Basic problem-solving, maintenance & terminal command stuff - Was: gedit output re Entry 60 error, software updater failure, &c.

Sun Aug 5 01:21:31 UTC 2018

On Sat, 04 Aug 2018 23:20:54 +0000, djlafond via ubuntu-users wrote:
> One last question: is there a book you can recommend that would be a
> good primer on this sort of basic problem-solving, maintenance &
> terminal command stuff?

In a Terminal run

  man bash

this isn't a joke, but also not my recommendation for a newbie, but you
should be aware, that all UNIX alike operating systems provide manuals.

It's not to my taste, but perhaps it fits to your approach of learning:
https://www.tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/

For learning more about Linux my recommendation is using Google (not
another search engine), each time you face an issue you need to solve.
For a newbie the evil of Google has got a few advantages. After a
learning curve you know more Linux related terms and what keywords to
use, as well as how a search engine works, then you could migrate to
another search engine.

Trial and error:

For a beginner it's not easy to understand the "SYNOPSIS" on top of a
command's manual page. For example

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/man8/apt.8.html

But once you get used to it, it's easy to understand. OTOH there are
still pitfalls.

Before I continue, this isn't a lesson, I only want to provide two
examples why learning at the beginning could be tricky. You not only
need to learn a few important commands, but also the way the shell as a
whole works.

If you want to know what packages are available containing a name of a
program you could use

    apt list

It also shows you, if a package is installed.

For example

   [weremouse at moonstudio usr]$ apt list *claws*
   Listing... Done
   claws-mail/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-acpi-notifier/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-address-keeper/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-archiver-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-attach-remover/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-attach-warner/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-bogofilter/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-bsfilter-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-clamd-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-dbg/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-doc/xenial,xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 all
   claws-mail-extra-plugins/xenial,xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 all
   claws-mail-fancy-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-feeds-reader/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-fetchinfo-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-gdata-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-git/now 3.16.0-213-g1af132-1 amd64 [installed,local]
   claws-mail-i18n/xenial,xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 all
   [snip]

but if you have bad luck something strange could happen

   [weremouse at moonstudio usr]$ cd src/
   [weremouse at moonstudio src]$ apt list *claws*
   Listing... Done
   [weremouse at moonstudio src]$

The reason that nothing is listed is, that several files in this
directory contain the word "claws".

   [weremouse at moonstudio src]$ ls *claws*
   claws.configure [snip]                                   
   claws-mail-git_3.14.0-2-ge48b73-1_amd64.deb [snip]

It's easy to get rid of this issue, by just two '-Signs.

   [weremouse at moonstudio src]$ apt list '*claws*'
   Listing... Done
   claws-mail/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-acpi-notifier/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-address-keeper/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-archiver-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-attach-remover/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-attach-warner/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-bogofilter/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-bsfilter-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-clamd-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-dbg/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-doc/xenial,xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 all
   claws-mail-extra-plugins/xenial,xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 all
   claws-mail-fancy-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-feeds-reader/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-fetchinfo-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-gdata-plugin/xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 amd64
   claws-mail-git/now 3.16.0-213-g1af132-1 amd64 [installed,local]
   claws-mail-i18n/xenial,xenial 3.13.2-1ubuntu1 all
   [snip]

"Globbing" without doubts is the most confusing thing for a newbie.

   [weremouse at moonstudio test]$ ls -Al . directory/ another_directory/ ../test_2/ 
   .:
   total 0
   drwxrwxr-x 2 weremouse weremouse 40 Aug  5 02:53 another_directory
   drwxrwxr-x 2 weremouse weremouse 80 Aug  5 02:51 directory
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse  0 Aug  5 02:50 file
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse  0 Aug  5 02:50 .hidden_file

   another_directory/:
   total 0

   directory/:
   total 0
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse 0 Aug  5 02:51 file_in_dir
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse 0 Aug  5 02:51 .hidden_file_in_dir

   ../test_2/:
   total 0
   [weremouse at moonstudio test]$ cp -a * ../test_2/

The above copy command doesn't copy all files. The ".hidden_file" is
missing, but the ".hidden_file_in_dir" was copied.

   [weremouse at moonstudio test]$ ls -Al ../test_2/ ../test_2/*
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse   0 Aug  5 02:50 ../test_2/file

   ../test_2/:
   total 0
   drwxrwxr-x 2 weremouse weremouse 40 Aug  5 02:53 another_directory
   drwxrwxr-x 2 weremouse weremouse 80 Aug  5 02:51 directory
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse  0 Aug  5 02:50 file

   ../test_2/another_directory:
   total 0

   ../test_2/directory:
   total 0
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse 0 Aug  5 02:51 file_in_dir
   -rw-rw-r-- 1 weremouse weremouse 0 Aug  5 02:51 .hidden_file_in_dir

-- 
On Fri, 3 Aug 2018 22:05:00 +0100, Colin Law wrote:
> And please change the subject line of your email, your question is not
> about the digest.

For the Evolution mailing list MIME became the default for the digest,
but even this didn't solve the issue. On Tuesday the digest issue is
over.

https://mail.gnome.org/archives/evolution-list/2018-August/msg00017.html