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Introduction to Linux

A Hands on Guide

Machtelt Garrels

Version 1.4 Last updated 20030427 Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Why this guide?

2. Who should read this book?

3. New versions of this guide

4. Revision History

5. Contributions

6. Feedback

7. Copyright information

8. What do you need?

9. Conventions used in this document

10. Organization of this document

1. What is Linux?

1.1. History

1.2. The user interface

1.3. Does Linux have a future?

1.4. Properties of Linux

1.5. Linux Flavors

1.6. Summary

1.7. Exercises

2. Quickstart

2.1. Logging in, activating the user interface and logging out

2.2. Absolute basics

2.3. Getting help

2.4. Summary

2.5. Exercises

3. About files and the file system

3.1. General overview of the Linux file system

3.2. Orientation in the file system

3.3. Manipulating files

3.4. File security

3.5. Summary

3.6. Exercises

4. Processes

4.1. Processes inside out

4.2. Boot process, Init and shutdown

4.3. Managing processes

4.4. Scheduling processes

4.5. Summary

4.6. Exercises

5. I/O redirection

5.1. What are standard input and standard output?

5.2. Summary

5.3. Exercises

6. Text editors

6.1. Text editors

6.2. Using the Vim editor

6.3. Linux in the office

6.4. Summary

6.5. Exercises

7. Home sweet /home

7.1. General good housekeeping

7.2. Your text environment

7.3. The graphical environment

7.4. Sound and video

7.5. Region specific settings

7.6. Installing new software

7.7. Summary

7.8. Exercises

8. Printers and printing

8.1. Printing files

8.2. The server side

8.3. Print problems

8.4. Summary

8.5. Exercises

9. Fundamental Backup Techniques

9.1. Introduction

9.2. Moving your data to a backup device

9.3. Summary

9.4. Exercises

10. Networking

10.1. General networking

10.2. Internet/Intranet applications

10.3. Remote execution of applications

10.4. Linux as a network appliance

10.5. Security

10.6. Summary

10.7. Exercises

A. Where to go from here?

A.1. Useful Books

A.2. Useful sites

B. DOS versus Linux commands

C. Shell Features

C.1. Common features

C.2. Differing features

D. GNU Free Documentation License

D.1. Preamble

D.2. Applicability and definitions

D.3. Verbatim copying

D.4. Copying in quantity

D.5. Modifications

D.6. Combining documents

D.7. Collections of documents

D.8. Aggregation with independent works

D.9. Translation

D.10. Termination

D.11. Future revisions of this license

D.12. How to use this License for your documents

Glossary

List of Tables

1. Typographic and usage conventions

2-1. Quickstart commands

2-2. Key combinations in Bash

3-1. File types

3-2. Subdirectories of the root directory

3-3. Most common configuration files

3-4. Common devices

3-5. Color-ls default color scheme

3-6. Default suffix scheme for ls

3-7. Access mode codes

3-8. User group codes

3-9. File protection with chmod

3-10. New commands

4-1. Controlling processes

4-2. Process handling commands

7-1. Common environment variables

8-1. Printing related commands

9-1. Backup commands

B-1. Overview of DOS/Linux commands

C-1. Common Shell Features

C-2. Differing Shell Features

List of Figures

1-1. Ximian Red Carpet: automated package management

1-2. OpenOffice MS-compatible Spreadsheet

2-1. Terminal window

2-2. Konqueror as help browser

3-1. Linux file system layout

3-2. Hard and soft link mechanism

4-1. Fork-and-exec mechanism

4-2. Can't you go faster?

4-3. Gnome System Monitor

7-1. Xmms mp3 player

8-1. Printer Status through web interface

9-1. Floppy formatter

9-2. X-CD-Roast

10-1. Evolution mail and news reader

10-2. X-Chat

10-3. SSH X11 forwarding