/dev/chat

Faheem Mitha

22:00

@Grzenio so, does the answer look satisfactory and up-to-date?

@Ramesh you are a sysadmin? how is it?

Ramesh

I am a student :) doing part time job as sysadmin in the school :)

I came into Linux environment only last August :)

Faheem Mitha

@Ramesh ok, which school? well, you're doing fine. :-)

Ramesh

I am doing my Master's in University of Texas, Arlington. What about you?

Faheem Mitha

@Ramesh Not much to say here. I live in Bombay, currently.

Ramesh

Wow, nice :) Am from chennai :)

derobert

22:10

Yes, I am not a programer, I am slowly learning linux. I know it is silly for you guys. I have also more than 500 such data fine to do it in excel. I was plying with the previous scripts you guys gave me, but couldn't prepare the output as I wanted. — Abraham 18 mins ago

@Abraham OK, the fact that you have hundreds of them explains why you don't use a spreadsheet. But please post what you've managed to get so far—and explain the situation. Not to mention, when you posted this question, you left out the markup so it was barely readable—Ramesh kindly edited it in for you. You're asking volunteers to help you with what I assume is part of your job, and it discourages us when we first look at the question, and it doesn't appear that you've made any effort yourself. I realize that's probably not the case, but we only know what we see in the question. — derobert 17 secs ago

PS: If you routinely have to do stuff like this (and, looking at your profile, it appears you do), you probably want to learn a scripting language. Picking up Perl, Python, Ruby, etc. would let you quickly do things like this. — derobert 8 secs ago

I changed that from 'profile' to 'previous questions', since thats much clearer.

Faheem Mitha

@Ramesh ah, ok. IIT?

Ramesh

No. IIT is for super intelligent people :) I did my BTech from SASTRA, Tanjore :)

Faheem Mitha

@Ramesh I think you over-estimate the IITs, but ok.

Ramesh

:)

Faheem Mitha

Choosing people on the basis of some horrible exam isn't exactly a good way to do things.

Ramesh

22:19

Yeah, I agree with you completely :)

Faheem Mitha

@derobert what did you post about that lisp question?

derobert

@FaheemMitha I suggested that package, but as you can see in OP's edit it was already installed... so I deleted my comment as obsolete.

Ramesh

22:35

Is there a way to know a command output without actually executing the command?

derobert

@Ramesh I'm afraid I don't follow... Let's say you want to know what the output of ls / is... How would you know, without actually listing / ?

Ramesh

yeah exactly. For example, for this question,
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/120660/prompt-when-copying-multiple-files

If am doing a script like, output=$(cp file1.txt file2.txt)

derobert

well, there might be a cp option to do what OP wants. Or maybe a special cp program.

Ramesh

Hmm, I will check more for cp options. Thanks :)

derobert

I don't think there is one...

But a different program other than cp is possible

There may even be a shell option to have the shell confirm glob expansions

Ramesh

22:41

I think if we use touch and then cp -i, the OP might be able to achieve what he wants. Is it ok?

derobert

@Ramesh well, you'd have to touch a lot of destination files... It'd be easier to write a for loop to just prompt for each one

OP claims it already exists, though. So I'd guess there is some command that does this.

Faheem Mitha

@derobert ok

Braiam

bring this out of it's misery unix.stackexchange.com/q/120665/41104

Faheem Mitha

@Braiam do what? vote to close?

Braiam

@FaheemMitha you think it needs to be closed?

derobert

22:49

@Ramesh Hmmm, and someone has found that find has an -ok option

Ramesh

yeah, I was checking if there is any other command other than cp which facilitates this option. I am afraid I did not find anything till now.

derobert

also...

3

Q: Prompt for confirmation for every command

I'm writing a pretty ad-hoc install script for some thing. No much control constructs, basically just a list of commands. I'd like the user to confirm each command before it gets executed. Is there a way to let bash do that, without prefixing every command with a shell function name?

Braiam

39

Q: The profile page is getting a makeover

The Big Idea Create a page on the network that summarizes who I am as a developer, and lets me show off the stuff I am most proud of. Some of this information is only available by creating a Careers profile, but we want to open it up to everybody, even if you don’t have one. Background: The Pro...

discussion featured profile-page feedback

Ramesh

@derobert, Nice :) I think it can be provided as an answer :)

Braiam

@Braiam this needs stars

Faheem Mitha

22:55

@Braiam Nah. Let's all upvote it.

Braiam

@FaheemMitha D:

Gilles

23:29

Impatience, n: the feeling while you're waiting for Stephane to see your zsh question

6

Braiam

I need a cow question to answer!

derobert

9

Q: Origin of "to have a cow"

The phrase "to have a cow" is defined as "to be very worried, upset, or angry about something" in Free Dictionary Online. Other sources also define it to mean to react very strongly and emotionally. While it almost always is a negative response to stressful news or events, I imagine it might be ...

etymology idioms metaphors

5

Q: Failed to get canonical path of /cow

I am trying to install Ubuntu 12.10 for quite some time, and passing hurdles one by one. Now I am in a situation as follows. I have got a PC and 10 GB HDD which will be totally dedicated to Ubuntu so no option of Wubi and dual boot. I was trying to install from DVD, but it is getting stuck at "...

grub2 usb live-usb usb-creator

Braiam

why are we migrating this? unix.stackexchange.com/review/close/41515

derobert

No idea why.

One person clicked close, belongs on SO, so its in the queue

terdon

23:46

Man, why does Michael Durrant always ask here before googling? It's really annoying, he's got enough rep to know better

</rant>

@Braiam how'd the exam go?

Gilles

@Braiam because it's a programming question

Braiam

@terdon very ambiguous...

terdon

@Braiam is that to me?

@Braiam :(

@Gilles Why? It seems fine here, the reason is a "limitation" of the kernel itself that was answered by showing source code but not by writing code.

Braiam

@Gilles ok, got an answer here, should we migrate it nevertheless?

Gilles

@terdon “I am passing a string as parameter when loading my kernel module” → it's a programming question

terdon

23:51

hmm, because of the my module?

Gilles

yes

terdon

Nevertheless, the answer is a matter of the kernel source nothing to do with his program

Gilles

@terdon no

terdon

Oh?

Gilles

he wants to pass a longer string. He can't do it that way, so he's after another technique. Finding another technique isn't something we could do here.

derobert

23:53

@Gilles its a programming question, sort of. But it appears to be in-scope as "UNIX C API and System Interfaces ( within reason )"

Gilles

If this was a module he had gotten from somewhere else, the buck would stop here.

terdon

How would it be different if he were using an existing module? Thee question could be changed to "What is the maximum parameter size that I can pass to a Linux program"?

Braiam

I presume that "when you are developing some code and find a issue, whatever the cause it goes to SO", I think that's Gilles line of through

Gilles

@derobert This isn't a “UNIX C API and System Interfaces”

derobert

the kernel module interface isn't a system interface?

Gilles

23:53

no

terdon

@Gilles OK, but the buck did stop there, he was told that it is a limitation of the kernel and he accepted. Presumably he went off to SO to get a solution

Gilles

a typical system interface is what you observe with strace/truss/...

terdon

(or just split the string, WTF, 1024 characters!)

Braiam

through his scope of the question is intimately related to the kernel: Are module parameters limited to 1024 char strings?

which is kind of generic linux kernel question

derobert

@Gilles Well, surely that's how insmod works?

Gilles

23:56

I've edited the question down to the first part, which is on-topic here and is all that was answered

I left a comment recommending SO for the second part

@derobert how a kernel module gets its parameters isn't a syscall at all (it's inside the kernel!)

What font can I use in Gimp that looks a bit like handwriting?

derobert

Well, its a result of one from userspace. And that's where the error message is coming from. But it seems like we actually are arguing over nothing, as you consider the "is 1024 the limit" on-topic

terdon

@Gilles comic sans! (runs away)

Gilles

@terdon looks nothing like handwriting

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