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Questions tagged [scope]

Use this tag when examining what is on-topic or off-topic, and why (i.e scope of the site).

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27 votes
2 answers
2k views

Unix C API calls ontopic?

I don't really have a question in mind, but I'm thinking of the kind of things that are covered in APUE(2e) which is POSIX, SUS, etc. C API mostly. Obviously generalized C programming is not ontopic, ...
xenoterracide's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
1k views

Offtopic - A Stance - Programming / Servers / Cross Platform Applications

This encompasses all previous questions. I decided I didn't want to say this more than once, and I've changed my stance a bit. For the most part it's unix vs windows. IIRC Windows uses threads where ...
xenoterracide's user avatar
18 votes
8 answers
1k views

How do we feel about requests for learning materials?

We recently had a brief discussion in chat about this question which asks for learning materials (specifically, online video courses). I feel that such questions are not a good fit for the site ...
terdon's user avatar
  • 246k
18 votes
4 answers
517 views

Cygwin on-topic?

Should we consider Cygwin on-topic here? It's similar to a Linux command-line and has many of the same tools, so lots of answers will probably just be the same as if the user was on Linux. However, it ...
Michael Mrozek's user avatar
13 votes
4 answers
377 views

Rejecting obvious questions?

Shouldn't we reject questions for which the asking people obviously didn't do their homework? Like this one: What does ^d mean in ls -l | grep ^d? Not that I'm really annoyed, but I think it would ...
alex's user avatar
  • 7,343
25 votes
4 answers
414 views

Migrate Ubuntu-specific questions to AskUbuntu?

There was a comment and a mod flag on this post about possibly asking the question on AU instead. I don't think our previous discussions on this have been particularly clear-cut, so I'm just going to ...
Michael Mrozek's user avatar
13 votes
4 answers
538 views

Are history questions on topic?

Unix has quite a bit of history, and a lot of things with historical roots. Should questions primarily about the history of Unix be on topic?
David Thornley's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
304 views

Mac OS X: What's on topic?

Mac OS X is one of the few systems officially certified as being UNIX. On the other hand, it has a great deal of its own software, including its GUI and some admin tools, that really don't behave ...
David Thornley's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
309 views

Is it On or Off Topic When Unix/Linux is Only Ancillary to the Question?

This is not necessarily a "specific question" discussion. It's just an example to raise the issue. I'm looking at this question: Good introduction to SubVersion for unexperienced users? This is a ...
Robert Cartaino's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
233 views

circumvention of security or policy

The question Getting internet to Linux VM without being detected by Network made me have a look at the FAQ where I didn't find what I expected to find though. I found it in the Serverfault FAQ: and ...
Hauke Laging's user avatar
  • 90.7k
24 votes
4 answers
652 views

Is the Unix C API still on-topic?

According to Unix C API calls ontopic? and the help center, "UNIX C API and System Interfaces ( within reason )" is explicitly on topic. That within reason links to the meta question. https://unix....
derobert's user avatar
  • 111k
13 votes
2 answers
670 views

What is the relationship between Linux/Unix SE and Ubuntu SE

If both this SE and the Ubuntu SE make it out of beta, it might be a good idea to have some guidelines for when questions should be directed to the Ubuntu SE. Personally, I can't think of an "...
Steven D's user avatar
  • 46.7k
12 votes
3 answers
241 views

"What jobs are out there?" -- are career questions on-topic?

This comes from the question what jobs are out there for NIX nerds?. I personally think this is probably off-topic, and it has two close votes already, but it also has three upvotes so I wanted to ask ...
Michael Mrozek's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
441 views

Are questions about vi, vim, and other clones on-topic here?

$a = trueOrFalse("are they on-topic?") $b = trueOrFalse("is this the best site for these questions?") if (!$a || !$b) { pleasePrintBestSiteFor("questions about vi and clones") } *it just made ...
Robert S Ciaccio's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
231 views

Are WSL related questions off-topic?

Today i have voted close this question: Does Microsoft WLinux has full support for network and devices? Using the same logic as the Cygwin related questions, shall we mark all stuff related to WSL as ...
user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
281 views

Where exactly is the border between apple and UNIX?

Here I posted an answer on how to disable mouse and keyboard input using xinput, with the presumption that if the question is about UNIX, X specific answers are good. However, turns out, the OP was ...
Philomath's user avatar
  • 2,877
9 votes
3 answers
196 views

Is it ok to ask bash language questions?

I find myself asking more and more questions that might overlap with SO. Where should I ask bash questions that focus more on the bash language than they do on unix? Here or on SO?
Stefan's user avatar
  • 25.6k
7 votes
4 answers
149 views

Shell scripting on-topic?

There was a question raised about whether How does “top” command show live results? belongs here, or if questions about shell scripting should fall under the domain of programming and stay on SO. I'm ...
Michael Mrozek's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
172 views

What to do about programming questions

I think we have a consensus that programming questions are generally off-topic and belong on Stack Overflow. (I thought this was explicitly mentioned in the FAQ — is my memory failing or did it change?...
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil''s user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
450 views

Do I ask here or on Super User?

I visit Super User now and again, and I get amazed by the amount of Unix & Linux Questions asked there. Seems like many don't know of the existence of this site (or they simply resist?). This ...
tshepang's user avatar
  • 66.5k
24 votes
3 answers
337 views

Are plan9 questions on-topic?

Is plan9 sufficiently unix to be on-topic here? (I suppose it might not not really be a question of sufficiency; perhaps plan9 is too unix for this site?)
SamB's user avatar
  • 440
22 votes
3 answers
684 views

How do you feel about "GIVE ME TEH CODEZ" questions?

If you don't know what kind of questions these are... well they're essentially the type asking to do their job for them. They have a task to accomplish, the task is to write a script, and they use us ...
Braiam's user avatar
  • 36.4k
20 votes
2 answers
853 views

At what level does "do X for me" become off-topic?

I've recently been hanging around this site because I enjoy problem solving on linux and learn heaps from seeing how other peoples solutions. I'm happy to pitch in to solve others problems, however -...
Caleb's user avatar
  • 70.8k
15 votes
4 answers
359 views

Is it ok to ask curiosity questions?

Here's an example question, which passes the What kind of questions should I not ask here? test. For me, it was really a matter of curiosity, because I don't intend to ever use GTK+ 1.x. But that ...
tshepang's user avatar
  • 66.5k
11 votes
1 answer
145 views

Did we ever come to a consensus regarding Plan 9 questions?

I've read Are plan9 questions on-topic?, and it seems like there wasn't really a consensus. The discussion was started, but never really finished. Plus, that was a couple years ago, there are new ...
strugee's user avatar
  • 15.1k
6 votes
2 answers
112 views

What is the current consensus on programming questions?

I was originally going to ask a question about this, but found its been asked here a lot already (in numerous variation). Since I've now spent the time digging through meta, I'll document what I've ...
derobert's user avatar
  • 111k
5 votes
1 answer
80 views

Is shell scripting in perl in range of this site?

Is shell scripting in perl in range of this site? or is perl hacking for SO?
Johan's user avatar
  • 4,601
17 votes
3 answers
539 views

Which programming languages are appropriate here?

This isn't a site for asking programming questions. It's well understood that pure programming questions should be moved to stackoverflow.com. There does seem to be an exception for bash, even where ...
Philip Couling's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
959 views

Is QNX unix-like?

Is QNX a unix? For the purpose of this site, that is. Is QNX on-topic here? Related: Are plan9 questions on-topic? Example: Archive of QNX's use messages?
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil''s user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
272 views

Since when are questions about dual-booting off-topic?

I asked this question earlier today: How can I prevent Windows from overwriting GRUB on my dual-boot machine? And I was surprised that several people are suggesting it is off-topic here. Firstly, ...
Time4Tea's user avatar
  • 2,444
13 votes
4 answers
623 views

Unix.SE vs ServerFault vs SuperUser vs Android.SE

As far as I can tell from the FAQs, questions about: unix desktop systems can be asked on SuperUser, unix servers can be asked on ServerFault, Android can be asked on android.stackexchange.com So ...
user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
227 views

What's the best site to post a question about weird bash prompt behavior when using ANSI colors?

I have a problem wherein I tried to get fancy with prompts, using ANSI colors. It works beautifully using 8/16 color palette ANSI sequences in tcsh and bash. It works even more beautifully using 256 ...
DVK's user avatar
  • 321
9 votes
1 answer
139 views

A question which might fit in Ask Ubuntu, here or SuperUser

I've just posted this: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/250035/how-can-i-prevent-my-browser-from-hogging-all-system-resources on the main site, but I'm not really sure whether this is the ...
einpoklum's user avatar
  • 9,828
8 votes
4 answers
196 views

Are questions about Linux in the context of business or society on topic?

What factors contribute to the expense of migrating to Linux? was recently closed. Defending the closure, Michael Mrozek says This is also totally off-topic as far as I can tell; it's not about ...
ire_and_curses's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
92 views

colinux related queries are off the topic?

As Title "colinux related queries are off the topic?"
Hemant's user avatar
  • 6,910
6 votes
5 answers
121 views

Should question that could basically only be accurately answered by "the developers" be on topic?

I mean questions like: Why did work stop on project X? Why was project X coded this way? Why was project X packaged this way? I feel these can only be answered by the original developers 99% of the ...
xenoterracide's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
68 views

make - ontopic or SO

I know make has long been a unix tool, but me thinks it's too close to programming (at least anything beyond how do I build software X). This question prompted this, I think it should be closed... ...
xenoterracide's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
241 views

Hardware recommendations: what's the limit?

A fairly common problem when running an OS other than Windows is finding well-supported hardware. I'm actually surprised we're not getting more questions about this. Well, we've just had one, and I ...
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil''s user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
297 views

An argument for the Unix-specific programming questions: site quality

If you think this suggestion would be against the newbies, then you maybe misunderstood. The goal of the suggestion is exactly the opposite: to attract more. Please read the details, it is important. ...
peterh's user avatar
  • 9,908
4 votes
3 answers
130 views

Are questions about CPAN ok?

I mean like if I wanted to ask 'how do I install a module with cpanp' would that be ok? obviously questions about how do I write a cpan module are offtopic and better relegated to SO.
xenoterracide's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
57 views

Non Standard CLI tools - A ruby tool question

An earlier related question on meta. This question was asked and ultimately answered on SO. This tool is is probably mostly used by Ruby programmers to test on multiple versions, and maybe slightly ...
xenoterracide's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
125 views

Why was my C programming question closed?

I asked a question on the Main U&L site, and just seen now, that it is closed due to being off topic. To me this question belongs on U&L as I have been working on Ubuntu and found this on my ...
Kevdog777's user avatar
  • 3,244