Welcome, MT Rock

This is CT 2560, your own virtual server — a Linux container running on CharlieHub infrastructure (UK site). You have full sudo access inside it and you're free to experiment. It's sandboxed: nothing you do here can reach the production control plane, so don't be afraid to break things.

1. Where am I?

pwd        # print working directory
ls         # list files
ls -la     # list everything including hidden files
cd ~       # go home
cd ..      # go up one level

2. Looking at files

cat file.txt        # dump a file
less file.txt       # scroll through it (q to quit)
head -n 20 file.txt # first 20 lines
tail -f log.txt     # follow a log live (Ctrl+C to stop)

3. Making and moving things

mkdir myproject
touch notes.md
cp a.txt b.txt
mv old.txt new.txt
rm file.txt          # no undo!
rm -r somedir

Note: there's no recycle bin. rm means gone. Inside this CT that's fine — it's meant to be rebuilt if needed.

4. Your workspace

You're in ~/projects. Everything you build goes here.

hello-web/ — the placeholder site you're reading now, served at mtrock.charliehub.net by a Python http.server running as a system service (hello-web-mtrock.service). Bind any app to port 8000 and it inherits the domain.
welcome-mtrock.md — a plain-text version of this welcome.

5. What's preinstalled

Python 3.12, Node 22, gcc, git, jq, ripgrep, vim, nano. Python packages available system-wide: fastapi, httpx, sqlalchemy, psycopg2, pydantic, rich, python-dotenv.

PostgreSQL 16 is running on 127.0.0.1:5432. You have a login role ext-mtrock and a database mtrock — type psql mtrock to connect.

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install <whatever>

6. Survival tips

Ctrl+C — cancel what the terminal is doing.
Tab — autocomplete. Use it constantly.
↑ / ↓ — scroll through previous commands.
exit — log out. The server keeps running.