rm command in Linux w/ examples

The rm command, short for “remove,” is a powerful tool in the Linux command line toolkit. It is used for deleting files and directories. In this article, we’ll explore the fundamentals of using the rm command and provide practical examples to help you become proficient in file removal. This article is a follow-up to the […]

MySQL Performance: Stop hoarding. Drop unused MySQL databases

Recently, I supported a client with solving MySQL performance issues. There were several areas where MySQL performance issues were addressed. One issue, however, that was overlooked before our communications was that of keeping around unused databases. There were around 15 gigabytes of unused MySQL data – a mix of MyISAM and InnoDB tables – for […]

Could not increase number of max_open_files to more than… (Solution)

A quick solution to the warning “Could not increase number of max_open_files to more than” when starting MySQL or MariaDB. For some background, read How MySQL Opens and Closes Tables. Here’s an excerpt: “The table_open_cache and max_connections system variables affect the maximum number of files the server keeps open. If you increase one or both of […]

Navigating the Linux File System with the cd Command

The command line is a powerful tool for interacting with your Linux system, and one of the fundamental commands for navigating the file system is cd. The cd command, short for “change directory,” allows you to move between directories and explore the Linux file system. In this post, we’ll dive into the basics of using […]

How to Gzip a Directory Using Linux Command Line

Efficiently managing files and directories is a fundamental task in computing. It’s crucial for keeping our data organized, optimizing storage space, and facilitating smooth data transfers. In the Linux ecosystem, the gzip utility shines as a powerful compression tool, allowing users to easily compress files and directories. This article delves into directory compression using the […]

Linux benchmark scripts and tools

This list of Linux benchmark scripts and tools should prove helpful for quick performance checks of CPU, storage, memory, and network on Linux servers and VPS. Check each script before running from the command line. Most of these scripts will benchmark the CPU, memory, storage, and network. In most cases, the CPU Model, frequency, and […]

Your Web Host Doesn’t Want You To Read This: Benchmark Your VPS

Aug 13th, 2023: added Yet-another-bench-script benchmarking tool. Sept 27th, 2021: Added link to a great list of command-line benckmark scripts. June 17th, 2019: Added instructions for network speed test using speedtest-cli script. Nov 2nd, 2016: Included quick dd commands to check cached vs. uncached read performance. This article will highlight using the ‘dd’ Unix command […]

Memcache PHP Extensions for Memcached Caching Daemon

Memcached (Memcache Daemon) is a caching daemon designed especially for dynamic web applications to decrease database load by storing objects in memory. It is commonly used to speed up dynamic database-driven websites by caching data and objects in server memory to reduce the number of times the data source must be read. Memcached is free […]

PHP-FPM tuning: Using ‘pm static’ for max performance

Let’s take a very quick look at how best to set up PHP-FPM for high throughput, low latency, and more stable CPU and memory use. By default, most setups have PHP-FPM’s PM (process manager) string set to dynamic and there’s also the common advice to use ondemand if you suffer from available memory issues. However, let’s […]