Linux For Dummies Quick Reference E-Book

Phil Hughes

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 310

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Linux For Dummies Quick Reference, 3rd Edition, takes you straight to the heart of this revolutionary new operating system from selecting and installing the right version to handling standard networking and system administration tasks. The book features an alphabetical listing of common shell commands, keyboard shortcuts for working with e-mail and the X-Window system, and tons of tips on how to handle DOS, Windows, Mac, and UNIX files. And the book's special lay-flat binding means that the information you need is always right at your fingertips.

Leseprobe

Linux® For Dummies®Quick Reference, 3rd Edition

by Phil Hughes and Viktorie Navratilova

Linux® For Dummies® Quick Reference, 3rd Edition

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2000 Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, [phone], fax [phone], e-mail: [email protected].

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Library of Congress Control Number: 00-103394

ISBN: 0-7645-0760-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6

3O/QV/QY/QU/IN

About the Authors

Phil Hughes is the president of Specialized System Consultants (SSC) and the publisher of Linux Journal magazine. He has authored or edited many of SSC’s Pocket Reference cards for the UNIX operating system and utility programs. Phil has worked in computing as a programmer and design specialist since 1968. He has worked with UNIX since 1980 as a systems programmer, consultant, trainer, and writer. In 1983, armed with that one English class he took in college, he turned SSC into a company that specializes in documentation for UNIX systems.

Viktorie Navratilova has been working with UNIX for several years, and her main interests are computer graphics and UNIX and network security. She writes regular articles about Linux and computer security for computer magazines and gives talks at the local Linux users’ group and Webgrrls meetings. She is particularly impressed with the global Linux community, which has always been helpful and friendly no matter where in the world she’s traveled. Viki earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science from Loyola University of Chicago and now works in Chicago for BlueMeteor, a startup Application Service Provider.

Author’s Acknowledgments

I would like to thank many people — first and foremost, Ben Galliart, for his endless proofreading and reality checks; Jarmila Navratilova, for her support; and the Chicago and Israeli Linux users’ groups, for their friendship and hospitality. Many thanks also to Rebecca Whitney, for her thorough editorship and patience.

— Viki

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please register your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Rebecca Whitney

Acquisitions Editor: Laura Lewin

Proof Editors: Teresa Artman, Dwight Ramsey

Technical Editor: David Williams

Editorial Manager, Freelance: Constance Carlisle

Editorial Assistants: Candace Nicholson, Sarah Schupert

Production

Project Coordinator: Regina Snyder

Layout and Graphics: Amy Adrian, Jacque Schneider, Erin Zeltner

Proofreaders: Carl Pierce, Marianne Santy,York Production Services, Inc.

Indexer: York Production Services, Inc.

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

The Big Picture: Linux: Linux

What You See: The KDE Desktop

What You See: The Text-Only Login Screen

Toolbar Table

The Basics: The X Windows Mouse

The Basics: The X Windows Menus

The Basics: Window Controls

The Basics: Editing and Saving Files

The Basics: Moving Around the File System

The Basics: Command-Line Interface Know-How

The Basics: Getting Help

What You Can Do: Create Text Documents

What You Can Do: Design Your Own Web Page

What You Can Do: Program Your Own Software

Part I: Getting to Know Linux

What Is Linux?

Selecting a Linux Flavor

Installing Linux

Fixing Installation Problems

Part II: Understanding the Shell

Available Shells

Basic Directory Commands

Character Quoting

Command History

Customizing the Environment

Directory Naming Conventions

Directory Referencing

Files Associated with a Program

File-Naming Conventions

Pathnames

Shell Command Elements

Shell Variables

Special Characters

Startup Files

Part III: Common Shell Commands

Archiving, Converting, and Other File Manipulation

Creating Schedules and Timed Events

File Management Basics

Online Documentation

Printing

Sorting and Searching

Using Attributes and Permissions

Working with Directories and Disks

Working with File Content

Working with the System

Part IV: Using X with KDE, GNOME, or FVWM

An Introduction to X

The FVWM and GNOME Desktop Anatomy

Accessing Pull-Down Menus

Adding Backgrounds

Checking Out Programs Under X

Configuring X

Exiting X

Modifying Window Characteristics in GNOME and FVWM

Mousing with X

Moving Around the Screen in FVWM

Selecting a Desktop Style in GNOME

Selecting a Desktop Style for the FVWM Window Manager

Starting Applications

Starting X

Switching Tasks

Using Button Bars in FVWM

Using Keyboard Shortcuts in FVWM

Using Standard Keyboard Shortcuts

Part V: Text Editors and Working with Text

Choosing an Editor

Editing Text with joe

Editing Text with Pico

Editing Text with Emacs

Editing Text with vi

Formatting Text with fmt

Formatting Text with groff

Spell Checking with ispell

Part VI: Sending and Receiving E-Mail

Collecting All the Pieces

Decoding MIME Messages with munpack

Dissecting E-Mail Addresses

Managing E-Mail with elm

Managing E-Mail with pine

Using fetchmail for Remote Mail Access

Part VII: Working with the Other Guys

Working with MS-DOS Media: Mtools Basics

Working with MS-DOS Media: Mounting Media and Partitions

Working with Mac Media

Part VIII: Networking

Deciphering Network Addressing

ftp — Transferring Files

nslookup — Querying Internet Name Servers

ping — Sending Test Packets to Network Hosts

rcp — Copying Remote Files

rlogin — Logging In Remotely

rsh — Executing Commands Remotely

Setting Up Your System to Use rlogin and rsh Without Passwords

telnet — Logging In Remotely

traceroute — Finding the Route to a Remote Host

whois — Accessing DNS Registration Information

Part IX: Systems Administration

Using Linuxconf

Adding Users

Checking File Systems

Deleting Users

Finding System Files

Managing User Control Files

Networking with PPP

Setting Up Serial Ports for User Login

Shutting Down Linux

Starting Linux

Using the cron Daemon

Working with Run Levels

Part X: Using Regular Expressions

Examining Simple Regular Expressions

Combining Simple Regular Expressions

Samples of Basic Regular Expressions

Glossary: Techie Talk

Appendix: Online Resources

General Web Resources

Distribution Web Pages

FTP Resources

Magazines

Usenet Newsgroups

The Big Picture: Linux

Linux

Linux is the most popular flavor of UNIX available for PCs. Millions of people worldwide use it today, and its acceptance in the business world is spreading rapidly. Linux fills a need that nothing else can. This stable UNIX operating system is low cost (free!) and has a large user base and tons of tools for software developers. Linux now runs office productivity tools, such as WordPerfect, and runs on more hardware platforms than you can shake a stick at.

What You See: The KDE Desktop

Hello, and welcome to Linux. Everything you do with it takes place in one of two realms: the graphical interface realm and the command-line text interface realm. This is what the Linux KDE desktop looks like, which is what you’re likely to see when you run Linux.

The Linux windowing interface allows you to go light on command-line typing and work with user applications, such as word processors, spreadsheets, and games. The most useful feature to note in this figure is the easy-to-access menu system, which should be somewhat familiar if you have ever used Microsoft Windows or CDE.

What You See: The Text-Only Login Screen

The command-line console login screen is the traditional view of Linux. The login banner in this figure declares this machine to be running version 6.2 of SuSE Linux and tells you that its kernel version is 2.2.5-15. This screen is where you log in to the machine with your password and begin using the machine. Also, this screen is usually the first thing you see if the machine has booted up successfully.

People who love the command line live on this screen because they don’t like pointing and clicking and would rather play directly with the internals of the operating system and configuration files. Most of the sections in this book tell you about things you can do on the command line. Even if this screen seems strange to you now, trying out some commands on it will help you, with practice, become a Linux power user.

Part III gives you some ideas about what commands you can type at the command line. When you experiment, you soon see that the command line can be a fun and powerful place to interact with the computer. For a more detailed explanation of the command-line environment, see Part II, which talks all about the details of the shell and how to work within it.

You can even have the best of both worlds and run the X Windows application with terminal emulators open on your desktop. (See the xterm sections in Part IV.) Or you can flip back and forth between this console screen and the X Windows application by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to this screen and pressing Alt+F7 to go back to the X Windows environment.

Toolbar Table

In Linux, toolbars are available whenever you run the X Windows application. The main toolbar you should become familiar with is the KDE Window Manager toolbar. This toolbar controls most things when you run the X Windows application.

The following table describes individual buttons on the KDE toolbar. For buttons that are not listed here, hold the mouse pointer while it’s over the icon. A text box pops up, describing what the button does.

The KDE application toolbar is rather easy to use because it relies on picture icons rather than words to show you what the button does. By default, the toolbar is displayed at the bottom of the screen. You have options to change its size and font style, and you can also take off and add other icons.

When you click the button with a K on it, a whole text menu pops up with numerous options, each of which generally has its own submenu. For more information about buttons and other items in the X Window environment, see Part IV.

The Basics: The X Windows Mouse

The Linux X Windows mouse works best with three buttons because most Linux X Windows programs have been written to assign one function or feature with each button. For example, you can use the left button to highlight text and use the middle button with one click to copy and paste what has just been highlighted somewhere else. Then you can use the right button to bring up a special application menu. If you have a two-button mouse, clicking the two buttons together can serve as a substitute for the third button.

Another great thing about X Windows is the different ways you can select which window is active. With the X Windows sloppy focus feature, simply moving the mouse over a window selects it for you. You can then type in windows that are partially covered by other windows, without having to flip the windows to put the one you want on top.

The Basics: The X Windows Menus

Most X Windows environments have a few ways to access a menu listing programs that can be started within X Windows. Some have a Windows 95 Start menu equivalent running along the edge of the desktop, with a main button that launches a subsystem of program menus. Popular programs and functions are also commonly available right on the desktop. The icons to start a terminal window and exit X Windows are often displayed on the desktop.

The Basics: Window Controls

Window controls are straightforward in X Windows. Located at the top of each window, they allow you to minimize it, maximize it, or close it. Many other window controls, such as font and color styles, are also located on this bar.

The Basics: Editing and Saving Files

You can edit and save files in Linux in several different ways. It has at least half a dozen different editors, such as vi, Emacs, pico, joe, and jed. All of them have the capability of saving the files they edit. For more information, see Part V.

The Basics: Moving Around the File System

Linux has a UNIX file system, which means that standard UNIX commands get you around (see Part III). Use the ls command to display a file listing of your current directory, the pwd command to list which directory you’re in now, and the cd new-directory-name command to go to a different directory.

The Basics: Command-Line Interface Know-How

Whenever you log in to your Linux machine, you’re put into a shell, or command-line interface. In Linux, everything can be done from the command line (see Part III). It’s a powerful interface after you learn how to use it.

To start a program from the command line, type that command’s name. You should exit all programs properly; if you need to resort to more extreme measures to stop a program, however, press Ctrl+C. To suspend a program and get your command-line prompt back, press Ctrl+Z. Then type fg to return the program to the foreground.

To exit a Linux command-line interface, type exit. To start X Windows after it has been configured, type startx.

The Basics: Getting Help

Although using Linux can be confusing at times, you can get help from plenty of sources. The most basic way to get help with a specific command and find out more about how to use it is by looking at the manual, or man page. If you want to know more about different options available with the ls command, for example, simply type man ls. (For more information, see Part III.)

If you’re looking for help in how to do something complex you should read through the appropriate HowTo. HowTo’s are Linux documents about several useful topics that document the process involved in doing that specific task.

If you need help with anything else, Linux newsgroups and local user group (or LUG) mailing lists are a good place to ask general and technical questions. You should read through any applicable man pages and HowTo’s before posting a question in these forums. You always get a better response if you can show that you have done some research yourself.

What You Can Do: Create Text Documents

One of the simplest things you can do is create text documents that are easy and straightforward to manipulate. Because of the strong network capabilities in UNIX, you can easily share your documents with many others on the Internet.

To write and send out your résumé on the Internet, you can:

1. Get started by:

Starting the X Windows application: Part IV

Starting an xterm window: Part IV

Firing up a text editor, such as pico or vi: Part V

2. Work on your project by:

Searching the Web for good examples of résumé formats

Searching the Web for ideas about your objectives in your next job

Typing all your accomplishments in the text editor: Part V

3. Add finishing touches by:

Saving your text résumé and putting it on the Web

Looking for job openings on the Web

Using e-mail programs to mail your résumé to companies

What You Can Do: Design Your Own Web Page

To create simple Web pages, use the menu panel shown at the bottom of the screen in this figure to open programs that help you with your task. To design your own Web page, you can

1. Get started by:

Checking out other Web pages to see what you want yours to look like

Deciding what you want to say on your Web page

2. Work on your project by:

Writing down what you want your Web page to contain in a text file: Part V.

Using a text editor to create an HTML file: Part V.

Creating a Web page using intuitive toolbars and icons.

3. Add finishing touches by:

Creating great-looking Web icons with gimp or other tools: Part IV

Linking to your friends’ Web pages and having them link back to yours

What You Can Do: Program Your Own Software

The kernel is the heart of the Linux operating system. (The code shown here is the kernel panic function.) Before Linux and the GNU project (see Part II), programmers were limited in what they could do and the number of people who could work on a project. Now that Linux is the most popular and widely available free UNIX system in the world, it has allowed countless numbers of programmers to build countless software tools. Linux is also very flexible. You change every aspect of the system, including the kernel.

To program your own software, you can

1. Get started by:

Learning a programming language, such as the popular C++ or Java

Deciding what everyday software tool you need that doesn’t yet exist

Downloading an appropriate compiler to fit your tools

2. Work on your project by:

Spending long nights at home sitting and programming code

Spending long nights testing your code

Spending long nights documenting your code

3. Add finishing touches by:

Writing easy-to-understand technical documentation

Creating a nifty graphical user interface

Creating a Web page to tell about your great new software tool

Part I

Getting to Know Linux

The capabilities of the Linux operating system rival that of commercial products that cost big companies millions of dollars to develop, with one big difference: Linux is available for free to anyone who wants it. As you find out more about Linux, you can see what made it possible in the first place as well as what it can accomplish for you.

For UNIX users, Linux offers all the familiar UNIX capabilities and features, plus a few new capabilities that you may have wished for on your UNIX system.

What Is Linux?

Linux is a multiuser, multitasking operating system that runs on IBM-compatible PCs as well as on many other computer architectures, such as Macintosh, Alpha, SGI, Sun Sparc, and even the mainframe. Linux implements a superset of the POSIX (IEEE P1003.) operating system standard that was created in order to document a standard set of UNIX capabilities. Linux includes all these capabilities, plus it draws on the best capabilities of BSD UNIX and System V UNIX to offer a well-rounded and capable operating system. Linux also interoperates with other systems, including Microsoft Windows, MacOS, other flavors of UNIX, and Novell NetWare.