The legacy cal and date tools help users keep track of the time and date. You can even change the system time with a single shell command.

Linux is a multiuser system: many users can work at the same machine at the same time on separate accounts. In this month’s column, we take a close look at how to create and manage Linux user accounts from the command line.

You don’t always need a GUI-based tool to play MP3 and Ogg Vorbis tracks. In this month’s column, we look at tools for rocking from the shell.

Before you burn a data CD in Linux, you need an ISO image – mkisofs

helps you create an Iso image. To save disks, you might like to check

the image before you burn it with md5sum.

If you’re working at the command line and you need to reach the

Internet, or if you just want to convert an HTML file into neatly formatted

ASCII text, try a text-based web browser.

The tr tool is a real wizard. This simple command lets you replace strings in text files. Whether you are replacing letters or just removing whitespace, you will be amazed at tr‘s versatility.

sort helps you organize file lists and program

output. And if you like, you can even use this small

but powerful tool to merge and sort multiple files.

Do have difficulty remembering

command syntax? It often pays to

check the manpage. In this issue of

Command Line,we look at how to

create your own manpages,and

how to convert manpages to other

formats.