Finding files in Linux

Many beginning Linux users experience difficulties getting used to the filesystem structure. Indeed, there are many files and directories, the structure of which are not as obvious as it could be. Choosing an appropriate location for a new file or directory is difficult and many choose to follow their own instincts.

With more experience, the file hierarchy becomes clearer and old concepts of placing files and directories start to fade out. When it happens, finding things becomes difficult. It is than that users learn that Linux has many tools for finding things. And it is than that they become confused once again.

Read on for a quick introduction into searching tools available in Linux.

Continue reading Finding files in Linux

Merging two AVI files

Here is a quick tip if you need to merge two AVI files into one using Linux. In fact, you can glue together more than two files. You can glue together as many as you want.

  1. Install transcode. Actually check if it is already installed first as many distributions include it.
  2. Run the following command: avimerge -o result.avi -i source1.avi source2.avi

avimerge is a part of transcode package.

Watching over logs in KDE

I know of a lot of people who enjoy having a terminal window with scrolling logs on their desktop. Setting one up was never a challange, but there are some nice KDE options that one could use that not so many people know about. At least I didn’t know until today.

Continue reading Watching over logs in KDE

Have your breaks in time with KDE

I’ve already talked about KDialog and DCOP which are two magic KDE tools that could use more promotion. Today I came across another nice examlpe in this post.

#!/bin/bash

PROGRESS=$(kdialog --icon kalarm --title "Short rest" \
    --progressbar "Take a break..." 30)

if [ $PROGRESS ]; then
  for (( i=0; i<30; i++ )); do
    dcop $PROGRESS setProgress $i
    sleep 1
  done
  dcop $PROGRESS close
fi

This simple shell script will remind you to have timed 30 second breaks when executed at predefined intervals from KAlarm. You'll see a nice progress bar while having a break.