Handy Switches for Unix & Co.
From Handy Switches
why I built this Web site
I keep part of my head here. This Web site is a place for problem solvers with sub-par memorization skills who work as Unix Administrators who need quick access to handy switches and other tips and pointers.
Handy Switches is a place where you can reference the switches that follow most Unix commands. These switches, while very handy, tend to change from one Unix variant to another (and sometimes even within the same family). I created this site to overcome that inconvenience.
And finally, this site is for those who love to learn, and contribute what they know. If you come across a command here about which you have some knowledge, please share!
Hopefully, when you're moving around from one *nix to another and can't remember if netstat -tupl works on GNU/Linux and Solaris or just on GNU/Linux, you'll stop by here and remember.
Unlike sites like Wikipedia, Handy Switches does not aim to be an authoritative reference on the what and why of everything. Reference material on this wiki is not usually exhaustive, does not necessarily attempt to be neutral, and will likely contain opinions and sometimes unsubstantiated claims. It is a collection of notes on how to set up, configure and use Unix including tips on how to get more out of it, and perhaps even enjoy the process.
handy switches
The purpose behind the colored boxes is to help with clarity. (Read the 'edit' source to see how to make them.)
So is this place really just man pages revisited?
I suppose you might consider this site exactly that, but aren't you just a little bit more excited, when you get to the bottom of a man page, and discover, to your delight, that it has useful, real examples of how to actually use the command you're reading about in real-life situations?
I don't always need to know the theoretical, scholarly explanation, I want real-world examples.
I just want the syntax that I know will work and I'm fine with using copy-n-paste.
I want to have, at the ready, some handy switches that I can throw on the end of a command in a pipe stream and get to where I want to go.
And if someone learns something along the way, so much the better.
Welcome to Handy Switches
Muddied Waters
This site is growing beyond its original intent already. I need a place to keep filmmaking notes on my work in Apple's Final Cut Pro, and plan to keep those notes here as well, at least for the time being. Maybe one day I'll split them out into their own site, but for now...
Spammers, I loathe them
It seems that in a sense I've been hacked. Well, not really since this is a Wiki with permission granted to all to create accounts and add content, but there are nasty folk out there who are taking advantage of my hospitality and adding content to my Wiki that has nothing to do with the purpose of this system, so I'll be following the advice at this URL very soon:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access#Restrict_editing_of_all_pages
This is like when I open my WiFi node to guests and instead of just heading out the general Internet to do their thing, they try to gain access to my internal systems. Rude.
