Top Ten Linux Configuration Tools?

jman251 asks: "I am presenting at a conference in September on a couple of Linux-centric topics. One of these is a collection of tips, tricks, and tools for configuring, securing, and maintaining a Linux-based server. I have a short list of tools I use, but would like some community input on the subject. What tools do you use that make your admin responsibilities easier or more automated on the Linux platform?"

Comments

rm

[bobthemuse]

rm -rf /home

That'll teach those pesky users....

Re:rm

[Homology]

I used

$ chflags uchg /home/dude

So now "rm -fr /" won't work even as root as it will properly give you :

rm: /home/dude: Operation not permitted

So there you are, you pesky root of all evil. Oh bummer, now I can't make any new files in /home/dude ....

Webmin all the way

[tntguy]

Webmin. Grab Usermin while you're there.

Re:Webmin all the way

[desiderius7]

Amen to that. Being responsible for the administration of about 10 linux boxes that each provide a unique variety of services, Webmin has been invaluable. If I didn't have Webmin, all of my tasks performed through the shell would take about 10 times longer than they currently do from a browser that can lay out my options much more nicely. The key is to know/learn how to do what you want to do from the shell first, so that you have the understanding (and for emergencies), but to then use Webmin to boost your efficiency and help remind you of things that a blank console doesn't.

Dave Lettermans Top 10

[Anonymous Coward]

su
df
du
ls
rm
passwd
chown
vi
more
bash

Hey, you asked for it - No clicky links to read.

Re:Dave Lettermans Top 10

[hackstraw]

su -- better sudo keeps your root password better kept, does more logging, etc

more -- better less (Its not the 70s anymore people, you can search and go backwards in files since less first came about in the mid 80s. With the LESSOPEN varible set to something useful you can "browse" many, many filetypes too).

bash -- better zsh My shell can do anything your shell can do, but better!

Re:Dave Lettermans Top 10

[hackstraw]

what are the advatages of zsh over bash

1) programable tab completion - yes folks there is more to tab completion besides beeping all the time. When I hit cd fooTAB the list of completions only shows _directories_ beginning with foo

2) sane invocation - zsh is the only shell that has one file that is sourced _on all invocations of the shell_ so you can do stuff like have a consistant PATH and other env stuff

3) global aliases - zsh provides an alias that works _anywhere on the commandline_ I have 'G' mapped to '| grep -i', I have 'L' mapped to '| less' and 'vi' mapped to 'vim' (why? So sudo vi FILE gives me vim if the system has vim), etc, etc

4) the only shell that supports working 'vi' style history editing

5) multiple commandline commands are not rewritten as commands with ';' in them (what I typed is what I get, see 4)

6) too many features to name. Like I said, my shell can do anything your shell can do, but better.

Re:Dave Lettermans Top 10

[Rei]

I'm reminded a bit of the ABCs of UNIX here...

A is for awk, which runs like a snail
B is for biff, which reads all your mail
C is for cc, as hackers recall
D is for dd, the command that does all
E is for emacs, which rebinds your keys
F is for fsck, which rebuilds your trees
G is for grep, a clever detective
H is for halt, which may seem defective
I is for indent, which rarely amuses
J is for join, which nobody uses
K is for kill, which makes you the boss
L is for lex, which is missing from DOS
M is for more, from which less was begot
N is for nice, which really is not
O is for od, which prints out things nice
P is for passwd, which reads in strings twice
Q is for quota, a Berkeley-type fable
R is for ranlib, for sorting a table
S is for spell, which attempts to belittle
T is for true, which does very little
U is for uniq, which is used after sort
V is for vi, which is hard to abort
W is for whoami, which tells you your name
X is, well, X, of dubious fame
Y is for yes, which makes an impression, and
Z is for zcat, which handles compression

Not The FP

[jo42]

man and vi

Seriously.

Hmm..

[wbav]

Most of the pc's I see are windows, so I'd have to say my most used tool is fdisk.

Knoppix is a nice solution too when I don't have time.

Computer Management..

[bdigit]

I use Computer Management. It's located under Administrative Tools in the Control Panel. It's really great for... wait a minute... looks around... wrong site...

takes a couple steps back...

CVS (or insert your favorite alternative here)

[-dsr-]

CVS or your favorite equivalent is vital in any multi-sysadmin environment. Operating without your configurations in CVS is like juggling priceless eggs in variable gravity.

Hmmmmm.

[eigerface]

Emacs! No, vi! No, Arrrrrrgh!

Re:Hmmmmm.

[DarkHelmet]

Pico: A choice that will piss both sides off equally.

Re:Hmmmmm.

[Skald]

Emacs! No, vi! No, Arrrrrrgh!

While Emacs may be your Top Ten Configuration Tools, I'm pretty sure Vi only counts as one. :-)

Re:Hmmmmm.

[hawaiian717]

You obviously don't know what a real text editor is capable of.

Editing text files?

Tripwire

[nharmon]

Tripwire is a very easy to use intrustion detection system. If you follow the documentation, and implement it properly (storing the statically linked binary + database files on read-only media), it will make things very hard on a potential hacker.

/bin/bash

[llywelynelysium]

What good are all your commands with no shell? ? ?

Cfengine: It's all you need

[kognate]

cfengine (http://www.cfengine.org) is
the best automation tool for unix and unix-like
environments. Hands down.

It's a little hard to configure sometimes, but
worth the effort.

Tim.

[geekoid]

It's easy to use, I just pick up the phone, ask Tim to fix this Linux thing.
Easy-peasy.
Or I just do what Vigor tells me to do.

Re:The one true Text Editor!

[alexborges]

Vi user 1: KILL THE TROLL

Vi user 2: Mesmerize this so-called-pico-mesiah

Slashdot winfiend1: I for one....

Slashdot winfiend2: Imagine a ....

Emacs user 1: Damn, the vimers beat us to the hangin!... we cant say kill him, they already did...

Emacs user 2: Its Gnu-Pic.... oh wait...

Dang!

[itwerx]

I can't believe with all these posts that the only one(s) that actually respond to the question are about Webmin!
Don't get me wrong, Webmin is great, it's at the top of my list fer shure, but that's not the be-all and end-all of systems management!! What about actual convenient tools like MRTG, Novell's eDirectory, RedCarpet, etc. etc.?
Heck, I'm reading this article hoping to pick up a few tips myself and all I'm seeing are scripting languages and text-editor flame wars, (all of which can/should be moderated Off-topic or Funny).
So, anybody actually got anything useful to contribute besides Webmin?

Re:In a word

[AvantLegion]

>> Perl is your friend

Well it sure doesn't act like it sometimes.

Single machine or multiple machines?

[ComputerSlicer23]

I've always like the "redhat-config" series of tools on RedHat or RedHat derived products.

• chkconfig and service are valuable for doing things.
• yum, apt, autorpm are all nice tools.
• logwatch is great.
• PAM isn't an application, but using PAM and LDAP can make having users spread across machines is a snap.
• tripwire is a great tool
• kickstart does wonders if you have to install lots of machines. I use it to completely document every scriptable part of an install.
• WebMin is great, but it worries me from a security perspective.
• gq is a great LDAP editor that I use to edit LDAP entries for users.
• Software like Bastielle Linux (a script that attempts to harden a machine)
• iptables, iproute2 (including ip and tc) are wonderful for networking.
• cron, sh, sed, awk, perl and python are used in conjunction quite a bit.
• fuser and lsof are used frequently by to to figure out what is going on.
• ethereal and tcpdump are tools of the gods.
• ssh is a thing of beauty.
• encrypted swap is fun.
• Nagios, MRTG, and sar are very useful for profiling and monitoring of your machines.

Who exactly is your target audience? People who've never seen UNIX, people who've worked on UNIX environment for years? What is it you are attempting to accomplish with them?

Most of my list would be boring to people who know a lot about UNIX, however some of them are Linux specific.

WRONG QUESTION

[nusratt]

Ask for the Top Ten tools, and most of your time spent reading the responses will be wasted, because of the overlap of the answers. If people list what they *genuinely* think are the Top Ten, there will be very few answers which are unusual or surprising (and still useful).

I think it would more useful to ask for the Top Ten MOST OVERLOOKED tools, or the most under-used, the most mis-used, or the ones whose full power is forgotten, unrecognized, or unused.

Pico, you dick mods.

[teamhasnoi]

WTF? I can't have Pico as my #1?

When I don't have time to figure out goddamn control chars, and just want to edit a config file without having to resort to IRC, man pages, and poor documentation -

I USE FUCKING PICO.

All the commands are right there. On the screen.

Maybe this elitist attitude is why Linux isn't ready for the desktop. Now mod me Troll, bitches.