UNIX For Dummies E-Book

John R. Levine

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

Seitenzahl: 587

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Manage files, set up networks, and go online with UNIX!

UNIX For Dummies has been the standard for beginning UNIX references for nearly ten years, and this latest edition continues that tradition of success. This unparalled resource is updated to cover the latest applications of UNIX technology, including Linux and Mac desktops as well as how UNIX works with Microsoft server software

Thorough coverage of how to handle:

• UNIX installation
• file management
• software
• utilities
• networks
• Internet access
• ther basic tasks

A great guide for the first-time UNIX desktop user growing accustomed to the ins and outs of the OS, as well as the beginning administrators who needs to get a handle on UNIX networking basics.

Written by John Levine and Margaret Levine Young, longtime UNIX experts and highly experienced For Dummies authors.

Leseprobe

UNIX® For Dummies®, 5th Edition

by John R. Levine and Margaret Levine Young

UNIX® For Dummies®, 5th Edition

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

Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number available from publisher.

ISBN: 0-7645-4147-1

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5

5O/TR/RQ/QX/IN

About the Authors

John R. Levine was a member of a computer club in high school — before high school students, or even high schools, had computers — where he met Theodor H. Nelson, the author of Computer Lib/Dream Machines and the inventor of hypertext, who reminded us that computers should not be taken seriously and that everyone can and should understand and use computers.

John wrote his first program in 1967 on an IBM 1130 (a computer somewhat less powerful than your typical modern digital wristwatch, only more difficult to use). He became an official system administrator of a networked computer running UNIX at Yale in 1975. He began working part-time (for a computer company, of course) in 1977 and has been in and out of the computer and network biz ever since. He got his company on Usenet (the Internet’s worldwide bulletin-board system) early enough that it appears in a 1982 Byte magazine article on a map of Usenet, which then was so small that the map fit on half a page.

Although John used to spend most of his time writing software, now he mostly writes books (including UNIX For Dummies and Privacy For Dummies, both published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.) because it’s more fun and he can do so at home in the tiny village of Trumansburg, New York, where he is the sewer commissioner (Guided tours! Free samples!) and can play with his small daughter when he’s supposed to be writing. John also does a fair amount of public speaking. (Go to www.johnlevine.com to see where he’ll be.) He holds a BA and a PhD in computer science from Yale University, but please don’t hold that against him.

In high school, Margaret Levine Young was in the same computer club as her big brother, John. She stayed in the field throughout college against her better judgment and despite John’s presence as a graduate student in the computer science department. Margy graduated from Yale and went on to become one of the first PC managers in the early 1980s at Columbia Pictures, where she rode the elevator with big stars whose names she wouldn’t dream of dropping here.

Since then, Margy has co-authored more than 25 computer books about the topics of the Internet, UNIX, WordPerfect, Microsoft Access, and (stab from the past) PC-File and Javelin, including Dummies 101: The Internet For Windows 98, UNIX For Dummies, and WordPerfect For Linux For Dummies (all published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.), and Windows XP: The Complete Reference and Internet: The Complete Reference (published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill). She met her future husband, Jordan, in the R.E.S.I.S.T.O.R.S. (that computer club we mentioned). Her other passion is her children, along with music, Unitarian Universalism (www.uua.org), reading, and anything to do with eating. She lives in Vermont (see www.gurus.com/margy for some scenery).

Dedication

John and Margy both dedicate this book to their dad, wherever he is. When last sighted, he was traveling somewhere in China finding out just how great the wall is, unless he was at the beach here in the U.S. — he’s a man who knows how to live!

Authors’ Acknowledgments

The authors thank Antonia Saxon, Jordan Young, Sarah Willow Levine Saxon, Meg Young, and Zac Young for putting up with us while we updated this book. Thanks also go to our Internet providers: Finger Lakes Technologies Group and the Trumansburg Home Telephone Company (Trumansburg, NY), the Shoreham Telephone Company (Shoreham, VT), and SoVerNet (Bellows Falls, VT).

We thank Peter Seebach for research and revisions (you can guess what that really means) on KDE and GNOME in Chapters 4 and 17, and Nancy McGough for helping make our comments on Linux bear at least some relation to reality.

Chris Morris patiently shepherded the text from our hazy scribblings (electronically speaking) to a printed book with a blend of patience and midnight wit. He got lots of help, of course, from all the folks listed on the other side of this page.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us 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

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Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Authors’ Note

Part I : Before the Beginning

Chapter 1: Log Me In, UNIX!

Turning Your Computer On and Off

Hey, UNIX! I Want to Log In

Logging In: U(NIX) Can Call Me Al

Password Smarts

Ciao, UNIX!

Chapter 2: What Is UNIX, Anyway?

Why Do We Ask Such Dumb Questions?

How Can You Tell?

Cracking the Shell

Are Any Good Programs On?

Finally! You’re Ready to Work

Chapter 3: A Few Lines on Linux

Out of the Frozen North

What’s Old, What’s New

Where’s Linux?

A Whole Lotta Kinds of Linux

Part II : Some Basic Stuff

Chapter 4: Opening Windows on UNIX

UNIX Gets All GUI

Stupid Window Manager Tricks

CDE: A Desktop for All Seasons

What’s the “K” Stand For?

You Mean the Little Guys with the Hats?

Terminal Happenings

Chapter 5: Files for Fun and Profit

What Files Do You Have?

Roger, I Copy

Nuking Files Back to the Stone Age

What’s in a Name (Reprise)

Looking at the Guts of a File

Is This a Printout I See Before Me?

Who Goes There?

Chapter 6: Directories for Fun and Profit

Good News for Windows Users

What Is a Directory?

Divide and Conquer

There’s No Place Like Home

Putting Your Ducks in a Row

Putting Your Ducks on the Web

A Map of UNIX

Chapter 7: The Shell Game

This Output Is Going to Havana: Redirection

Gurgle, Gurgle: Running Data through Pipes

Wild and Crazy Wildcards

History Repeats Itself

Do I Have to Type the Same Things Every Time I Log In?

Terminal Options

Chapter 8: Where’s That File?

The Search Is On

What to Do with Files after You Find Them

Searching Is Slow!

A File by Any Other Name

Chapter 9: Printing (The Gutenberg Thing)

Printing Stuff: Daemons at Work

Finding Your Printout

“Help! I’ve Printed, and It Won’t Shut Up!”

Prettying Up Your Printouts

Troff, Nroff, Groff!

Printing for the PostScript-Challenged

Part III : Getting Things Done

Chapter 10: Writing Deathless Prose

UNIX Has Its Way with Words

Shy vi, the Princess of Text Editors

A Novel Concept in Editing: emacs Makes Sense

A Peek at pico

Talk to Mr. ed

Chapter 11: Umpteen Useful UNIX Utilities

Comparing Apples and Oranges

Assorted Files

Time Is Money — Steal Some Today!

Squashing Your Files

What’s in That File?

Chapter 12: Installing Software Can Be Tricky

The Software Stork

You Too Can Be a Script Writer

Borrowing Other People’s Programs

Stealing Software from the Network

Real Software Installation

Chapter 13: Juggling a Bunch of Programs

So What Is a Process, Anyway?

Any Processes in the House?

Starting Background Processes

The Magic of Job Control

Chapter 14: Taming Linux

Congratulations! You’re a System Administrator!

A Pride of Linuxes

“I Need Help!”

Part IV : UNIX and the Net

Chapter 15: Your Computer Is Not Alone

You Don’t Need to Be In Who’s Who to Know What’s What

Finding Out Who’s on Your Computer

Finding Out Who’s on Other Computers

Chatting with Other People on Your Computer

Getting On the Net

Chapter 16: Across a Crowded Network

On a Computer Far, Far Away

Telnet It Like It Is

3270: The Attack of the IBM Terminals

ssh: The Lazy Man’s Remote Login

scp: Blatting Files across the Network

NFS: You’ll Never Find Your Stuff

The UNIX/Windows Accords

Chapter 17: Automating Your Office Gossip

What You Need in Order to Use Local E-Mail

Addressing the Mail

Sending Stuff Other Than Text

Exchanging Gossip by Using Pine

What You Need in Order to Use Remote E-Mail

Mail Bonding with Mozilla

Kool! It’s KMail

E-Mail with Evolution

Chapter 18: Web Surfing for UNIX Users

What’s a Browser?

Browsing with Pictures: Mozilla and Konqueror

Surfing with Your Browser

Windows on the World

My Favorite Things

Filling In Forms

What Should I Look At?

Chapter 19: Grabbing Files from the Net

You’re a Copying Machine

Files with Finesse

No Names, Please

Mouse-Centric Approaches to FTP

Great Stuff on FTP

Chapter 20: Now Serving the Internet

The Internet, at Your Service

Serving Yourself

Getting Served

Web Servers Galore

Daemons Run Amok

A Few Tips for Webmasters

Part V : Help!

Chapter 21: Disaster Relief

“My Computer Won’t Turn On”

“My Mouse Is Acting Glitchy”

“The Network Is Gone”

“These Aren’t My Files!”

Wrecked X

“It’s Not Listening!”

“I Give Up”

Chapter 22: The Case of the Missing Files

How You Clobber Files

Ways to Try to Get Files Back

Three Ways Not to Lose Files

Chapter 23: Some Programs Just Won’t Die

Why Killing Is Sometimes Justified

What Process? (Reprise)

Fifty Ways to Kill Your Process

Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap

When X Goes Bad

Chapter 24: “My Computer Hates Me”

Part VI : The Part of Tens

Chapter 25: Ten Common Mistakes

Believing That It Will Be Easy

Mistyping Commands

To Press Enter, or Not to Press Enter

Working in the Wrong Directory

Not Keeping Backup Copies

Not Keeping Files Organized

Turning Off Your Computer

Writing Your Password on a Sticky Note

Sending Angry Electronic Mail (Flaming)

Chapter 26: Ten Times More Information Than You Want about UNIX

Let’s Hear It from the man

Scanning the Networks

Other Sources of Information

Introduction

Welcome to UNIX For Dummies, 5th Edition! Although lots of good books about UNIX are out there, most of them assume that you have a degree in computer science, would love to learn every strange and useless command UNIX has to offer (and there are plenty), and enjoy memorizing unpronounceable commands and options. This book is different.

Instead, this book describes what you really do with UNIX — how to get started, what commands you really need, and when to give up and go for help. And we describe it all in plain, ordinary English.

About This Book

We designed this book to be used when you can’t figure out what to do next. We don’t flatter ourselves that you are interested enough in UNIX to sit down and read the whole thing. When you run into a problem using UNIX (“I thought I typed a command that would copy a file, but it didn’t respond with any message . . .”), just dip into the book long enough to solve your problem.

We have included sections about these kinds of things:

Typing commands

Copying, renaming, or deleting files

Printing files

Finding where your file went

Using the Internet from UNIX

Storing and updating a Web site on a UNIX computer

Connecting and communicating with people on other computers

In this fifth edition, we updated the information about Linux (the popular free version of UNIX), beefed up the information about the new KDE and GNOME window systems, and added information about Internet applications and hosting an Internet site on your own (or someone else’s) UNIX computer.

Conventions Used in This Book

Use this book as a reference. (Or use it as a decorative paperweight — whatever works for you.) Look up your topic or command in the table of contents or the index; they refer to the part of the book in which we describe what to do and perhaps define a few terms, if absolutely necessary.

When you have to type something, it appears in the book like this:

cryptic UNIX command to type

Type it just as it appears. Use the same capitalization we do — UNIX cares deeply about CAPITAL and small letters. Then press the Enter or Return key (we call it Enter throughout this book). The book tells you what happens when you give each command and what your options are. Sometimes part of the command is in italics; the italicized stuff is a sample name, and you have to substitute the actual name of the file, computer, or person affected.

Chapter 24 lists error messages you may run into, and Chapter 25 lists common user mistakes. You may want to peruse the latter to avoid these mistakes before they happen.

Foolish Assumptions

In writing this book, we have assumed these things about you:

You have a UNIX computer or remote access to one.

You want to get some work done on it.

Someone has set it up so that, if you turn it on (in many cases, it’s left on all the time) or connect, you are talking to UNIX.

You are not interested in becoming the world’s next great UNIX expert.

How This Book Is Organized

This book has six parts. The parts stand on their own — you can begin reading wherever you want. This section lists the parts of the book and what they contain.

Part I: Before the Beginning

This part tells you how to get started with UNIX, including figuring out which kind of UNIX you’re using. (You need to know this information later because commands can differ from one type of UNIX to another.) You find out how to log in, type UNIX commands, and ask for help. For Linux users, we include a short chapter on what it’s all about, why Linux is cool, and how to get more information about Linux.

Part II: Some Basic Stuff

Like most computer systems, UNIX stores information in files. This part explains how to deal with files — creating, copying, and getting rid of them. It also talks about directories so that you can keep your files organized, finding files that have somehow gone astray, and printing files on paper.

Part III: Getting Things Done

This part talks about getting some work done in UNIX. It gives step-by-step instructions for using the most common text editors to create and change text files, running several programs at the same time (to get confused several times as fast), and making your Linux system behave, and gives you directions for a bunch of other useful UNIX commands.

Part IV: UNIX and the Net

Most UNIX systems are connected to networks, and many are connected to the biggest network of them all: the Internet. This part prepares you for the world of communications, including instructions for sending and receiving electronic mail, for transferring files over the network, for logging in to other computers over the Internet, and for surfing on the World Wide Web. For those of you with some intestinal fortitude, we include an updated chapter on how to have your Internet site run on your very own UNIX computer.

Part V: Help!

If disaster strikes, check this part of the book. It includes information about what to do if something bad happens, what to do about backups, and what to do when you see common UNIX error messages.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

This part is a random assortment of other tidbits about UNIX, including common mistakes and how to get online help — all organized into two convenient ten-item lists, sort of.

Icons Used in This Book

Some particularly nerdy, technoid information is coming up, which you can skip (although, of course, we think that it’s all interesting).

A nifty little shortcut or time-saver is explained, or a piece of information you can’t afford to be without.

Yarrghhh! Don’t let this happen to you!

Information that applies only if your computer is on a network. If it is not, you can skip to the next section.

Something presented in an earlier section of the book or something you need to remember to do.

The friendly penguin alerts you to information specifically about Linux (see Chapter 3 to find out what Linux is).

Where to Go from Here

That’s all you need to know to get started. Whenever you hit a snag in UNIX, just look up the problem in the table of contents or index of this book. You will have the problem solved in a flash — or you will know to find some expert help.

Because UNIX is not designed to be particularly easy to use, don’t feel bad if you have to look up a number of topics before you feel comfortable using the computer. Most computer users, after all, never have to face anything as daunting as UNIX (point this out to your Windows and Macintosh user friends)!

If you have comments about this book and your computer can send electronic mail via the Internet, you can send them to our friendly mail robot, which will write back, at [email protected]. (We authors also read your messages and write back if time permits.) Also visit our Web site, with book info and updates, at http://net.gurus.com. For information about the For Dummies books in general, write to [email protected] or surf on by www.dummies.com.

Authors’ Note

Because we practice what we preach, the manuscript for this book was updated and edited using the free OpenOffice.org word processor on FreeBSD UNIX. We also used NetBSD and SuSE Linux for the KDE and GNOME examples, and a Web application on the Apache Web server on BSD/OS to pass around edited chapters among the authors and our editors. The net.gurus.com and www.dummies.com Web sites both run on Apache servers on UNIX; our UNIX mail server handles the mail at gurus.com; and our publisher’s three UNIX mail servers handle the mail at wiley.com. None of that expensive Pacific Northwest software for us, thanks.

Part I

Before the Beginning

In this part . . .

Yikes! You have to learn how to use UNIX! Does this mean that you’re about to get inducted, kicking and screaming, into a fraternity of hard-bitten, humorless nerds with a religious dedication to a 30-year-old operating system from the phone company? Well, yes and no. We hope that we’re not humorless.

If you’re like most UNIX users, a zealot stopped at your desk, connected your terminal or workstation, gave you five minutes of incomprehensible advice, demonstrated a few bizarre games (like roaches that hide behind the work on your screen), and disappeared. Now you’re on your own.

Don’t worry. This part of the book explains the absolute minimum you need to know to get your UNIX system’s attention, persuade it that you are allowed to use it, and maybe even accomplish something useful.

Chapter 1

Log Me In, UNIX!

In This Chapter

Turning your computer on and getting its attention

Persuading your computer to let you use it

Using usernames, passwords, and all that

Logging out when you finish

If you read the exciting introduction to this book, you know that we make some Foolish Assumptions about you, the reader. Among other things, we foolishly assume that someone else has installed and set up UNIX for you so that all you have to do is turn your computer on and tell UNIX that you’re there, or that a computer running UNIX is somewhere on the network that you have access to.

If you don’t have UNIX already set up on a computer, the best thing you can do for yourself is find a local UNIX guru or system administrator who is willing to get you up and running. Unless you really know what you’re doing, installing and setting up UNIX can be painful, frustrating, and time-consuming. We recommend that you find something more enjoyable to do, such as cleaning out the grease trap under your kitchen sink or performing urgent home surgery on yourself. (You can learn how to administer a UNIX system with some patience and perseverance, but explaining how is way beyond the scope of this book because each version of UNIX has its own procedures.)

Turning Your Computer On and Off

If you think that turning your computer on and off is easy, you may be wrong. Because UNIX runs on so many almost-but-not-quite-compatible computers — all of which work somewhat differently — you first must figure out which kind of UNIX computer you have before you can turn it on.

If a train stops at a train station, what happens at a workstation?

A workstation is a computer with a big screen, a mouse, and a keyboard. You may say, “I have a PC with a big screen, a mouse, and a keyboard. Is it really a workstation?” Although UNIX zealots get into long arguments over this question, for our purposes, we say that it is. Most current UNIX systems are workstations.