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Introduction 1
1. Why this guide? 1
2. Who should read this book? 1
3. New versions and availability 1
4. Revision History 2
5. Contributions 3
6. Feedback 3
7. Copyright information 3
8. What do you need? 4
9. Conventions used in this document 4
10. Organization of this document 5
Chapter 1. What is Linux? 7
1.1. History 7
1.1.1. UNIX 7
1.1.2. Linus and Linux 8
1.1.3. Current application of Linux systems 9
1.2. The user interface 9
1.2.1. Is Linux difficult? 9
1.2.2. Linux for non-experienced users 10
1.3. Does Linux have a future? 10
1.3.1. Open Source 10
1.3.2. Ten years of experience at your service 11
1.4. Properties of Linux 12
1.4.1. Linux Pros 12
1.4.2. Linux Cons 13
1.5. Linux Flavors 14
1.5.1. Linux and GNU 14
1.5.2. GNU/Linux 15
1.5.3. Which distribution should I install? 15
1.6. Summary 16
1.7. Exercises 16
Chapter 2. Quickstart 18
2.1. Logging in, activating the user interface and logging out 18
2.1.1. Introduction 18
2.1.2. Graphical mode 18
2.1.3. Text mode 20
2.2. Absolute basics 21
2.2.1. The commands 21
2.2.2. General remarks 21
2.2.3. Using Bash features 22
2.3. Getting help 23
2.3.1. Be warned 23
2.3.2. The man pages 23
2.3.3. More info 25
2.4. Summary 28
2.5. Exercises 29
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Chapter 2. Quickstart
2.5.1. Connecting and disconnecting 29
2.5.2. Passwords 29
2.5.3. Directories 30
2.5.4. Files 30
2.5.5. Getting help 31
Chapter 3. About files and the file system 32
3.1. General overview of the Linux file system 32
3.1.1. Files 32
3.1.2. About partitioning 33
3.1.3. More file system layout 37
3.2. Orientation in the file system 40
3.2.1. The path 40
3.2.2. Absolute and relative paths 41
3.2.3. The most important files and directories 41
3.2.4. The most important configuration files 44
3.2.5. The most common devices 46
3.2.6. The most common variable files 47
3.3. Manipulating files 48
3.3.1. Viewing file properties 48
3.3.2. Creating and deleting files and directories 50
3.3.3. Finding files 53
3.3.4. More ways to view file content 57
3.3.5. Linking files 58
3.4. File security 60
3.4.1. Access rights: Linux's first line of defense 60
3.4.2. The tools 62
3.5. Summary 67
3.6. Exercises 68
3.6.1. Partitions 68
3.6.2. Paths 68
3.6.3. Tour of the system 69
3.6.4. Manipulating files 69
3.6.5. File permissions 69
Chapter 4. Processes 71
4.1. Processes inside out 71
4.1.1. Multi-user and multi-tasking 71
4.1.2. Process types 71
4.1.3. Process attributes 73
4.1.4. Displaying process information 74
4.1.5. Life and death of a process 76
4.1.6. SUID and SGID 78
4.2. Boot process, Init and shutdown 80
4.2.1. Introduction 80
4.2.2. The boot process 80
4.2.3. GRUB features 80
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Chapter 4. Processes
4.2.4. Init 81
4.2.5. Init run levels 83
4.2.6. Shutdown 84
4.3. Managing processes 84
4.3.1. Work for the system admin 84
4.3.2. How long does it take? 85
4.3.3. Performance 86
4.3.4. Load 86
4.3.5. Can I do anything as a user? 86
4.4. Scheduling processes 91
4.4.1. Use that idle time! 91
4.4.2. The sleep command 91
4.4.3. The at command 92
4.4.4. Cron and crontab 92
4.5. Summary 94
4.6. Exercises 95
4.6.1. General 95
4.6.2. Booting, init etc 95
4.6.3. Scheduling 96
Chapter 5. I/O redirection 97
5.1. Simple redirections 97
5.1.1. What are standard input and standard output? 97
5.1.2. The redirection operators 97
5.2. Advanced redirection features 100
5.2.1. Use of file descriptors 100
5.2.2. Examples 101
5.3. Filters 101
5.3.1. More about grep 102
5.3.2. Filtering output 102
5.4. Summary 103
5.5. Exercises 103
Chapter 6. Text editors 105
6.1. Text editors 105
6.1.1. Why should I use an editor? 105
6.1.2. Which editor should I use? 105
6.2. Using the Vim editor 106
6.2.1. Two modes 106
6.2.2. Basic commands 107
6.2.3. The easy way 108
6.3. Linux in the office 108
6.3.1. History 108
6.3.2. Suites and programs 108
6.3.3. Remarks 109
6.4. Summary 109
6.5. Exercises 110
Chapter 7. Home sweet /home 111
7.1. General good housekeeping 111
7.1.1. Introduction 111
7.1.2. Make space 111
7.2. Your text environment 114
7.2.1. Environment variables 114
7.2.2. Shell setup files 116
7.2.3. A typical set of setup files 117
7.2.4. The Bash prompt 120
7.2.5. Shell scripts 121
7.3. The graphical environment 123
7.3.1. Introduction 123
7.3.2. The X Window System 124
7.3.3. X server configuration 125
7.4. Region specific settings 126
7.4.1. Keyboard setup 126
7.4.2. Fonts 126
7.4.3. Date and time zone 127
7.4.4. Language 127
7.4.5. Country-specific Information 128
7.5. Installing new software 128
7.5.1. General 128
7.5.2. Package formats 128
7.5.3. Automating package management and updates 131
7.5.4. Upgrading your kernel 132
7.5.5. Installing extra packages from the installation CDs 133
7.6. Summary 134
7.7. Exercises 135
7.7.1. Shell environment 135
7.7.2. Graphical environment 136
Chapter 8. Printers and printing 137
8.1. Printing files 137
8.1.1. Command line printing 137
8.1.2. Formatting 138
8.2. The server side 139
8.2.1. General 139
8.2.2. Graphical printer configuration 140
8.2.3. Buying a printer for Linux 140
8.3. Print problems 140
8.3.1. Wrong file 140
8.3.2. My print hasn't come out 140
8.4. Summary 142
8.5. Exercises 142
Chapter 9. Fundamental Backup Techniques 144
9.1. Introduction 144
9.1.1. Preparing your data 144
Chapter 9. Fundamental Backup Techniques
9.2. Moving your data to a backup device 148
9.2.1. Making a copy on a floppy disk 148
9.2.2. Making a copy with a CD-writer 150
9.2.3. Backups on/from jazz drives, USB devices and other removables 151
9.2.4. Backing up data using a tape device 151
9.2.5. Tools from your distribution 151
9.3. Using rsync 152
9.3.1. Introduction 152
9.3.2. An example: rsync to a USB storage device 152
9.4. Encryption 152
9.4.1. General remarks 152
9.4.2. Generate a key 153
9.4.3. About your key 154
9.4.4. Encrypt data 154
9.4.5. Decrypting files 155
9.5. Summary 155
9.6. Exercises 156
Chapter 10. Networking 157
10.1. Networking Overview 157
10.1.1. The OSI Model 157
10.1.2. Some popular networking protocols 158
10.2. Network configuration and information 160
10.2.1. Configuration of network interfaces 160
10.2.2. Network configuration files 161
10.2.3. Network configuration commands 161
10.2.4. Network interface names 163
10.2.5. Checking the host configuration with netstat 164
10.2.6. Other hosts 164
10.3. Internet/Intranet applications 167
10.3.1. Server types 167
10.3.2. Mail 168
10.3.3. Web 170
10.3.4. File Transfer Protocol 171
10.3.5. Chatting and conferencing 172
10.3.6. News services 173
10.3.7. The Domain Name System 174
10.3.8. DHCP 174
10.3.9. Authentication services 174
10.4. Remote execution of applications 176
10.4.1. Introduction 176
10.4.2. Rsh, rlogin and telnet 176
10.4.3. The X Window System 177
10.4.4. The SSH suite 178
10.4.5. VNC 182
10.4.6. The rdesktop protocol 182
10.4.7. Cygwin 182
Chapter 10. Networking
10.5. Security 183
10.5.1. Introduction 183
10.5.2. Services 183
10.5.3. Update regularly 184
10.5.4. Firewalls and access policies 184
10.5.5. Intrusion detection 185
10.5.6. More tips 186
10.5.7. Have I been hacked? 186
10.5.8. Recovering from intrusion 187
10.6. Summary 187
10.7. Exercises 188
10.7.1. General networking 188
10.7.2. Remote connections 188
10.7.3. Security 188
Chapter 11. Sound and Video 189
11.1. Audio Basics 189
11.1.1. Installation 189
11.1.2. Drivers and Architecture 189
11.2. Sound and video playing 190
11.2.1. CD playing and copying 190
11.2.2. Playing music files 190
11.2.3. Recording 192
11.3. Video playing, streams and television watching 192
11.4. Internet Telephony 193
11.4.1. What is it? 193
11.4.2. What do you need? 193
11.5. Summary 194
11.6. Exercises 195
Appendix A. Where to go from here? 196
A.1. Useful Books 196
A.1.1. General Linux 196
A.1.2. Editors 196
A.1.3. Shells 196
A.1.4. X Window 196
A.1.5. Networking 197
A.2. Useful sites 197
A.2.1. General information 197
A.2.2. Architecture Specific References 197
A.2.3. Distributions 197
A.2.4. Software 198
Appendix B. DOS versus Linux commands 199
Appendix C. Shell Features 200
C.1. Common features 200
C.2. Differing features 201
Glossary 204
A 204
B 204
C 205
D 205
E 206
F 206
G 207
H 207
I 207
J 208
K 208
L 208
M 209
N 210
O 210
P 210
Q 211
R 211
S 212
T 212
U 213
V 214
W 214
X 214
Y 215
Z 215
Index 215