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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.allthingslinux.org/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Getting Started

Welcome to atl.sh! You have a shell account on the All Things Linux community pubnix server.

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Connecting

  • SSH: ssh your-username@atl.sh (port 22 or 2222 if 22 is blocked)
  • FTP/S: Use an FTP client (like FileZilla) with Explicit FTP over TLS on port 21.
  • SFTP: sftp your-username@atl.sh (uses your SSH key, no separate password)

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Your Directories

DirectoryPurposePublic URL
~/public_html/Personal web pagehttps://atl.sh/~your-username
~/public_gemini/Gemini capsulegemini://atl.sh/~your-username
~/public_gopher/Gopher holegopher://atl.sh/~your-username
~/public_html/FTP/S rootftp://atl.sh (port 21, forced TLS)
~/.planFinger profilefinger your-username@atl.sh

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Available Tools

Run menu for an interactive guide to everything on the server. Here’s a summary:
  • Shells: bash, zsh, fish, mksh, tcsh, ksh93, rc, elvish, nushell, dash
  • Editors: vim, neovim, nano, emacs, micro, joe, vis, kakoune
  • File managers: ranger, lf, mc, nnn, vifm
  • Languages: Python, Node.js, Ruby, Go, Rust, C/C++, Haskell, Elixir, and many more
  • Utilities: tmux, git, htop, btop, ripgrep, fzf, jq, pandoc, miller, taskwarrior, and more
  • Networking: gping, trippy, xh, drill, prettyping, fping, sipcalc, termshark, speedtest-cli, rclone
  • Browsers: lynx, w3m, elinks, links, amfora (Gemini)
  • Mail: alpine, neomutt, aerc
  • Fun: nethack, crawl, angband, botany, cbonsai, boxes, asciinema, fortune, cowsay, figlet

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Social Commands

menu            # Interactive guide to all server features
online          # Who's logged in with their .plan summary
community       # List all members and their status
plan <user>     # Read someone's .plan
lastplan        # Recent .plan updates across all users

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Dictionary

Look up words, computing terms, jargon, and acronyms — all offline: 
dict hello              # Search all 7 databases
dict -d jargon hacker   # Hacker jargon only
dict -d foldoc TCP      # Computing encyclopedia
dict -d vera HTTP       # Acronym lookup
dict -D                 # List all available databases
Databases: English (GCIDE), WordNet, Jargon File, FOLDOC, V.E.R.A. acronyms, Devil’s Dictionary, Periodic Table.

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Finger

The finger protocol is one of the oldest social features on Unix — predating the web by two decades. It lets anyone look up what you’re working on right now. 
# Look up someone on atl.sh
finger username@atl.sh

# List all users currently logged in
finger @atl.sh
Your finger profile is built from two plain text files in your home directory:
  • ~/.plan — What you’re working on, thinking about, or planning. Updated whenever you like. The original microblog.
  • ~/.project — A one-line description of your current project.
Both files are created automatically with placeholder text when your account is made. Edit them with any text editor: 
nano ~/.plan

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Custom finger output

For full control over your finger output, create an executable ~/.efingerd script. When present, efingerd runs it instead of reading your .plan and .project files directly. The script receives two arguments: $1 is the username being queried and $2 is the requesting host. 
#!/bin/bash
# ~/.efingerd — custom finger output
echo "Login: $1"
echo "Last seen: $(last -1 $1 | head -1 | awk '{print $4, $5, $6, $7}')"
echo ""
cat ~/.plan
Make it executable: chmod +x ~/.efingerd

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Talking to Other Users

Since everyone’s on the same server, you can communicate directly with other logged-in users without IRC. 
# See who's currently logged in
w
who

# Send a message to everyone logged in
wall "anyone want to play nethack?"

# Real-time two-way chat with another user
talk username
wall broadcasts a message to every logged-in terminal. talk opens a split-screen two-way chat session with another user.

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Games

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Nethack

The classic roguelike — and a rite of passage on any pubnix. All games write to a shared high score table, so your victories (and your deaths on level 1 to a newt) are visible to everyone. 
nethack
The server provides a site-wide config with sensible defaults (color, time display, experience). Add a ~/.nethackrc to override or extend it: 
OPTIONS=autopickup
OPTIONS=name:YourName
View the current high scores without starting a game: 
nethack -s

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Botany

A virtual plant that lives in your terminal. Water it once a day or it slowly dies. When you’ll be away, neighbors on the server can water it for you — which is exactly the kind of social mechanic that makes a pubnix feel alive. 
botany
On first run, botany creates your plant and a ~/.botany/ directory to store its state. To let neighbors water your plant, ~/.botany/visitors.json must be world-writable — botany creates it that way by default, so don’t change its permissions. Neighbor watering is done from inside the game via the visit menu. Enter a neighbor’s username and botany will show their plant and let you water it.

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Other games

  • Roguelikes: angband, crawl (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup), slashem (NetHack variant)
  • Arcade: ninvaders, moon-buggy, nsnake, bastet, netris, vitetris
  • Puzzle: nudoku (sudoku), typespeed, dopewars
  • BSD Games: bsdgames — ~40 classic games including hunt, adventure, backgammon, trek, and more
  • Novelty: asciiquarium, cmatrix, sl, cowsay, fortune, figlet, lolcat, cbonsai, boxes, nyancat

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Log Management

We provide a standardized way for you to manage logs from your own processes (like CGI scripts or cron jobs):
  • Private Logs: Store your log files in ~/.local/state/log.
  • Auto-Rotation: We provide a .logrotate.conf template in your home directory. If you configure it, the system will automatically rotate your logs daily to help you stay within your quota.

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Community

  • Social commands: menu, online, community, plan, lastplan
  • Messaging: talk (two-way chat), wall (broadcast)
  • Webring: Join with touch ~/.ring — browse at https://atl.sh/ring/
  • IRC: #support on irc.atl.chat (port 6697, SSL)
  • Web: allthingslinux.org

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Rules

  • Be respectful and follow the Code of Conduct
  • No cryptocurrency mining
  • No network abuse (scanning, DoS, spam)
  • No illegal content
  • Share and learn — that’s what we’re here for!