Installing and Administering Linux, Second Edition

545 Pages·2002·5.46 MB·English

by  Linda McKinnon

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Installing and
Administering Linux
Second Edition
Linda McKinnon
Al McKinnon

Gearhead Press
Wiley Computer Publishing
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Publisher: Robert Ipsen
Editor: Ben Ryan
Consulting Editor: Donis Marshall
Managing Editor: Angela Smith
Text Design & Composition: D&G Limited, LLC
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2002 by Linda McKinnon and Al McKinnon. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
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The Gearhead Press trademark is the exclusive property of Gearhead Group Corporation.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
ISBN: 0-471-20884-1
Printed in the United States of America.
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A Note from Gearhead Press
Gearhead Press is dedicated to publishing technical books for experienced
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Thank you.
Donis Marshall
Founder, Gearhead Press
Consulting Editor, Wiley Computer Publishing
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Gearhead Press Books in Print
(For complete information about current and upcoming titles, go to
www.wiley.com/compbooks/)
Books in the Gearhead Press Point to PointSeries
Migrating to Microsoft Exchange 2000
by Stan Reimer
ISBN 0-471-06116-6
Installing and Configuring Web Servers Using Apache
by Melanie Hoag
ISBN 0-471-07155-2
VoiceXML: 10 Projects to Voice Enable Your Website
by Mark Miller
ISBN 0-471-20737-3
Books in the Gearhead Press In the TrenchesSeries
Windows 2000 Automated Deployment
by Ted Malone, Rolly Perreaux, and Mike Young
ISBN 0-471-06114-X
Robust Linux: Assuring High Availability
by Iain Campbell
ISBN 0-471-07040-8
Programming Directory Services for Windows 2000
by Donis Marshall
ISBN 0-471-15216-1
Programming ADO.NET
by Richard Hundhausen and Steven Borg
ISBN 0-471-20187-1
71143_McK_FM 12/17/01 4:53 PM Page vi
Designing .NET Web Services Using ADO.NET and XML
by Richard Hundhausen and Steven Borg
ISBN 0-471-20186-3
Wireless and Mobile Development for Microsoft .NET Platforms
by Steven Juntunen
ISBN 0-471-21494-9
Making Win32 Applications Mobile: Porting to Windows CE
by Nancy Nicolaisen
ISBN 0-471-21618-6
Programming Windows CE Wireless Applications
by Barry Shilmover and Derek Ball
ISBN 0-471-21469-8
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Contents
Introduction xiii
Acknowledgments xx
About the Authors xxii
Chapter 1 Linux Origins 1
ABrief History of UNIX 1
History of Linux 7
Linux Features 8
Chapter 2 Installing Linux from a CD-ROM 13
Installing Linux on an IDE System 14
Initiating a Linux Installation 16
Chapter 3 Getting Started Using the Linux System 47
Logging In and Out 47
Creating User Accounts and Passwords 49
Command Syntax 55
vii
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viii Contents
Online Information for Linux and UNIX Commands 56
Viewing the Date: date and cal Commands 64
Requesting Data on Logged-In Users 67
Sending and Receiving Mail: mail Command 70
Sending Messages to the Screen: write and wall Commands 75
Conversing Online: The talk Command 77
Blocking Messages and Conversations: The mesg Command 78
Additional Tools: clear, echo, banner, and wc Commands 79
Exercises 83
Quiz 90
Chapter 4 Files and Directories in Linux 93
File System Structure and Hierarchy 94
Navigating the Directory Structure 99
Managing Directories 101
Formatting and Accessing Floppy Disks 110
Exercises 117
Quiz 119
Chapter 5 Using Files in Linux 121
Files and Directories: AQuick Review 121
Linux Filename Guidelines 122
Creating and Updating Files: The touch Command 123
Linking Files: The ln Command 125
Viewing File Contents 127
Copying, Moving, and Deleting Files 130
The mtools Utilities 138
Printing Files: The lpr, lpq, and lprm Commands 140
Exercises 149
Quiz 154
Chapter 6 Linux File Permissions 157
Review of the ls -l Command 157
Permissions 159
Creating Personal Directories 168
Samples of Commands and Their Required Permissions 171
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Contents ix
Exercises 171
Quiz 175
Chapter 7 Shell Basics 179
The Linux/UNIX Shells 180
Types of Linux/UNIX Shells 181
Command-Line Parsing 184
Metacharacters and Wildcards 185
Quoting Metacharacters to Disable Shell Interpretation 193
Standard Files: Redirection and Piping 195
Connecting Commands with Pipes 207
Command Grouping with Semicolons 212
Line Continuation with the Backslash 213
Shell History Commands 213
Exercises 217
Quiz 222
Chapter 8 Basic Linux Utilities 225
Searching Directories for Files: The find Command 226
Locating Commands: whatis, whereis, and
which Commands 234
Locating Data within a File: grep Command 237
Sorting Output: The sort Command 246
Displaying Parts of Files: The head and tail Commands 250
Exercises 253
Quiz 256
Chapter 9 Advanced Linux Utilities 257
Maximizing Work per Command: xargs 257
Linux/UNIX Shortcut: The alias Command 264
Comparing find Functions and Shell Functions 268
Determining File Types: The file Command 273
Comparing Text Files: The diff Command 276
Comparing All Types of Files: The cmp Command 283
Compressing Files: The gzip, gunzip, and zcat Commands 285
Displaying Nonprintable Characters: The cat
Command Options 288