trimstray/the-book-of-secret-knowledge

A grab-bag of sysadmin, security, and networking resources — cheat sheets, one-liners, manuals, blogs, and CLI/web tools — collected into one large markdown index.

What it is

An "everything an experienced Linux/BSD operator might want bookmarked" awesome-list aimed at sysops, pentesters, DevOps engineers, and security researchers. Coverage is intentionally wide: tcpdump cheat sheets sit next to "How to harden SSH" guides, which sit next to networking calculators, link to vulnerability databases, and reference operating-system manuals. The repo positions itself as the offline shelf for the kind of knowledge that traditionally lived in personal ~/notes/.

Key features

Multi-domain coverage: Linux/BSD admin, networking, security/pentesting, DevOps, monitoring, scripting, and on-call tooling.
Heavy use of one-liners and immediate-utility recipes alongside the longer-form links.
Cheat sheets bucketed by topic (tcpdump, nmap, awk, sed, openssl, vim, tmux, etc.).
MIT-licensed, so re-indexing into derivative directories or AI corpora is legally clean.
Static site at the GitHub URL — no companion web app, just the rendered README.

Tech stack

Markdown only. The static images live under static/.
No build, no manifest.

When to reach for it

You're an experienced operator who wants a curated index of references rather than learning material.
You're staffing a NOC or SOC shelf and want a starting bookmark file.
You're studying for security certifications (OSCP, CEH, etc.) and want a pointer to vetted reference material.

When not to reach for it

You're new to Linux/BSD — entries assume operator-level background, not introductory.
You want fresh, dated tooling. Last push is approaching two years old; some links to specific tool versions may have moved.
You want categorized depth on one topic — the index is breadth-first.

Maturity signal

226k stars, 14k forks, MIT — strong adoption. Last push November 2024 puts this in dormant tier (no commits in ~1.5 years). Sysadmin / security reference content ages relatively well (the canonical tools haven't changed), but new tools and 2025+ techniques won't be reflected here. The 149 open-issues count is reasonable for a list this size, mostly link-rot and additions.

Alternatives

sindresorhus/awesome — use when you want a meta-index across all topics.
Hack-with-Github/Awesome-Hacking — use when you want narrower security-focused breadth.
The Arch Wiki / Gentoo Wiki — use when you want depth on a specific Linux configuration.

Notes

The "secret knowledge" framing is rhetorical — none of the content is secret, it's the kind of operational lore that experienced engineers accumulate. License (MIT) plus dormancy makes this a safe target for re-indexing as a snapshot. Anyone using this as a primary reference today should cross-check linked tooling against current upstream — some 2024-era recommendations may have been superseded.

Wiki: trimstray/the-book-of-secret-knowledge