tricks&TIPS

tricks&TIPS
Damien Balima

Rox-filer, a File Manager from Risc OS

Rox-filer is a file manager, equipped with
a graphical user interface and featuring all
functions required for managing folders,
such as e.g. searching for elements, cre-
ation of files and directories or the meth-
ods: copy and paste, drag and drop between
windows etc. Several important advantages
of include Rox-filer support for managing
multiple windows, small memory usage
and a handy menu. Moreover, the tool can
make use of Gtk themes and runs on win-
dow managers of all sorts (Gnome, KDE,
Fluxbox and others).
Example functions of the program: in
order to change the working directory,
press /; in order to run a program by click-
ing an icon, click on it with the left mouse
button and, if it hasn't been done yet, as-
sign it an appropriate event. Rox-Filer is a
Linux adaptation of the file manager from
the Risc OS system.
Home page: http://rox.sourceforge.net Figure 1. Rox-filer

fstab Files for Mounting Partitions Under Linux

When the command mount is used without vfat /dev/hda2
specifying the type of the partition, for rw,user,noauto 0 0 /ext3 defaults,errors=
instance while mounting a CD, the com- remount-ro 0 1
mand automatically checks the type of where /dev/sda is the USB device (some- /dev/hda5
the partition by scanning through the file times it's sda1 or sdb), /media/usb is the di- /home ext3 defaults 0 2
fstab. The file is located in the directory /etc/ rectory to mount the device in and which /dev/hda6
and has a precisely defined structure: each will be used to access it, vfat is the type of none swap sw 0 0
line corresponding to a mountable parti- the file system (VFAT – the file system of /dev/hdc
tion consists of a device, a mount point, MS Windows). These are followed by op- /media/cdrom0 iso9660
a type, options, frequency of dumping tions: rw,user,noauto (reading and writing, ro,user,noauto 0 0
backup copies and the order of consistency can be mounted by any user, doesn't get /dev/sda
checking. In order to mount USB memory mounted automatically). The dumping /media/usb vfat
automatically using the command mount / frequency and checking order are not rw,user,noauto 0 0
media/usb, one should have that file contain specified.
a line similar to: Here is an example fstab: The file mtab stores the current state of
mounted file systems, it can be checked
/dev/sda proc using the command cat /etc/mtab.
/media/usb /proc proc defaults 0 0

62 January 2007
 tricks&TIPS

Locating Information Using the info Tool

Much like the command man, which dis-
plays manual pages for Linux command,
info allows one to display help for certain
Unix commands and information pertain-
ing to libraries. The advantage of info
over man is that information provided by
the latter is divided into topics, chapters
and sections.
One can for instance display the main
page of information on the command
find by clicking on its name and pressing
the [Enter] key, or simply by typing in
info find at a console. This will give us
a whole collection of documents pertain-
ing to find, including an introduction, ex-
ample, lists of options for all section and
a lot of other information. Info pages are
much more detailed than man ones, on
the other hand they are only available
for some commands and programs.
They contain for instance information
pertaining to file permissions, the work-
ings of compressors or notes on our soft-
ware. Figure 2. Info

Bc, a Calculator under Unix

An easy way exists of performing math- ral parts of fractions (here, 3/2 = 1.5 = 1). fractions. Moreover, one can use bc as
ematical operations under Unix – one can In order to be able to perform operations a calculation language, as it supports vari-
use the command bc, in a terminal. Having with fractions one has to run bc with the ables – e.g.:
run bc one performs operations simply by option -l (to enable the mathematics li-
typing them in and pressing the [Enter] brary). Then we will obtain: x=3/2 <Enter>
key. For example: 3*x <Enter>
3*(3/2) <Enter> 4.500...
3*(3/2) <Enter> 4.500...
3 In order to exit the program, type in [quit].
It is therefore important to make sure the Help for bc is available in the form of
The result obtained here (3) is not an er- mathematics libraries are used when one a man page (man bc).
ror, as by default bc keeps only the integ- wants to perform operations involving

Locating Files Using the Tool locate

Locate is a tool which, like find makes it
possible to locate a local file. It differs from
find in that it searches its own database,
which is an up-to-date (if one updates it!)
image of the structure of the directory tree
of one's system; thanks to this searching
time is minimal, as locate traverses only
its own database – whereas find does in fact
look into every specified directory.
For example, searching for the file
xorg.conf in the whole directory tree took
0.4 second (time locate xorg.conf). One
only has to remember to update the data-
base of locate using the command update-
db (run as root). It is also worth knowing
that a less secure version of locate exists,
called slocate.
Figure 3. Locate

Gmemusage – Memory Usage on a Chart

The utility program Gmemusage can prove along with detailed information; the list ing up very little resources (20 KB) – this is
useful for quickly finding out what pro- has the form of a highly clear bar chart. very convenient when it comes to monitor-
gram use the most memory. The program The Linux version of the tool is a clone of ing memory usage e.g. over an ssh tunnel
displays, in real time, a list of processes, the edition for IRIX and is small, thus tak- (ssh -X ...).

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