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1500 questions
2624
votes
25 answers
How to list all installed packages
I'd like to output a list of all installed packages into a text file so that I can review it and bulk-install on another system. How would I do this?

Ivan
- 57,065
2193
votes
9 answers
How to unzip a zip file from the Terminal?
Just downloaded a .zip file from the internet. I want to use the terminal to unzip the file. What is the correct way to do this?

ubuntu-nerd
- 22,199
- 4
- 17
- 9
1696
votes
29 answers
"The following packages have been kept back:" Why and how do I solve it?
I just added a PPA repository for the development version of the GIMP, but I get this error:
$ apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
...
The following packages have been kept back:
gimp gimp-data libgegl-0.0-0 libgimp2.0
Why and how can I solve it so…

jfoucher
- 23,534
1625
votes
27 answers
How can PPAs be removed?
I've added many PPAs using the add-apt-repository command. Is there a simple way to remove these PPAs? I've checked in /etc/apt/sources.list for the appropriate deb lines but they aren't there.
This is on a server system so a command line solution…

David Ashford
- 17,278
1448
votes
12 answers
How do I install a .deb file via the command line?
How do I install a .deb file via the command line?

TheXed
- 26,536
1392
votes
11 answers
How do I save terminal output to a file?
How do I save the output of a command to a file?
Is there a way without using any software? I would like to know how.

led-Zepp
- 14,195
- 5
- 16
- 12
1317
votes
8 answers
How can I copy the contents of a folder to another folder in a different directory using terminal?
I am trying to copy the contents of a folder to another folder in a different directory using terminal.
Would somebody be able to provide me an example of the command line syntax required to achieve this?

pandisvezia
- 13,391
- 3
- 16
- 7
1180
votes
16 answers
Where is the cron / crontab log?
I want to verify that my cron job is executing and at what time. I believe there is a log for my sudo crontab -e jobs, but where?
I searched google and found recommendations to look in /var/log (in which I do not see anything with 'cron' in the…

Scott Szretter
- 11,983
1173
votes
25 answers
Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/) is another process using it?
I get this error when trying to use apt-get:
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/) is another process using it?
How can I fix this?

La Ode Adam Saputra
- 12,023
1164
votes
14 answers
How do I determine the total size of a directory (folder) from the command line?
Is there a simple command to display the total aggregate size (disk usage) of all files in a directory (folder)?
I have tried these, and they don't do what I want:
ls -l, which only displays the size of the individual files in a directory, nor
df…

David Barry
- 11,743
1149
votes
5 answers
How can I use Docker without sudo?
On Docker's documentation pages, all example commands are shown without sudo, like this one:
docker ps
On Ubuntu, the binary is called docker.io. It also does not work without sudo:
sudo docker.io ps
How can I configure Docker so that I don't need…

Flimm
- 41,766
1148
votes
8 answers
What command do I need to unzip/extract a .tar.gz file?
I received a huge .tar.gz file from a client that contains about 800 mb of image files (when uncompressed.) Our hosting company's ftp is seriously slow, so extracting all the files locally and sending them up via ftp isn't practical. I was able to…

EmmyS
- 15,920
1115
votes
20 answers
How can I update my nodeJS to the latest version?
I have installed nodeJS on Ubuntu with following code
sudo apt-get install nodejs
Since I am a new user for ubuntu I also ran this code too
sudo apt-get install npm
Now when I type
nodejs --version
It shows
v0.6.19
I checked and saw latest…

Kanishka Panamaldeniya
- 11,273
- 3
- 15
- 11
1083
votes
10 answers
Is there a command to list all users? Also to add, delete, modify users, in the terminal?
I need a command to list all users as well as commands to add, delete and modify users from terminal - any commands that could help in administrating user accounts easily by terminal.

nux
- 38,017
- 35
- 118
- 131
1075
votes
7 answers
How to upgrade a single package using apt-get?
How do I update a single package? As far as man apt-get says apt-get upgrade doesn't take a package/list of packages as parameter:
upgrade
upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages
currently installed on the system from the…

lurscher
- 11,605