Usability Tips for UNIX

I want to note a couple of helpful hints I stumbled across. First, I learned something new about the xterm program. I run FreeBSD on many systems and start X manually with 'startx'. One system has Windowmaker for a window manager. When I launch an xterm, the new instance doesn't read .profile. This means the prompt stays with the default, rather than changing to suit my needs. For example, my .profile has this entry to change the prompt:

PS1='`hostname -s`:$PWD$ '

This creates a prompt like this:

drury:/var/log$

Unfortunately, prior to today I manually sourced the .profile to change the prompt, using '. .profile' in the user's home directory.

While perusing this Unix for Advanced Users guide, I came across this article: Is my .login or .profile being used?. It explained that I needed to start xterm with the '-ls' option to specify it running as a login shell. In that case it will read the user's .profile. Here is the menu command I use to start xterm:

xterm -ls -sb -rv -fg green -fn 9x15bold -geometry 80x24

The -sb creates a scroll bar; -rv specifies reverse video; -fg makes text green; -fn specifies the font; and -geometry sets the window size.

I also want to make note of a file that I use to set a resolution of 100x100 when X starts. My .xserverrc file looks like this:

exec /usr/X11R6/bin/X -dpi 100 -nolisten tcp

I can confirm this with xdpyinfo:

  resolution:    100x100 dots per inch

A final usability issue involves batteries and FreeBSD laptops. This post to freebsd-mobile is part of a thread discussing differences between suspending and hibernating a laptop. I'm able to have my laptop suspend, thanks to the BIOS I believe. Read the posts for more information if interested.

Comments

Anonymous said…
If you're using bash you can save some resources:

PS1='`hostname -s`:$PWD$ '

is the same as:

PS1='\h:\w$ '

I prefer bash's method of sorting out if I'm root or not:

PS1='\h:\w\$ '

but my prefered prompt also shows me which user I am:

PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '


Other shells probably have the same built-ins (zsh, etc.)
8:30 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
3:35 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MITRE ATT&CK Tactics Are Not Tactics

Image
Just what are "tactics"? Introduction MITRE ATT&CK  is a great resource, but something about it has bothered me since I first heard about it several years ago. It's a minor point, but I wanted to document it in case it confuses anyone else. The MITRE ATT&CK Design and Philosophy document from March 2020 says the following: At a high-level, ATT&CK is a behavioral model that consists of the following core components: • Tactics, denoting short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack; • Techniques, describing the means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals; • Sub-techniques, describing more specific means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals at a lower level than techniques; and • Documented adversary usage of techniques, their procedures, and other metadata. My concern is with MITRE's definition of "tactics" as "short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack," which is oddly recursive. The key word in the tacti...
Read more

Zeek in Action Videos

Image
This is a quick note to point blog readers to my Zeek in Action YouTube video series for the Zeek network security monitoring project .  Each video addresses a topic that I think might be of interest to people trying to understand their network using Zeek and adjacent tools and approaches, like Suricata, Wireshark, and so on.  I am especially pleased with Video 6 on monitoring wireless networks . It took me several weeks to research material for this video. I had to buy new hardware and experiment with a Linux distro that I had not used before -- Parrot .  Please like and subscribe, and let me know if there is a topic you think might make a good video.
Read more

New Book! The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4

Image
  I've completed the TaoSecurity Blog book series . The new book is  The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4: Beyond the Blog with Articles, Testimony, and Scholarship .  It's available now for Kindle , and I'm working on the print edition.  I'm running a 50% off promo on Volumes 1-3 on Kindle through midnight 20 April. Take advantage before the prices go back up. I described the new title thus: Go beyond TaoSecurity Blog with this new volume from author Richard Bejtlich. In the first three volumes of the series, Mr. Bejtlich selected and republished the very best entries from 18 years of writing and over 18 million blog views, along with commentaries and additional material.  In this title, Mr. Bejtlich collects material that has not been published elsewhere, including articles that are no longer available or are stored in assorted digital or physical archives. Volume 4 offers early white papers that Mr. Bejtlich wrote as a network defender, either for technica...
Read more