Send Email in One Line

Rai    Linux     command line, email, Linux, mail, one line, receive, send, test

I use this nifty one liner to test if a Linux machine can send emails.

$ echo "This is the body of the email" | mail -s "This is the subject" rai@email.com

You need to install the package mailx (Red Hat or Fedora) to have the mail command.

Capture Time To First Byte using curl

Rai    Linux     calculate, check, curl, download, load time, test, time to first byte, ttfb, website

Working with websites is equivalent to non-ending website testing. Checking the speed of the site itself is not a new thing to check when doing performance diagnostics. And I found out that curl can calculate the speed of a website, from the initial connection time, to the time the first byte is downloaded, up to the total time the site has finished loading.

Here is a sample command using curl:

curl -o /dev/null -w "Connect: %{time_connect} TTFB: %{time_starttransfer} Total time: %{time_total} \n" http://inserturl.here

This command will output this:


[root@rai01 ~]# curl -o /dev/null -w "Connect: %{time_connect} TTFB: %{time_starttransfer} Total time: %{time_total} \n" http://pinoytux.com
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0
Connect: 0.268 TTFB: 1.528 Total time: 1.528

Looks like my website is fast

The first data is the Connect time, which means this is how long it took for the curl to connect to the website.
Connect: 0.268

The second data is time when the first byte was received, Time To First Byte (TTFB).
TTFB: 1.528

The last data is the total time for the site to finish loading.
Total time: 1.528

You can also turn off the progress bar by adding the -s switch to the command.

From: http://www.unquietdesperation.com/2009/03/19/time-to-first-byte-with-curl/

Which Linux Distro is Best for You

Rai    Linux     chooser, distribution, Linux, test

There are a lot of times that I have been asked, and still being asked: Which Linux is the best? Or which Linux distribution is best for me?

I find it hard to answer the question since there are a lot of things that should be considered before getting your hands on a Linux installer. If I suggest a wrong distro, the user might get turned off, and shy away from using Linux. Among the things that should be considered is how ‘technically’ knowledgeable a user is. Some users tend to expect that Linux IS Windows and when they find out that it isn’t, they curse Linux.

Fortunately, there is a site that I find helpful to a situation like this. If you want to test yourself and see which Linux is best for you, visit www.zegeniestudios.net and take the Linux chooser test. After you answer the series of questions, you will be given suggestions of which Linux is best for you.