GNU wget is a brilliant tool for downloading. Whether it's from the web, FTP or elsewhere, wget is a very powerful and useful tool.
Unfortunately, internet connections are often far from completely stable and if you're downloading something and that download subsequently fails, it can be quite frustrating (especially if it's a big file).
In the vast majority of cases though, there's no need to go about deleting the file and restarting the download from scratch. Wget includes a -c switch that you can use to continue a failed download from where you left off.
Say we're downloading a big file:
$ wget bigfile
And bang - our connection goes dead (you can simulate this by quitting with Ctrl-C if you like). Once we're back up and running and making sure you're in the same directory you were during the original download:
$ wget -c bigfile
Provided where you're downloading from supports it, you should get going from exactly where you left off.
It's a nice quick tip, but it can be a real time (and sanity) saver when you've got a dodgy connection!
GNU screen is a very neat tool that's included in most Unix-like operating systems. It's a utility that acts as a basic command line window manager, so you can maintain several open terminal sessions within one physical terminal.
You may ask me at this point why you need to do that when most graphical terminal programs have tabs for multiple sessions, but there are many occasions where GNU screen can be a better choice (for example, when working over SSH so you don't have to open multiple SSH connections). On top of that screen also boasts features such as being able to save console sessions even when your connection is lost.
It can be a tad tricky to get started with, but thankfully over at Kuro5hin, there is a great tutorial available that can quickly get you up and running using screen.
Screen is best described as a terminal multiplexer. Using it, you can run any number of console-based applications--interactive command shells, curses-based applications, text editors, etc.--within a single terminal. The desire to do this is what gets most people hooked on screen. I used to start a half-dozen terminal emulators when I logged into my machine: I wanted one to read my email, one to edit my code, one to compile my code, one for my newsreader, one for a shell into my web host, and so on. Now I start one terminal emulator, and run screen in it. Problem solved.
The other main cool feature of screen is its ability to decouple the terminal emulator from the running programs. This means that you can use screen to keep programs running after you accidentally close the terminal emulator, or even after you log out, and later resume right where you were. It means that the idea of a "session" in which you are running a number of console programs is a free-floating entity that you can bind to any terminal anywhere, or no terminal at all if you want.
The tutorial is well worth a look especially if you're a fairly new command line user that is starting to become proficient and wants to learn about the benefits of using screen.
Read it here.
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Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon has announced on his blog what the name of the Ubuntu 8.04 release will be - Hardy Heron. This version of Ubuntu, coming after Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) currently planned for October, will be a Long Term Support (LTS) release with 5 years of desktop support, not unlike previous LTS release Dapper Drake (6.06).
I am delighted to have the pleasure of announcing the Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04), the next version of Ubuntu that will succeed Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu 7.10, due for release in October 2007). Not only will the Ubuntu community continue to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use, reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. We look forward to releasing the Hardy Heron in April 2008.
With the opening of each new release cycle of Ubuntu, we have more and more opportunity at our fingertips. Not only are our friends in the upstream world constantly innovating and extending their applications and software, but the Ubuntu community continues to see incredible growth in its diverse range of areas such as packaging, development, documentation, quality assurance, translations, LoCo teams and more. Each new release gives us all an opportunity to shine, irrespective of which bricks in the project we are laying, and this is at the heart of our belief - working together to produce an Operating System that will empower its users and shape the IT industry, putting free software at the corner-stone of our direction.
As mentioned already, Gutsy Gibbon, version 7.10 is due out this October and the current version of Ubuntu is 7.04, Feisty Fawn.
You can read more on Jono Bacon's blog and find out more about Ubuntu on the official site.
