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rsync Backup on Debian 13 and Ubuntu: Commands and Examples

rsync Backup on Debian 13 and Ubuntu: Commands and Examples

rsync copies only what changed between a source and a destination, so it is the standard tool for backing up a folder on Debian or Ubuntu. The safe routine is: run the command with -n (dry run) first, then run it for real. This guide uses one test folder and shows the...
How to Check CPU Usage and Info on Debian 13 and 12

How to Check CPU Usage and Info on Debian 13 and 12

Quick answer: run uptime to see the load average, then top (press P to sort by CPU, 1 to show each core) to see who is using the processor. Compare the load average with the number of cores from nproc: a load above the core count for a sustained period means work is...
How to Check Disk Space on Debian 13 and 12 (df, du, ncdu)

How to Check Disk Space on Debian 13 and 12 (df, du, ncdu)

To check disk space on Debian 13 (Trixie) or Debian 12 (Bookworm), run df -hT to see how full each filesystem is, then sudo du -xh –max-depth=1 / | sort -rh | head to see which top-level directory is using it. Repeat the du command one level deeper until you...
How to Check Open Ports on Debian 13 and 12

How to Check Open Ports on Debian 13 and 12

Quick answer: run sudo ss -tulnp. It lists every TCP and UDP port that is listening on your Debian machine, the address it is bound to and the program that owns it. ss is part of the iproute2 package that a standard Debian 13 or Debian 12 install already includes, so...
Automatic Security Updates on Debian 13 and 12

Automatic Security Updates on Debian 13 and 12

Quick answer: On Debian 13 (Trixie) and Debian 12 (Bookworm), install the unattended-upgrades package. On a normal non-interactive install it turns itself on by writing /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades with both values set to “1”. Debian’s default...
Debian 13 sources.list: deb822 .sources Explained

Debian 13 sources.list: deb822 .sources Explained

On Debian 13 (Trixie), APT repositories are configured in the deb822 format: one or more files ending in .sources under /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, with each repository written as a block of Field: value lines. The old one-line format in /etc/apt/sources.list still...
Fail2Ban on Debian 13 and 12: Setup Guide

Fail2Ban on Debian 13 and 12: Setup Guide

Fail2Ban watches your SSH logins and bans an IP address in the firewall after too many failed attempts. On Debian 13 (Trixie) and Debian 12 (Bookworm) you install it with sudo apt install fail2ban, put your own settings in a file under /etc/fail2ban/jail.d/ instead of...