Linux: Check if a system service is running...

As root:

chkconfig [name of service]


i.e.

chkconfig sendmail

Backing up MySQL databases

Backup...

> mysqldump mydatabase > mydatabase.sql


Restore...

> mysql < mydatabase.sql


Options:

-X : outputs database info as XML.
--all-databases : dumps all databases to stdio
-p : to add a password

Finding Linux xwindow size

xwininfo -stats -root

will return info including the width and height of your screen.

Capturing the screen to video with ffmpeg

Using ffmpeg...

ffmpeg -f x11grab -s 1280x1024 -r 25 -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg


Assumes that --enable-x11grab switch was used during configuration.

Adding H264 to ffmpeg and libraries

In the configuration command add --enable-libx264

In any code using libavcodec, link to /usr/lib64/libx264

Using subversion through a proxy

Linux:
In the file ~/.subversion/servers
under the [global] section, uncomment the http-proxy-host entry and make sure it points to your proxy server address.

http-proxy-host = myproxy.address.com

Check that the port is correct as well.