Questions tagged [conventions]
Naming conventions and best practice
67
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/tmp and /var/tmp as tmpfs and volatility [duplicate]
The use of separate file systems for different paths can protect the system from failures resulting from a file system becoming full or failing.
Check that a file system/partition has been created for ...
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16
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trixie/sid/testing:Debian Trixie Variant Displaying as 'trixie/sid': [duplicate]
I currently have Debian Trixie installed on my system. When I run the command lsb_release -a, it returns the output Description: Debian GNU/Linux trixie/sid. However, I was under the impression that &...
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2
votes
4
answers
277
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Function's comment is not printed out when putting it before the function's header
A good and well-established guideline for commenting a shell function is to put it before the function's header. I am trying to follow these guidelines as much as I can, but this convention makes it ...
- 237
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Is there a character convention for representing stderr?
By convention, stdout is -. Is there something similar for stderr?
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1
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92
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Conventions for the PATH variable's value
I am looking for best practices, or at least conventions, for the PATH variable's value.
In particular, I would like to know
is there any preferred/recommended ordering for the /bin, /usr/bin, and /...
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1
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34
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best practices for adding my own tools and configuration
So, I am currently writing some scripts to gather and bulk report break-in attempts on my server. The scripts itself are working, but I am wondering where I should put my config files and the script ...
- 95
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0
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10
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Sane location for policy-driven settings
In Windows, one can read/write application settings from a hierarchical database called the Registry. Conventially, there are four key places to write settings:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/{Vendor ...
- 422
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1
answer
1k
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What's the difference between device properties and device attributes in udev?
For udev device entries, what is the technical difference between a "property" and an "attribute"? How are they customarily created (generated?) and used? Which one is the better ...
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49
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Why Linux uses `blah' to quote strings by convention? [duplicate]
While I was reading the document of some Linux utilities, I found that they always quote strings using ` and '. For example, below is an excerpt from the man page of the find utility.
-exec ...
- 975
2
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3
answers
582
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Display a message in color by a conventional color name such as Red, Green, Blue, etc
WSL with Ubuntu 18.04 and GNU bash, version 4.4.20(1)-release (x86_64-pc).
I wish to display a message with a conventionally named color via argument such as -red, or -green, or -blue or anything like ...
- 123
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2
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736
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Where should I source /usr/local/etc/profile from? .bash_profile or /etc/profile?
I know that, by default, bash will source /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile.
Now, suppose I also have machine-specific profile commands in /usr/local/etc/profile (involving stuff that's in /usr/local, ...
- 9,197
2
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1
answer
41
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Is it good practice to add the manpage section number to POSIX tools when referring to them? [closed]
I sometimes see people referring to tools, like ls append the manpage section number in parens, like the manpages themselves do (in ls's case ls(1)) in prose/text like answers and comments here on ...
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2
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225
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How to sort filename list (txt-file) by sub-strings of the filename/path with multiple levels. Special challenge: Two types of filename conventions
I'd like to sort the following list of filenames / pathes.
L1_Data/level1/192027/LC08_L1TP_192027_20201126_20210316_01_T1 DONE
L1_Data/level1/192028/LC08_L1TP_192028_20201126_20210316_01_T1 DONE
...
- 111
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158
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What does (or did) the name "feh" represent?
To me, the name of the feh image viewer is not memorable enough for me to recall it when I need it. I feel that if I had some context, I'd be able to remember it better.
What, if anything, does the ...
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1
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Is there a convention for naming and placing the manual page file for a command in source tree?
I think the name could be in format
<command_name>.<section_number>
where the numbers are shown in the description chapter of man man.
I use doc directory for the file in a repository.
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1
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211
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When desiginng a CLI is there a preference/rule of thumb for using an option or a subcommand? [closed]
For example, to install a package with pacman one would use:
pacman -S <package>
While somebody using dnf would type:
dnf install <package>
While pacman uses the -S option, dnf uses the ...
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2
answers
433
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How to choose an appropriate error prefix? [closed]
How can I figure out appropriate error prefixes to use when reporting various kinds of errors? Is there are guideline or overview of how these should be? I see patterns in many commands, but find it ...
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2
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511
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Is it a good practice to use aliases? [closed]
I have a colleague who likes to use aliases instead of writing scripts, but I don't want to do this.
First, you need to set the same alias on each computer. They behave differently on different ...
- 111
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1
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2k
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command-line argument conventions for stdin, stdout
I'm writing a command-line tool that takes a file and modifies its contents. I would like the user interface to be as canonical as possible. So far, I have
$ foobar -h
usage: foobar [-h] [--version] [...
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3
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1
answer
1k
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How to organize /opt?
I'd like to place a handmade script in its conventional place and folder structure. It's currently located in /opt/chkobm/chkobm, but it seems like a bad practice since it requires $PATH to include ...
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1
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346
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Can I add arbitrary directory to icon search dirs?
Linux desktop environments such as GNOME, KDE, XFCE etc search icon themes in some standard paths such as /usr/share/icons, ~/.icons, ~/.local/share/icons etc.
I wonder if I can add any directory to ...
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2
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723
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why aliases found in root users ~/.bashrc file are not used for standard users by default?
Is there any reason why aliases like
alias rm='rm -i'
found in the ~/.bashrc file of user root are not used by default for any other users?
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2
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2k
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Naming convention of worker threads
I started reading about worker threads. Old Legacy worker threads is replaced with worker pools.
$ ps -ef | grep 'kworker'
root 6 2 0 04:41 ? 00:00:00 [kworker/0:0H-kb]
root ...
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2
answers
960
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Debian packages naming, documentation is self-contradicting
Debian policy manual (released on 2019-10-03) clearly states that
"Package names (both source and binary, see Package) must consist only of lower case letters (a-z), digits (0-9), plus (+) and minus (-...
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2
answers
550
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Use of a specific character for commenting, like e.g. #, in config files depends on...? [closed]
I need help settling a discussion about comments in configuration files. This is about the question "what dictates which character/string is used for commenting in any given program?"
Theory A) ...
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30
votes
10
answers
9k
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one-liner vs script
I've noticed a lot of questions and answers and comments expressing disdain for (and sometimes even fear of) writing scripts instead of one-liners. So, I'd like to know:
When and why should I write a ...
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3
answers
1k
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What are the conventional meanings for symbols used to show commands' syntax?
I am looking for some sort of "syntax key" for command line tools on GNU/Linux, something like this document that Microsoft has:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-...
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1
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2k
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Why doesn't CTRL + C exit vim? [duplicate]
I'm aware that if I press esc followed by typing :q!, I can exit the vim editor, due to this question.
However, the standard convention is for programs to exit when ctrl + c is pressed, which sends a ...
2
votes
1
answer
98
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How to differentiate an executable sh file, and a source sh file?
I have sh files that are executable, and others that are only meant to be sourced by executable ones.
On the executable ones I use no extension at all, and have the first line as #! /bin/sh.
On the ...
3
votes
1
answer
1k
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When did user accounts using UIDs above 1000 become normal? And why?
We have a really old NIS domain which is mapping some user accounts to UIDs less than 1000. I'm wondering
when did using UIDs greater than or equal to 1000 for human users become 'standard',
why did ...
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3
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248
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Why is it uncommon for stdin inputs to have option-like inputs, while common for command line arguments?
POSIX and GNU have their syntax styles for options.
For all the commands that I have seen, they accept option-like inputs as command line arguments.
Is it uncommon for a program to accept option-...
- 100k
7
votes
3
answers
3k
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Will it be bad that a function or script name contains dash `-` instead of underline `_`?
If I name a function or script with dash - instead of underline _ between words, would that be bad? For example, function duplicate-me() or duplicate-me.sh.
In bash, a variable name can contains ...
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3
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1
answer
398
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GRUB Partion Naming Conventions
In the GNU GRUB info pages in the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS distro, the naming convention for partitions seemed straight forward with the following definition:
(hd0,msdos2)
Here, 'hd' means ...
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1
answer
2k
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What is the numbering convention in .conf files(inside a conf.d)?
Inside the xorg.conf.d/ for example, we have three files:
00-keyboard.conf 10-monitor.conf 30-touchpad.conf
I know that the 2-digit number determine the precedence that each file is read so 00-...
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1
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996
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why are the folders under /home/$USER/ typically uppercased when all other folders are lowercased
Other than a short dalliance with Arch, my linux experience has been with Debian/Ubuntu based distros, so maybe that answers my question...
I know I can rename /home/$USER/Download to anything I want,...
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1
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What do you call the calling convention behind `int 0x80`?
I know there is a syscall convention but what do you call the calling convention that precedes it that you see when you call to int 80 rather than syscall, like this.
mov rax,4 ; system call ...
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4
votes
1
answer
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FreeBSD vs Linux: performance of kernel calling conventions
From int80h.org, the FreeBSD Assembly Language Tutorial
[The Linux Calling] convention has a great disadvantage over the Unix way, at least as far as assembly language programming is concerned: ...
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2
votes
1
answer
399
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awk : best practice for loop variable naming [closed]
The following code results in an infinite loop because awk doesn't support local variable in { … } scope.
#! /usr/bin/gawk -f
function myfunction() {
for (i = 5; i < 8; i++){
print "...
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1
answer
380
views
What is the usual single letter flag denoting an IP address in a commandline option? [closed]
I noticed in most programs that I use that read in IP addresses, they either use no option flag to denote IP address and it is just part of the default input (like ssh, scp, ifconfig, etc...) or it is ...
- 1,624
13
votes
2
answers
3k
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When to use standard error stream in command-line application?
Is there a guideline when to use the error when writing a command-line application? To my surprise, I didn't find anything when googling it.
In particular, the question I'm concerned with right now ...
- 3,187
21
votes
2
answers
5k
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An official standard / convention for a file extension for shell scripts to source
I was wondering if there is a convention for file type extensions for shell scripts you want to source instead of run. For example:
If I want to run this script in a subshell.
./script.sh
If I ...
- 4,703
1
vote
2
answers
370
views
Mount point for system-wide USB disk
I have a USB disk connected to a server computer which is mounted when the computer starts. I'm thinking that it's not ideal to mount it under the /media directory since it could potentially lead to a ...
- 1,776
66
votes
8
answers
14k
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Why does Bash's source not need the execution bit?
With Bash's source it is possible to execute a script without an execution bit set. This is documented and expected behaviour, but isn't this against the use of an execution bit?
I know, that source ...
- 1,220
2
votes
0
answers
37
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epstopdf loose greek symbole
I'm generating a pdf using gnuplot this way:
set term postscript color eps enhanced 15
set out '| epstopdf --filter --outfile=SD.pdf'
replot
set out
Whereas the eps file generated contains the ...
- 121
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votes
1
answer
153
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How to determine program success when running a sequence of similar tasks?
I am writing a series of CLI tools that share the same parent command, similar to programs like git.
program verb OPTIONS
One of the action verbs, install, is designed to git clone as many ...
- 437
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votes
2
answers
2k
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How are log files named?
Or what can we infer from the names of log files?
For example, when I want to check the Xorg logs, I find three files:
Xorg.0.log
Xorg.0.log.old
Xorg.1.log
You can also find many such log ...
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12
votes
2
answers
5k
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Convention/standard on using curly braces around options
The man page for tar in Arch Linux SYNOPSIS section starts with:
tar {A|c|d|r|t|u|x}[GnSkUWOmpsMBiajJzZhPlRvwo] [ARG...]
I perfectly understand that in this situation it means that exactly one of the ...
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1
answer
498
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Why do some utilities parse operands before options?
According to several sources, the UNIX utility guidelines specify that operands should always be processed after options:
utility_name[OPTIONS][operands...]
Some older UNIX utilities are known to ...
- 437
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votes
4
answers
10k
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What is "fs" short for in kernel function "get_fs()"?
There are two Linux kernel functions:
get_ds() and get_fs()
According to this article, I know ds is short for data segment.
However, I cannot guess what "fs" is short for.
Any explanations?
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votes
1
answer
5k
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What is the number prefix in config files from .d directory
A lot of unix config files in xx.d folders are prefixed by a number, like :
$ ls /etc/grub.d/
00_header 10_linux 30_os-prober 40_custom
05_debian_theme 20_linux_xen 30_uefi-...
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