# utilities Published articles for utilities. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Coding Challenge #124 - Du DevFeed: [Coding Challenge #124 - Du]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: John Crickett Published: 2026-06-13T08:01:14Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Coding Challenges]() Topics: [Code Challenge](), [POSIX](), [Unix](), [Utility Software](), [Programming]() Tags: [coding](), [exercise](), [filesystem](), [posix](), [programming](), [programming-language](), [run](), [unix](), [utilities]() ### AI overview A coding challenge asks readers to build their own POSIX-compatible du utility. It covers recursively traversing directories, calculating disk usage, handling hard links and symbolic links, and presenting results in multiple formats. ### Source excerpt This challenge is to build your own du. ## Resource Names for Enterprise TypeScript Monorepos DevFeed: [Resource Names for Enterprise TypeScript Monorepos]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Robin Wieruch Published: 2026-03-30T06:50:46Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Robin Wieruch]() Topics: [TypeScript](), [Code](), [Structured-data]() Tags: [api-design](), [code](), [consistency](), [enterprise](), [monorepo](), [monorepo-resource-id](), [resource-oriented-design-typescript](), [typescript](), [typescript-resource-names](), [utilities]() ### AI overview This tutorial explains how to standardize resource names in multi-service TypeScript monorepos. It presents hierarchical resource naming, based on the Google API Design Guide, as a shared convention that replaces ad hoc string interpolation and supports consistent encoding and decoding across services. ### Source excerpt How to bring consistency to multi-service TypeScript applications by treating resource names and resource types as first-class concepts with shared utilities ... ## "Rules" that terminal programs follow DevFeed: ["Rules" that terminal programs follow]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Julia Evans Published: 2024-12-12T09:28:22Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Julia Evans]() Topics: [Terminal](), [Command-line interface](), [Shell](), [Bash](), [Linux]() Tags: [bash](), [c](), [command-line](), [linux](), [posix](), [terminal](), [utilities]() ### AI overview An exploration of the informal rules and conventions that terminal programs commonly follow, including interrupt handling, quitting interfaces, color output, readline keybindings, and stdin/stdout conventions. ### Source excerpt Recently I've been thinking about how everything that happens in the terminal is some combination of: Your operating system's job Your shell's job Your terminal emulator's job The job of whatever program you happen to be running (like top or vim or cat) The first three (your operating system, shell, and terminal emulator) are all kind of known quantities - if you're using bash in GNOME Terminal on Linux, you can more or less reason about how how all of those things interact, and some of their behaviour is standardized by POSIX. But the fourth one ("whatever program you happen to be running") feels like it could do ANYTHING. How are you supposed to know how a program is going to behave? This post is kind of long so here's a quick table of contents: programs behave surprisingly consistently these are meant to be descriptive, not prescriptive it's not always obvious which "rules" are the program's responsibility to implement rule 1: noninteractive programs should quit when you press Ctrl-C rule 2: TUIs should quit when you press q rule 3: REPLs should quit when you press Ctrl-D on an empty line rule 4: don't use more than 16 colours rule 5: vaguely support readline keybindings rule 5.1: Ctrl-W should delete the last word rule 6: disable colours when writing to a pipe rule 7: - means stdin/stdout these "rules" take a long time to learn programs behave surprisingly consistently As far as I know, there are no real standards for how programs in the terminal should behave - the closest things I know of are: POSIX, which mostly dictates how your terminal emulator / OS / shell should work together. I think it does specify a few things about how core utilities like cp should work but AFAIK it doesn't have anything to say about how for example htop should behave. these command line interface guidelines But even though there are no standards, in my experience programs in the terminal behave in a pretty consistent way. So I wanted to write down a list of "rules" that in my experi ## Microsoft PowerToys Tutorial: Using and Customizing Windows Utilities DevFeed: [Microsoft PowerToys Tutorial: Using and Customizing Windows Utilities]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Techno Tim Published: 2023-08-20T13:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Techno Tim]() Topics: [Microsoft PowerToys](), [Windows](), [Tutorial](), [Utility Software](), [Open Source]() Tags: [apps](), [features](), [open-source](), [powertoys](), [productivity](), [shortcuts](), [tools](), [tutorial](), [utilities](), [video](), [windows]() ### AI overview A video tutorial introduces Microsoft PowerToys, an open-source suite of Windows utilities and apps. It explains installation and customization, then demonstrates features such as Always On Top and Awake for improving productivity. ### Source excerpt Today we're going to maximize your Productivity on Windows with Microsoft PowerToys. I'll show you step-by-step how you can use, customize, and be more efficient when using Microsoft PowerToys. 📺 Watch Video What are PowerToys for Windows? PowerToys is a set of utilities and apps that help you enhance the functionality of Windows and maximize your productivity. These tools provide a range ... ## Rotating your Encryption Keys and Updating your Secrets with SOPS DevFeed: [Rotating your Encryption Keys and Updating your Secrets with SOPS]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Techno Tim Published: 2023-03-05T15:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Techno Tim]() Topics: [Encryption](), [GitOps](), [flux](), [Kubernetes](), [Security](), [Script]() Tags: [code](), [encryption](), [flux](), [git](), [gitops](), [how-to](), [infrastructure](), [kubernetes](), [script](), [secrets](), [security](), [utilities]() ### AI overview A tutorial on rotating SOPS encryption keys and re-encrypting secret files. It describes generating a new key, using a script to decrypt files with the old key and encrypt them with the new key, testing decryption, and replacing the corresponding Kubernetes secret. ### Source excerpt If you've been encrypting your secrets with SOPS and Age you know how useful it is to keep your secrets safe from prying eyes. If you're not familiar with encrypting your secrets with SOPS and Age, I highly recommend checking out a post I did a while back that shows you how easy it is to encrypt your secrets and even hide them in plain sight in a Git repo.I am happy (and relieved) that I starte... ## How to Configure Wake on LAN Across Windows, macOS, and Linux DevFeed: [How to Configure Wake on LAN Across Windows, macOS, and Linux]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Techno Tim Published: 2023-02-19T15:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Techno Tim]() Topics: [networking](), [Network](), [Linux](), [macOS](), [Windows](), [boot]() Tags: [guide](), [hardware](), [how-to](), [lan](), [linux](), [macos](), [network](), [networking](), [pikvm](), [utilities](), [windows]() ### AI overview A practical guide to configuring Wake on LAN across Windows, macOS, and Linux. It explains how WoL uses a magic packet to wake a machine and discusses the BIOS settings that may need to be enabled or disabled for different hardware and power states. ### Source excerpt What is Wake on LAN and why is it so hard? After releasing my video on the PiKVM I realized that there was so much confusion about Wake on LAN, and rightfully so, that I decided to put together this guide on how to configure Wake on LAN on any machine. Wake on LAN (WoL) is a networking standard that allows a computer to be turned on by sending a network packet. The client sends a special packe... ## Test Your Internet Speed from the Linux Terminal with fast DevFeed: [Test Your Internet Speed from the Linux Terminal with fast]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Techno Tim Published: 2023-02-05T15:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Techno Tim]() Topics: [Linux](), [Terminal](), [Command-line interface](), [Internet](), [Utility Software](), [Netflix]() Tags: [cli](), [dependency](), [download](), [internet](), [linux](), [netflix](), [open-source](), [terminal](), [tool](), [utilities]() ### AI overview This tutorial explains how to use the fast open-source utility to run FAST.com Internet speed tests from the Linux terminal on machines without a browser. It covers downloading the binary, making it executable, and running a speed test. ### Source excerpt What is FAST.com? FAST.com is speed test gives you an estimate of your current Internet speed. It was created by Netflix to bring transparency to your upload / download speeds and to see if your ISP may be prioritizing traffic.I've run this quite a bit in a browser to do a quick spot check or my speeds, but I've never had a great tool to check this from some of my Linux machines. Let me clari... ## Installing Age Encryption Tool DevFeed: [Installing Age Encryption Tool]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Techno Tim Published: 2023-01-30T15:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Techno Tim]() Topics: [Encryption](), [Tutorial](), [Open Source](), [GitHub]() Tags: [binaries](), [download](), [encryption](), [github](), [library](), [open-source](), [tutorial](), [utilities]() ### AI overview A tutorial for installing age, a modern file-encryption tool, format, and Go library. It describes downloading the latest release, extracting and moving the binaries, testing the installation, and uninstalling it. ### Source excerpt What is Age? age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library. It features small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability.It is commonly used in tandem with Mozilla SOPS.It's open source and you can read more about it on the GitHub repo. Looking for a tutorial on how use this? Checkout this video on how to use SOPS and Age for your Git Repo... ## Installing Mozilla SOPS Encryption Tool DevFeed: [Installing Mozilla SOPS Encryption Tool]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Techno Tim Published: 2023-01-30T15:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Techno Tim]() Topics: [Encryption](), [Tutorial](), [Open Source](), [YAML](), [JSON](), [GitHub](), [Amazon Web Services](), [Azure]() Tags: [aws](), [azure](), [encryption](), [gcp](), [github](), [how-to](), [json](), [open-source](), [tool](), [tutorial](), [utilities]() ### AI overview A tutorial on installing Mozilla SOPS, an open-source editor for encrypted YAML, JSON, ENV, INI, and binary files. It introduces its support for AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault, age, and PGP, then outlines downloading, installing, testing, and uninstalling it. ### Source excerpt What is Mozilla SOPS? SOPS is an editor of encrypted files that supports YAML, JSON, ENV, INI and BINARY formats and encrypts with AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault, age, and PGP.It's open source and you can read more about it on the GitHub repo.Looking for a tutorial on how use this? Check out this video on how to use SOPS and Age for your Git Repos! Install We want to get the latest relea... ## Keyboard Maestro as a Text Expander replacement DevFeed: [Keyboard Maestro as a Text Expander replacement]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Kaushik Gopal Published: 2022-07-27T07:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Kaushik Gopal's Site]() Topics: [Utility Software](), [Visual Studio Code]() Tags: [productivity](), [utilities](), [vscode]() ### AI overview The author explains why they switched to Keyboard Maestro for text expansion, citing easier management across multiple computers, configurable delays that help expansion work in apps such as VSCode, and the ability to combine text replacement with macros. ### Source excerpt icon by Yoolk If you've recently needed a text expander utility, might I suggest the trusty Keyboard Maestro.1 I switched from TextExpander -> Alfred quite some time back. Somewhat recently, I again switched from Alfred -> KM for a couple of reasons: 1. One tool to rule them all ## Between work & home, I use multiple computers these days. Having to sync + maintain each of these different utilities across multiple computers is becoming tedious. Keyboard Maestro is a mainstay in my productivity toolbelt and isn't going anywhere. Might as well double down on it for the things it does well. 2. Fixing app quirks ## One of the big problems I found with utilities like Alfred is that the text expansion would activate too quickly. Consequently, the expansion wouldn't work in certain apps (like VSCode). With Keyboard Maestro though, you can add a micro delay,2 ensuring the snippets work flawlessly everywhere. You can also limit the scope to just a few apps if you're worried this delay will slow you down in non-problematic apps. 3. Mix text expansion with other macros ## Building on that, with Keyboard Maestro, you're not limited to just text replacement. You can execute full-fledged macros with your text expansion. Here's an example of how I add checklists in Google Docs.3 Keyboard Maestro remains one of the most powerful utilities for the Mac. Referral link ↩︎ I use 0.5s ↩︎ It puzzles me that they haven't assigned a default keyboard shortcut for this already. ↩︎ ## Remove Terminal.app from Alfred & Spotlight DevFeed: [Remove Terminal.app from Alfred & Spotlight]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Kaushik Gopal Published: 2022-05-29T07:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Kaushik Gopal's Site]() Topics: [macOS](), [Terminal](), [Command-line interface](), [App]() Tags: [blog-post](), [mac](), [macos](), [native](), [search](), [terminal](), [utilities]() ### AI overview A practical guide explains how to hide the native macOS Terminal.app from Alfred and Spotlight by dragging it from a Finder search into Spotlight's Privacy settings, then reloading Alfred. This leaves iTerm as the visible result when searching for the terminal. ### Source excerpt I use iTerm as my terminal of choice.1 It constantly annoys me when I use Alfred or Spotlight that the Terminal.app (native macOS) app also shows up in the search results. This is especially annoying on new computers when Alfred hasn't learnt my preferences as Terminal.app would show up first in the results. Options ## Quick googling shows two options: Add a Spotlight comment alfred:ignore Add the app to your Spotlight "privacy" Option 1 is made a little complicated owing to the fact that you can't add spotlight comments to native "Utilities" app on the Mac. I managed to do this but this option doesn't work. At first, Option 2 might also seem tricky since the file picker doesn't allow you to pick Utilities apps again. But there's an easy workaround: Open Spotlight Preferences > Privacy Tab Open new Finder window & search for "Terminal.app" Drag Terminal.app search result to Privacy Tab on Spotlight preferences type "Reload" in Alfred Now, whenever I search for "Term", I only see "iTerm" show up in my search results. Video ## Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Download the video instead. Why I use iTerm is for another blog post. ↩︎ ## Analyzing and Detecting a VMTools Persistence Technique DevFeed: [Analyzing and Detecting a VMTools Persistence Technique]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: bohops Published: 2021-10-08T03:42:18Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Bohops]() Topics: [Persistence](), [configuration](), [Batch file](), [Process](), [Windows](), [Utility Software]() Tags: [batch](), [configuration](), [payload](), [persistence](), [process](), [script](), [uncategorized](), [utilities](), [windows]() ### AI overview This article analyzes a VMware Tools persistence technique on Windows virtual machines. It explains how VMwareToolBoxCmd.exe and the tools.conf file can configure batch scripts to run during VM power-state operations, and discusses detection strategies. The demonstrated payload runs as a child process of vmtoolsd. ### Source excerpt Introduction It is always fun to reexplore previously discovered techniques or pick back on old research that was put on the wayside in hopes to maybe finding something new or different. Recently, I stood up an ESXi server at home and decided to take a quick peak at the VMware directory structure after installing the [...] ## A bug affecting ReactOS helper utilities DevFeed: [A bug affecting ReactOS helper utilities]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Published: 2014-09-23T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Front Page on ReactOS Website]() Topics: [ReactOS](), [bug](), [Tool]() Tags: [assets](), [bug](), [core](), [free](), [open-source](), [opensource](), [os](), [project](), [react](), [reactos](), [tools](), [useful](), [utilities](), [win32](), [winapi](), [windows]() ### AI overview The article discusses helper utilities in the ReactOS project and the need to fix a bug affecting them because they were considered core assets of the project. ### Source excerpt The answer to the mystery about the bunnies' extracurricular activities came soon enough, in no small part thanks to the amount of time the two spent investigating. The bunnies were extremely useful helper utilities and if they were suffering from a bug, it needed fixing otherwise the project would risk losing one of its more useful tools. By the end of these events the bunnies would be considered one of the core assets underpinning the entire project. ## Two traps in iostat: %util and svctm DevFeed: [Two traps in iostat: %util and svctm]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Marc Brooker Published: 2014-07-04T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Marc Brooker's Blog](), [Marc Brooker's Blog]() Topics: [IO](), [Linux](), [Statistics]() Tags: [devices](), [io](), [linux](), [performance](), [ssd](), [utilities]() ### AI overview The article examines two misleading iostat metrics, %util and svctm, with particular attention to solid-state drives and varying I/O parallelism. It explains why svctm lacks a clear meaning and why interpreting these fields as direct measures of device service time or saturation can be misleading. ### Source excerpt Two traps in iostat: %util and svctm These commonly-used fields in iostat shouldn't be commonly-used. iostat, from the excellent sysstat suite of utilities, is the go-to tool for evaluating IO performance on Linux. It's obvious why that's the case: sysstat is very useful, solid, and widely installed. System administrators can go a lot worse than taking a look at iostat -x. There are some serious caveats lurking in iostat's output, two of which are greatly magnified on newer machines with solid state drives. To explain what's wrong, let me compare two lines of iostat output: Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rkB/s wkB/s avgrq-sz sdd 0.00 0.00 13823.00 0.00 55292.00 0.00 8.00 avgqu-sz await r_await w_await svctm %util 0.78 0.06 0.06 0.00 0.06 78.40 Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rkB/s wkB/s avgrq-sz sdd 0.00 0.00 72914.67 0.00 291658.67 0.00 8.00 avgqu-sz await r_await w_await svctm %util 15.27 0.21 0.21 0.00 0.01 100.00 Both of these lines are from the same device (a Samsung 840 EVO SSD), and both are from read-only 4kB random loads. What differs here is the level of parallelism: in the first load the mean queue depth is only 0.78, and in the second it's 15.27. Same pattern, more threads. The first problem we run into with this output is the svctm field, widely taken to be the average amount of time an operation takes. The iostat man page describes it as: The average service time (in milliseconds) for I/O requests that were issued to the device. and goes on to say: The average service time (svctm field) value is meaningless, as I/O statistics are now calculated at block level, and we don't know when the disk driver starts to process a request. The reasons the man page states for this field being meaningless are true, as are the warnings in the sysstat code. The calculation behind svctm is fundamentally broken, and doesn't really have a clear meaning. Inside iostat, svctm in an interval is calculated as time the device was doing some work / number of IOs, that is the amoun ## el-get and dim-switch-window status update DevFeed: [el-get and dim-switch-window status update]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dimitri Fontaine PostgreSQL Major Contributor; Author Published: 2010-08-09T13:35:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Dimitri Fontaine]() Topics: [Emacs](), [Lisp](), [releases](), [bug](), [version](), [Code](), [apt](), [HTTP]() Tags: [apt](), [bug](), [code](), [emacs](), [emacs-lisp](), [http](), [releases](), [update](), [utilities](), [version]() ### AI overview This status update reports bug fixes and new releases for the Emacs Lisp utilities el-get and dim-switch-window. It describes asynchronous support changes in el-get, including apt-get, fink, elpa, and HTTP-related fixes, and a display adjustment in dim-switch-window for small windows. ### Source excerpt Thanks to you readers of Planet Emacsen taking the time to try those pieces of emacs lisp found in my blog, and also the time to comment on them, some bugs have been fixed, and new releases appeared. el-get had some typo kind of bug in its support for apt-get and fink packages, and I managed to break the elpa and http support when going all asynchronous by forgetting to update the call convention I'm using. Fixing that, I also switched to using url-retrieve so that the http support also is asynchronous. That makes the version 0.5, available on emacswiki el-get page.