I’ve downloaded a file called file.tar.lzma tar ball from the Internet but I am not able to open tar ball. How do I open or extract a .lzma file under Linux or UNIX like operating systems using command line options?
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Q. How do I create create a new Linux user account ? How do update or modify default Linux new user information? Using the command prompt (shell) tools, how do I add a user to the system? What are command line options for adding a user?
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Q. How do I Monitor Linux User Activity in real time?

A. The whowatch program scans the most current common log file of Linux server and creates the following statistics in real time:

=> The users currently logged on to the machine, in real-time.
=> User login name,
=> User tty
=> User host name
=> User’s process
=> The type of the connection (ie. telnet or ssh)
=> Display of users command line can be switch to tty idle time.
=> Certain user can be selected and his processes tree may be viewed as well as tree of all system processes.
=> Kill user process etc

I have already written how to install and configure whowatch. Please refer this previous article.

Q. I have Apache Web server and MySQL configured. Everything works fine except I am not able to connect to a MySQL database server (I am able to connect mysql server with mysql client). So how do I configure or connect PHP scripts?

A. You need to install MySQL module for php4 or php5. Without php-mysql shared object or module, php scripts won’t able to connect to MySQL database server.

Debian / Ubuntu Linux User

To install type the following command:
# apt-get install php4-mysql
if you are using PHP5, enter:
# apt-get install php5-mysql

RHEL

If you are using Red Hat Linux:
# up2date php-mysql

If you are using Fedora / CentOS / RHEL 5 Linux:
# yum install php-mysql
Restart apache to take effect. Now you will be able to connect MySQL via PHP scripts.
# service httpd restart

Q. I am new to Linux and I not able to understand /dev/hdc (is it C: drive?) under Linux. This is quite confusing for a new Linux user like me. What device naming convention followed by Linux? Can you explain it in layman’s term?
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Q. . I’m a new Linux user. Can you tell me commonly used Linux / UNIX command?
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