435337
Subject : Unix statement

Question : Pls advise the correct interpreatations of the following Unix statement:

rm -rf ` ls /tmp | sed -e `/^\.$/d -e /^\.\.$/d'`

Answer : It is a garbled sed statement as-is, but it appears to be trying to remove all files from the /tmp directory *except* the "." and ".." directory entries. Here is what it should look like:

rm -rf `ls /tmp | sed -e '/^\.$/d' -e '/^\.\.$/d'`

The first part of the sed statement:

-e '/^\.$/d'

will look for lines that begin(^) with a period (\.) and are followed by nothing up to the end of the line($). It will then delete(/d) those lines.

The second part of the sed statement:

-e '/^\.\.$/d'

performs a second edit command and does the same as the first, except it looks for two periods and and end-of-line (EOL).

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities


Rating :

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FAQId : 6996130
Subject : Copy files from unix

Question : Hi from italy.

I'm not very skilled in UNIX.

Can i copy with the command cp all the file with a creation date greater of a specified date?

Thanks for all.

Gian Paolo from Milan.

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com... thanks!

Answer : To do this you will need a file that has a date of creation/access the same as the cutoff date and time you want to use. To create a fil just issue a command like this:

touch -t 12021630 /tmp/stuff

This will create a file "/tmp/stuff" that will show a creation/access date of Dec 02 of the current year (several days ago). You then can use that file to perform the search and copy for files newer than that with this:

cd /wherever/your/files/are
find . -newer /tmp/stuff -type f -exec cp {} /wherever \;

"-newer /tmp/stuff" indicates you only want files newer than the date of the file you just created.

The "-type f" will ensure that only files are copied and not directories.

The "-exec cp {} /wherever" will copy each found item to /wherever.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities


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FAQId : 7562947
Subject : repalce

Question : hi, how can you replace certain words that sit
across multiple files ?

if you can't, i think you can create a batch file that does the replace function to files that is specified in the batch.
I have tried to make one, it is not like DOS and can't even run the script.

Can you please show me how to do these?

Thanks in advance

Best regards
Tomo

Answer : How about something like this, where the word I'm searching for is 'stuff' and I want it replaced with 'mystuff' in all the files:

#!/usr/bin/ksh
for i in $*
do
cat $i | sed -e 's/stuff/mystuff/g' > /tmp/xyz
cat /tmp/xyz > $i
done

For testing I invoked it as follows:

./replace.ksh file1 file2 file3

The files contained the following:

file1:
This is an example of stuff that should be replaced.

file2:
Another example of
stuff
I want replaced.
This stuff has got to stop!

file3:
YASINR - Yet Another Stuff I Need Replaced - is this stuff getting boring yet?


When done all the files have the term 'stuff' replace with 'mystuff'.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :

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FAQId : 7672604
Subject : Setting CHRONTAB to mail me my 'Sent-Messages'

Question : Hi there,

Is it possible to set up a chrontab operation in my account so as to send me mail that is located in my "~/folder/sent-messages" file (~ being my home directory)? I am very new to UNIX so i have no idea how to do this. My shell is "tcsh". I believe when i log out i guess the chrontab feature will be lost or will it? I would like this chrontab to send me these messages every 1 week if possible.

Because the "sent-messages" file can be really big after time can someone also tell me how to just send the last 4 sent messages located in this file? I can use the "tail" command but it would be nice to no exactly where the 4 last messages are so it can chrontab to send those only.

Tbanks very much

Answer : I already answered this one privately, but since it's here too I'll duplicate the answer here:

You can create a crontab with:

crontab -e

You may need to set EDITOR and/or VISUAL environment variables prior to running the command - I'd set both like this:

EDITOR=/usr/bin/vi
VISUAL=/usr/bin/vi
export EDITOR
export VISUAL

Once inside the file add a line at the bottom like this:

* * * * 6 /usr/local/scripts/sendmemymail

Save it with <ESC>, followed by :wq

As for the sendmemymail command make sure it starts with:

#!/usr/bin/ksh

as the first line. Then to send the mail in the script use:

cat ~/folder/sent-messages | mail myemail@myisp.com

I don't know the format of your emails so I can't really suggest a way for you to prune out the last 4 exactly, but you can always use tail with a parameter to grab the last 100 lines or so:

cat ~/folder/sent-messages | tail -100 | mail myemail@myisp.com

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Answer : I fixed it for you:

#!/usr/bin/ksh
tail -r /wherever/home/myhomedir/sent-mail > /tmp/reversed
cat /tmp/reversed | awk 'BEGIN { count = 0 }
/^From:/ { count++ }
{ if (count < 4) print
else {
print
exit
}
}' > /tmp/chopped

echo "LAST 4 MESSAGES" >> /tmp/chopped
tail -r /tmp/chopped | mail myemail@myisp.com

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :
Rating :

FUQuestion : Hi Paul,

I got this code from CHL (another expert) but i cant seem to be able to get it working. It is able to send me the last 4 msgs in the "sent-mail" file. Unfortuantely, I always get the same error msg:

awk: syntax error near line 7
awk: illegal statement near line 7
awk: bailing out near line 8
No message !?!

Here is my script file:
-------------------------
#!/usr/bin/ksh
tail -r folder/sent-mail > re

cat re | awk '
BEGIN {
count=0
}
/^From/ { count = count + 1 }
{ if ( count < 4 )
then { print }
else { print;
exit
}
}' > chopped

tail -r chopped | mail howdy@woof.com
------------------

Any clues?
And is it possible to turn off crontab from sending me email msgs if errors occur in the crontab task?

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FAQId : 8084218
Subject : copy files

Question : Hi there

I am making a script that will copy files from one Solaris box to another. I know the list of files I want, so how do I initiate a script that effectively is an automated FTP copy from one box to another?

Answer : Here's a nice way to do it:

http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftpscript.html

Another easier way is to create a file named .netrc in your home directory, then chmod it:

chmod 600 .netrc

Inside the .netrc put this line:

machine othermachine.mydomain.com login <username> password <password>

Now that this file is in place (and protected from view) you can put something similar to the following into another script file to automate FTP sessions to 'othermachine':

ftp othermachine.mydomain.com 1>/dev/null <<!EOF
bin
prompt
lcd /var/tmp
cd backup
mput *.gz
bye
!EOF

In the example above I connect to the remote machine, change the transfer type to binary (bin), change my local dir to /var/tmp, change the remote directory to ./backup, and then do a multi-put of all *.gz files from /var/tmp to the remote machine's ./backup directory.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :

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FAQId : 8084373
Subject : finding files

Question : Hi there

How do you find file names only through the entire directory?

I do not want to find text in files. Just a file name in the directory.

thanks

Answer : Say you are wanting to search /usr (whole branch including subdirectories) for a filename of 'myfile' (you can also use wildcards here):

cd /usr
find . | egrep myfile

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating :

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