Fdupes is a very simple utility that scans a group of files, or directories (recursively) and displays files that are duplicates. Fdupes uses the contents of the files for comparison purposes (it generates an MD5 signature of each file it finds). Different names or timestamps will not confuse fdupes into giving false results.

• Debian fdupes Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, fdupes, file, find duplicates

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a2ps converts files or the standard input into PostScript. a2ps provides many advantages over “lp” alone, such as the possibility to add borders to the printout, pretty printing (source files are printed with syntax highlights), full control of the paper orientation, multiple pages per sheet, duplex and booklet printing, etc…

Many other features are available. Check the manpage of a2ps for a short description or the “texinfo” documentation for the complete story.

• Debian a2ps Page
• a2ps Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, a2ps, printing, cups, lpr, lp, duplex, booklet

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Microsoft may still be struggling to produce a stable and secure operating system, but the sheer amount of money they invested in typesetting produced some very high quality fonts. Since many of these fonts are in the TrueType format, they can be readily used by X and Gnome/KDE applications.

The msttcorefonts package provides an easy method to install the Microsoft “Core” fonts in your Debian system. The package installation script can download the fonts from the Microsoft web site or from a mounted Windows partition. Once the fonts have been downloaded, the font manager is called to finish the installation and make the fonts available to your applications.

Note: I could not find this package in the Ubuntu repository.

• Debian msttcorefonts Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, fonts, truetype, linux, arial, verdana, times new roman

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There are thousands of sites on the Internet offering free scalable fonts, from the most basic to the completely exotic. Scalable fonts, however, are not suitable for applications that deal with pure ASCII text, such as terminal emulators and program editors. These applications typically require fixed-width fonts, which are much harder to find than scalable fonts.

The xfonts-terminus package provides the “terminus” font, a well designed fixed-width font that is easy on the eyes. Terminus comes in a variety of sizes (6x12, 8x14, 8x16, 10x20, 12x24, 14x28 and 16x32) and encodings (ISO10646-1, ISO8859-1, ISO8859-2, ISO8859-5, ISO8859-9, ISO8859-13, ISO8859-15, ISO8859-16, KOI8-R, KOI8-U, CP1251, and PT154). A similar package, console-terminus offers the terminus font for the console.

• Debian xfonts-terminus Page
• terminus font Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, xfonts-terminus, terminal, fixed-width fonts

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In many situations, it’s necessary to know how fast a given amount of data can be transmitted between two endpoints. The answer to this question typically involves transmitting a large file with a protocol that requires little CPU utilization (like FTP) and timing the results to measure the bandwidth.

Iperf automates these tasks by working as a client/server pair. The client node sends a specified amount of data to the server node, and then calculates the resulting bandwidth. Results are displayed in in Kbps, KBps, Mbps or MBps. Iperf can use TCP or UDP, and it is also possible to change the TCP window and buffer sizes, and enable the Nagle Algorithm for the duration of the test.

• Debian iperf Page
• iperf Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, iperf, TCP, UDP, network-analysis, network-performance, ethernet

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