Extracting Individual Files from an Archive

Too often, I only need a single file or a couple of files from an archive.
One answer to this is to just extract the entire archive so that I can
get to those particular files.  The more precise answer is to simply
extract only those files that I need and place them where I want them.

Fixing an Overly Eager chmod in Linux

A while ago, someone asked me how to recover from a mistyped recursive
'chmod' they performed.  Similar to the write-up on an "overeager chown",
they mistyped the path and it executed against the root FS (/).  Ideally,
one would have a backup to recover from, however that wasn't an option

updated utility, getldp.pl v0.1.7

An updated version of 'getldp.pl', v0.1.7, is now available on the Tools
page.  This update adds handling (long overdue) for reaping any child
processes getldp.pl might spawn while listening for CDP / LLDP packets.
Previously, if getldp.pl timed out and exited while waiting on data,

Manual P2V with Linux

We recently had a situation wherein we were replacing a physical host
with a virtual machine (VM) instance.  Rather than simply install a
new VM and reapply software packages and configuration, the need was to
retain the existing installation.  To do so, we effectively cloned the

updated utility, getldp.pl v0.1.6

An updated version of 'getldp.pl', v0.1.6, is now available on the
Tools page.  This version adds details of the sending host including
OS version (CDP only), device capabilities, and management address
(assuming those fields are in the CDP / LLDP packets):

NIC Replacement in Linux

In the past, I've found it slightly annoying that if I needed to swap
out a network interface card (NIC), Red Hat distros of Linux would kindly
backup the interface configuration for that interface and generate a stub
DHCP configuration in its place.  This leaves the host potentially with

Fixing a Broken initrd in Linux

I recently had a situation where a host's disk controller failed.
The box would get partially through a BIOS post before throwing errors
about the failed controller and then fail to boot.  To resolve the
situation, we effectively replaced said controller.  This, however, lead

Fixing an Overly Eager chown in Linux

A while ago, someone asked me how to recover from a mistyped recursive
'chown' they performed.  They mistyped the path and it executed against
the root FS (/), though they caught it before it acted on everything.
Ideally, one would have a backup to recover from, however that wasn't