Ask Ubuntu General Room

A.B.

16:01

I will try the !! thing later.

Seth

<-- is upgrading to 15.10

Jorge Castro

yo seth, looking for me?

A.B.

@Seth good luck :)

Seth

@JorgeCastro Not really, that message was in reply to this. It's always nice to have you around though!

Jorge Castro

hah! that's awesome

Thomas W.

16:07

o/ @JorgeCastro

Seth

I just realized, that picture isn't really up to date though is it?

Jorge Castro

~4 years old?

Seth

yeah just about

Natty release looks like.

still awesome :D

Jorge Castro

just looked it up, it was for 12.04

Seth

Cool! Was that before UOS then?

Jorge Castro

16:11

yeah it used to be a physical event

but they started to get so big it got expensive

Thomas W.

which I always wanted to attend but couldn't :P

Jorge Castro

but we're doing one sort of now

davidplanella.org/announcing-the-ubucon-summit

to kind of bring that that hangout vibe

like, real life hangout I mean

not google hangout, heh

Thomas W.

@JorgeCastro if it's not in Philly I can't get there

:p

Jorge Castro

I would apply for sponsorship

A.B.

@ByteCommander when I type !! > out, !! expands immediately. :\

Byte Commander

16:17

@A.B. I know. I'm hacking around that myself at the moment.

A.B.

ok, in zsh, not in bash

Serg

I think I am having way too much fun with that question XD

I already have 3 solutions

A.B.

cool

Thomas W.

@JorgeCastro not a funding blockage. schedule isn't flexible enough to permit.

(college and workplace)

Jorge Castro

ah, sucks. :(

Thomas W.

16:20

indeed

I missed nginx.conf too, and I had a lodging-and-entrance-fee-paid invite

Byte Commander

Can do it, but not complete yet:

Thomas W.

schedule with school was prohibitive

Seth

@ThomasW. wow that's really disappointing

Byte Commander

$ uname -a ### magic here ###
uname -a ### same magic again ###
Linux MaxData-Desktop-Ubuntu 3.19.0-31-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 15:03:41 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
$  cat testfile
Linux MaxData-Desktop-Ubuntu 3.19.0-31-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 15:03:41 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
uname -a

Serg

oh, gawd, i forgot i had to profread something for my friend

Thomas W.

16:21

@Seth Indeed, it was, and I was really annoyed about not being able to be there - the dev advocates who sing me praises for my nginx-in-ubuntu efforts were bummed too, but meh

@Seth they were understanding though, of my schedule being prohibitive...

Seth

that's good.

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

1

Q: Ubuntu reboots at startup as default runlevel is set to 6

Someone has changed my default runlevel to 6 so whenever I start Ubuntu it reboots.. Can anyone help me by suggesting some solution how to change my default runlevel?

Serg

16:38

Seems like a lot of people are having issues with logging in on 15.04

there's two to three questions about that daily , it seems

A.B.

@hg8 on the same machine, right?

Byte Commander

Anyone knows how I get the character used in the bash prompt as command prompt? (normally "$", as root "#" in bash)?

hg8

@A.B. same machine, I am testing to see if keys are correct

Byte Commander

(for use in a bash command)

@Serg @A.B. Do you know? ^

hg8

@A.B. FN + arrow down =

m:0x0 + c:117
Next

user136984

16:46

Is the new release called Xenial Xerus? Or am I getting confused here...?

hg8

FN + arrow up =

user136984

I mean 16.04.

hg8

m:0x0 + c:112
Prior

Byte Commander

19 hours ago, by blade19899

> Mark Shuttleworth has announced the codename for the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release! Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is codenamed the Xenial Xerus, as the successor to the Wily Werewolf, and the distribution's next Long-Term Support release." - Phoronix, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Is Codenamed The Xenial Xerus

Serg

@ByteCommander em . . . You just wanna have simple prompt like PS1='$ ' ?

you could set it manually

@ByteCommander em . . . You just wanna have simple prompt like PS1='$ ' ?

you could set it manually

in .bashrc

Byte Commander

16:51

@Serg No, I want to get the current prompt as string to output it from inside my command/write to a file.

And not the $PS1 string, but with all expansions done.

user136984

@A.B.: So, have you upgraded yet then?

hg8

@A.B. Don't know what is missing....

user136984

And remember to use ppa-purge! ;)

Nathan Osman

o/

Byte Commander

o/ Nathan!

Nathan Osman

16:53

Happy release day!

Serg

@NathanOsman \ (^_^)/

Why . . . does \ ( need space ?

did I just discover some unknown chat feature ?

@ByteCommander stackoverflow.com/a/22324601/3701431

Byte Commander

@Serg Escape the \ with another \ --> \\

hg8

@A.B. Do you know why that ? askubuntu.com/questions/686345/…

Serg

yeah, but what does \ ( does ?

printf hello\nworld ?

no, chat doesn't seem to use \n . . .the heck ?

Seth

@Serg It's an escape character.

Byte Commander

16:57

@Serg That looks... WAAAAY too complicated.

Seth

``

Byte Commander

I'll give that one up and just use a "$" symbol.

But thanks.

565656

@Ravan Hello Mitch

Ravan

@565656 sorry

Byte Commander

@Serg You know how/whether I can use the STDIN in printf?

Need to pipe something to it.

Serg

17:05

@ByteCommander something like this maybe ?

xieerqi:$ while read line; do printf $line ; done < /dev/stdin
one
one
printf: missing operand
Try 'printf --help' for more information.
two
twothree
three^C

Byte Commander

@Serg I'm looking more into something like:

Serg

or change it to printf "%s\n" line

Byte Commander

anycommand | printf "$ %q %q" argument1 STDIN

so that it prints:

Serg

oh, sure

with xargs

Byte Commander

$ 'argument1' 'anycommand-output'

$  echo test | xargs printf "$ %q %q\n" $(uname)
$ printf: %q: invalid conversion specification

I expected "$ 'Linux' 'test'" What am I doing wrong? @Serg

Serg

17:09

apt-cache depends gnome-terminal | xargs -I SWAG printf "$ %s %s " $(uname) SWAG

use -I flag, "Instead" ,

Mmm, fix that to "%s\n %s"

xieerqi:$ apt-cache depends gnome-terminal | xargs -I SWAG printf "$ %s\n %s" $(uname) SWAG
$ Linux
gnome-terminal$ Linux
Depends: gconf-service$ Linux
gconf-service:i386$ Linux
Depends: libatk1.0-0$ Linux
Depends: libc6$ Linux
Depends: libgconf-2-4$ Linux
Depends: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0$ Linux
Depends: libglib2.0-0

partial output

Lol, that's way simpler ! @ByteCommander post that

Byte Commander

$ echo test | xargs -I XYZ printf "$ %q %q\n" 'abc' XYZ
$ printf: %q: invalid conversion specification

HALP?

Ah, it seems not to accept %q for STDIN...

works with %s. :P

Serg

@ByteCommander ^_^' why were you using %q again ?

user136984

@Nathan:

user136984

Byte Commander

I thought it would quote it nicely...

YAY

$  uname -r | xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(echo !#:-1:q)" "cmdout" > testfile
uname -r | xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(echo 'uname -r')" "cmdout" > testfile
$  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $ uname -r
3.19.0-31-generic

That's great!

A.B.

17:29

@hg8 You have 0x0, the OP has 0x4

@ParanoidPanda last weekend =)

user136984

I'm ppa-purging all my needed PPAs now... And will commence the upgrade soon... :)

A.B.

@ByteCommander No =\

user136984

Has your experience been good so far?

user136984

Right... I'm going to start it now... :)

user136984

Be back soon! :)

Serg

17:33

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kos

Probably y'all know already, but 15.10 is now also on the main download page: ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Nathan Osman

Yup.

Terrance

I think I will wait for the 15.10 minimal cd to install from.

kos

Minimal installations are nice, the problem is I'm too lazy for them

Terrance

=)

Fabby

17:54

@ParanoidPanda Nah! No clue what you're blabbering about... >:-)

Byte Commander

I need help of @muru now, I think.

hbdgaf

@Terrance I like starting with a server install as a base then, something like this

Serg

@ByteCommander what have you broken now ? :p

Fabby

@ParanoidPanda My Russian is not good enough to understand its humour... :P

hbdgaf

@Rinzwind - So, I'm shooting two for three on release name guesses

Byte Commander

17:55

I want to get that long cryptic command into an alias, but aliases don't support bang commands.

Terrance

@hbdgaf Not a bad idea! =) +1

Byte Commander

He already solved my question here, but this is now slightly more complicated. askubuntu.com/q/629846/367990

Serg

@ByteCommander why not use a bash function ?

Fabby

@Seth Mmmmh... Maybe @JourneymanGeek then that recommended "The Phoenix project"???

Byte Commander

good idea. Hopefully that will work!

Fabby

17:57

@Serg Nah! It wasn't me! (WTH are you talking about?)

;-)

Serg

damn you interwebs ! why you so laggy on meh

Fabby

Ah! Xenix!!! :D :D :D @Serg @Rinzwind: it was e piece of crap compared to AIX...

hbdgaf

And I've got friends posting this on facebook now that I walked away youtube.com/watch?v=k-kqCyqcFVA - well, not the remix... the song, but I prefer the remix.

Serg

I would love to learn AIX and all that fun professional stuff, but i don't see it available anyuwhere for purchase

stop timing out on me , messages !

hbdgaf

@Serg I wouldn't waste that much time on AIX. It's getting phased out. Even WalMart decided to switch from AIX to OpenSuse.

For the rest of them, it's just a matter of time.

Byte Commander

18:03

@Serg Doesn't work. Same problem as aliases.

kos

@ByteCommander But what's the problem with muru's solution again? It seems like it should work

Byte Commander

@kos For simple ones like !!, but not for my !#:-1:q

kos

@ByteCommander What does it do? Maybe you could build an equivalent using history?

Byte Commander

@kos It shall expand to the currently typed command's first two words, single-quoted.

45 mins ago, by Byte Commander

$  uname -r | xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(echo !#:-1:q)" "cmdout" > testfile
uname -r | xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(echo 'uname -r')" "cmdout" > testfile
$  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $ uname -r
3.19.0-31-generic

Like there. ^

565656

@Serg How do Cyber cell police blow up adaptor of laptop

Byte Commander

18:09

@565656 By using TNT or C4, I guess. :P

565656

C4 is to storm a room not adapter

Byte Commander

C3 then? ;)

Serg

@565656 I would guess by somehow causing overheating ? that really would have to bypass protection on the hardware level. Circuits are designed with that in mind. Or so I hope as EET major

565656

@Serg means remotely like in a neighbour house

@Serg is IT JUST AMANIPULATION OF ELECTRIC CHARGE OR SOMETHING ELSE

Byte Commander

@565656 I'd rather go for a laser printer, bypass its heating unit's temperature fuse, let it glow and then draw paper into it.

(idea stolen from an episode of CSI:Cyber)

Fabby

18:12

Ah no! if was @jrg that recommended the Phoenix project (CC: @Seth, @JourneymanGeek)!!!

So: thanks!

Serg

@hbdgaf Ok, so if I by any chance I happen to go into IT and system administration type of thing instead of my engineering career, what should i learn to make a decent living ?

Fabby

(best recommendation in the last couple of years!)

@Serg Management courses...

Windows (definitely! Unfortunately!)

Serg

See , that's one thing I don't get. Why management ? even my college's CIS major is like half computer stuff , half management

Byte Commander

ipc-admin: ~ $  function fun1 { printf '[%s] $ %s\n%s\n' "$USER" "$(history -p \!\!)" "$*" > testfile; }
ipc-admin: ~ $  fun1 $(uname)
ipc-admin: ~ $  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $ function fun1 { printf '[%s] $ %s\n%s\n' "$USER" "$(history -p \!\!)" "$*" > testfile; }
Linux
ipc-admin: ~ $  function fun2 { printf '[%s] $ %s\n%s\n' "$USER" "$(history -p \!\#)" "$*" > testfile; }
ipc-admin: ~ $  fun2 $(uname)
ipc-admin: ~ $  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $
Linux

Fabby

@Serg if you want to be a coach to junior members, you need some management training...

Byte Commander

18:15

WHY can't this !# work in a function!!?? >:P

Fabby

(I got it all from books and by being a nice guy...) @Serg

Byte Commander

Help, anybody? Please! @Serg @kos @A.B.

Serg

@ByteCommander where is your original command ?

A.B.

@ByteCommander What?

565656

@Fabby my online case has become religion based where many of people are dying and then sent to UAE in an aluminum boxes

Byte Commander

18:16

@Serg It's all in the snippet I just posted.

Fabby

Food! BRB!

Byte Commander

1 min ago, by Byte Commander

WHY can't this !# work in a function!!?? >:P

1 min ago, by Byte Commander

ipc-admin: ~ $  function fun1 { printf '[%s] $ %s\n%s\n' "$USER" "$(history -p \!\!)" "$*" > testfile; }
ipc-admin: ~ $  fun1 $(uname)
ipc-admin: ~ $  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $ function fun1 { printf '[%s] $ %s\n%s\n' "$USER" "$(history -p \!\!)" "$*" > testfile; }
Linux
ipc-admin: ~ $  function fun2 { printf '[%s] $ %s\n%s\n' "$USER" "$(history -p \!\#)" "$*" > testfile; }
ipc-admin: ~ $  fun2 $(uname)
ipc-admin: ~ $  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $
Linux

Serg

@Fabby OK, so . . . if I have taught myself windows server, maybe took exam, and maybe took some management classes, what are my chances ?

kos

@ByteCommander uname -r | xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(history -p !#:-1:q)" "cmdout" > testfile

Should work in an alias, you won't need a function

Byte Commander

@kos Yes, it works if directly executed. But I can't get an equivalent of this history access into either an alias or a script! :(

hg8

18:18

@A.B. Sorry to bother again... what is the difference 0x0 and 0x4 ? What does that mean ? I have the same computer

565656

@Fabby It becomes a huge sex racket in my whole colony operated by UAE

Byte Commander

@kos No, aliases don't support bang commands either. Just by using the history builtin.

That however seems not to support !# correctly.

muru

Was I summoned?

Byte Commander

@kos See:

ipc-admin: ~ $  alias ali1='xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(history -p !#:-1:q)" "cmdout" > testfile'
ipc-admin: ~ $  uname | ali1
bash: history: !#:-1:q: history expansion failed

@muru Yes, that was me. I have a problem with bang history commands and aliases/functions again.

You answered this once, where I only needed "!!", but now I need "!#:-1:q" and fail to apply your previous help. :-(

muru

Solved?

Byte Commander

18:22

No, not yet.

Can you help me again maybe?

muru

What are you trying to do?

Byte Commander

I have the following working line:

Serg

@ByteCommander

xieerqi:$ fun1 apt-cache depends gnome-terminal
[xieerqi] $:apt-cache depends gnome-terminal gnome-terminal
Depends: gconf-service
gconf-service:i386
Depends: libatk1.0-0
Depends: libc6
Depends: libgconf-2-4
Depends: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
Depends: libglib2.0-0
Depends: libgtk-3-0
Depends: libice6
Depends: libpango-1.0-0
Depends: libsm6
Depends: libvte-2.90-9
Depends: libx11-6
Depends: gsettings-desktop-schemas
Depends: gnome-terminal-data
Depends: gnome-terminal-data
Recommends: yelp
Recommends: gvfs

Byte Commander

$  uname -r | xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(echo !#:-1:q)" "cmdout" > testfile

Serg

function fun1
{


 printf '[%s] $:' "$USER"
 printf "%s " "$@";
 "$@"


}

Hows that ?

Byte Commander

18:24

This runs uname -r (or any other command) and pipes it to the "magic machine" which shall write the command and its output to a file. @muru

muru

OK... But what are you trying to achieve?

Byte Commander

@muru To write both the ran command and its output to a log file.

This works if I directly pipe it to the "magic code" in the line above behind the | pipe.

edward torvalds

is it possible to match all words except for a specific word using regex?

muru

with expansions and all that or without?

Byte Commander

@muru The exact typed command.

@Serg o.O >.< AAAAAAHH! Can this be the true? You've just found a fourth answer to that damn question!

Serg

18:28

hahaha

omg

hold me somebody, i cannot laugh in the lab

Byte Commander

And I did not manage to come up with a single one yet... :P

muru

foo () ( printf "%s %s\n" "$*" $("$@") > bar; ) <- like so?

Serg

@ByteCommander oh, just use that one above with xargs . . .or use mine

Byte Commander

I feel ashamed.

shrinking and falling into a deep hole

Serg

@ByteCommander happens to all of us. Heemayl keeps being the fastest gun when it comes to bash scripting questions

Byte Commander

18:30

@muru Yes, just forget it. I am giving up on that question.

kos

@ByteCommander Not elegant at all, but

uname -r | xargs -I cmdout printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$(history 2 | sed -n "2s/  [0-9][0-9]*  \([^ ]*\( [^ ]*\)\?\).*/\1/p")" "cmdout" > testfile

Serg

@ByteCommander oh come on, just post the one with xargs

Byte Commander

I thought I could properly do that with history expansion, but I am just failing over and over again.

I don't want to post an answer that is entirely from one of you guys.

Serg

@ByteCommander original idea for bash function is yours, i just beautified it a little . . . and muru simplified even further

Byte Commander

Hmm...

And you're really okay with that?

Serg

18:33

yes, i am really ok with that. I am even ok with xargs . . . I already have my awk solution, which i like much more

Byte Commander

@muru Is that able to be shrunk to an alias as well?

muru

@ByteCommander unlikely. Uses $* and $@

Serg

oh, and the MYSTRING=" command "; echo $MYSTRING > file.txt ; echo $MYSTRING >> file.txt

A.B.

@hg8 no idea :\

Byte Commander

@muru Then thank you very much for your help! Thank you as well, @Serg! :)

muru

18:36

@ByteCommander if you do use $*, might be a good idea to use foo () ( IFS=' '; printf ...

Byte Commander

@muru I don't understand...?

What does the IFS=' ' do?

Serg

IFS, internal field separator

when you print something, it will be space-separated

muru

"$*" uses the first character of IFS to separate the arguments, but you get a single string.

if IFS starts with something other than ` `, like null, or tab, or newline..

Byte Commander

Ah! and $@ just takes it as it is.

muru

"$@" expands into separate strings

try printf "%s\n" "$*" and printf "%s\n" "$@"

Serg

18:39

that's what i wanted to ask just now - the difference between $* and $@

muru

Huh. Looks like someone's taken a dislike to me on Science Fiction & Fantasy. Three questions asked, one downvote each. -_-

Serg

I find the function solution probably the most elegant one thus far

Byte Commander

ipc-admin: ~ $  runandlog () ( IFS=' '; printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$*" "$("$@")" > testfile; )
ipc-admin: ~ $  runandlog uname -a
ipc-admin: ~ $  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $ uname -a
Linux MaxData-Desktop-Ubuntu 3.19.0-31-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 15:03:41 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

That looks very nice!

Just adding a tee so that the user can directly see the output as well.

Serg

:D tee ! that's a good idea !

kos

7 hours ago, by kos

Is there a way to bind keystrokes to commands using the terminal intead of going into System Settings > Keyboard? I don't mean xbindkeys or something, using the same "native" (whatever it is) System Settings > Keyboard thing

I see the chat is more crowded now :D

Byte Commander

18:50

ipc-admin: ~ $  runandlog () ( IFS=' '; printf "[%s] $ %s\n%s\n" "$USER" "$*" "$("$@")" | tee testfile | tail -n +2; )
ipc-admin: ~ $  runandlog uname -a
Linux MaxData-Desktop-Ubuntu 3.19.0-31-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 15:03:41 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
ipc-admin: ~ $  cat testfile
[ipc-admin] $ uname -a
Linux MaxData-Desktop-Ubuntu 3.19.0-31-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 15:03:41 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
ipc-admin: ~ $

hg8

@A.B. hum... Thanks for your answer ;)

Serg

Would anybody be interested in a script for splitting screen vertically in half, one window on top, one on the bottom ?

Fabby

@565656 :/ Are you working in the UAE.

@Serg Your chances of what? Landing a career in IT?

Serg

yes

Fabby

@565656 Mmmh, sorry. Missed that! Apparently, yes...

@Serg Pretty high...

When I was a kid, IT was like black magic,

then white magic

Seth

18:55

hello from 15.10!

Fabby

Then a commodity...

@Seth Upgraded?

Seth

yup!

Serg

@Seth applause congrats on successful upgrade

Seth

@Fabby It's still black magic to a lot of ignorant people.

Serg

^

Fabby

18:56

@Serg so, currently, the IT industry is professionalising and becoming measurable...

muru

@Seth some of it will always remain black magic. :P

Fabby

measurable, repeatable units of work

@Seth Yeah, so is Biology, Chemistry, Physics...

@Seth any trouble upgrading???

Everything went like a charm?

Seth

true (both of you), but I'm more referring to teachers, lawyers, judges, politicians, etc. that don't have a clue about it and view many perfectly fine things as absolute evil.

Serg

What I basically see is that college isn't going well for me. I keep taking classes. if [ professor -eq good ]; then pass; elif [ professor -eq bad ]; then fail miserably; repeat class ; fi

Seth

@Fabby nope, worked fine. The only problem I had was the upgrade window somehow got focus right when it was asking one of those "keep this config?" questions and I was typing so I accidentally clicked one of the buttons.. Dunno which :/

Serg

18:59

It takes money and time; so i need to slowly transition somewhere

Seth

@Serg :D

565656

@Fabby NO

Seth

@Serg You're in the US right? Have you looked at an online university?

Fabby

@Seth :D :D :D

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