1. Computing & Technology

Linux Newbie Administrator Guide

From

(the content of the so-called kernel ring buffer). Press "q" to quit "less". Use less /var/log/dmesg to see what "dmesg" dumped into this file right after the last system bootup.


chage -l my_login_name

See my password expiry information.


quota

See my disk quota (the limits of disk usage).


sysctl -a |more

Display all the configurable Linux kernel parameters.


runlevel

Print the previous and current runlevel. The output "N5" means: "no previous runlevel" and "5 is the current runlevel". To change the runlevel, use "init", e.g., init 1 switches the system to a single user mode.

Runlevel is the mode of operation of Linux. Runlevel can be switched "on the fly" using the command init. For example, init 3 (as root) will switch me to runlevel 3. The following runlevels are standard:

0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)

1 - Single user mode

2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)

3 - Full multiuser mode

4 - unused

5 - X11

6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)

The system default runlevel is set in the file: /etc/inittab .


sar

View information extracted the system activity log file (/var/log/sarxx where xx is the current day number). sar can extract many kinds of system statistics including CPU load averages, i/o statistics, and network trafic statistics for the current day and (usually) several days backs.

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