Category: Linux

How to Exclude Directories When Creating Tar Archives in Linux.

September 30, 2026 / September 30, 2026 by Philip Newman | 1 Comment on How to Exclude Directories When Creating Tar Archives in Linux.

Quick Summary: Use the --exclude flag followed by the target directory name right before your file arguments when running the tar command to omit specific folders from your compressed archive. Introduction When backing up a website or archiving project files via the command line, your directory often contains heavy or sensitive folders that you simply […]

Has Linux fixed the unix time bug yet?

January 3, 2025 / January 3, 2025 by Philip Newman | Leave a Comment

The “Year 2038 problem” (also known as the 32-bit Unix time overflow bug) has largely been addressed in modern Linux systems and related software. So yes it has been fixed. Background on the Problem The issue arises because Unix time (the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC) is traditionally stored as a […]

Debian Linux Unix

What are Load Averages?

August 22, 2024 / September 5, 2024 by Philip Newman | Leave a Comment

Load averages represent the average number of processes that are either: They give a snapshot of how much work your system has been doing over time. Linux usually reports three numbers for load average, which represent the load over different periods: For example, when you run the uptime or top command, you might see something […]

Debian Linux SysAdmin

[SOLVED] The following signatures were invalid: EXPKEYSIG B188E2B695BD4743 DEB.SURY.ORG Automatic Signing Key

March 17, 2024 / March 17, 2024 by Philip Newman | Leave a Comment

Here is the solution if you’ve got the following error message when updating package lists on Debian (apt-get update): The following signatures were invalid: EXPKEYSIG B188E2B695BD4743 DEB.SURY.ORG Automatic Signing Key The sury.org Debian package repository has changed its package signing key. To fix the error, just download the new key: Finally, run package update again: […]

apt-key Debian Linux

Backup a website using bash script.

April 8, 2022 / September 30, 2026 by Philip Newman | 1 Comment on Backup a website using bash script.

I needed to complete a routine backup of my development websites on my home server. This was pretty easily completed by daily by a bash script. Here is a simple script that backs up the database and all the files. For the example below I’m using Maria DB 10.5 and my project files are located […]