Linux in a Nutshell

Ellen Siever

Jul 2005 · "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

About this ebook

Over the last few years, Linux has grown both as an operating system and a tool for personal and business use. Simultaneously becoming more user friendly and more powerful as a back-end system, Linux has achieved new plateaus: the newer filesystems have solidified, new commands and tools have appeared and become standard, and the desktop--including new desktop environments--have proved to be viable, stable, and readily accessible to even those who don't consider themselves computer gurus.

Whether you're using Linux for personal software projects, for a small office or home office (often termed the SOHO environment), to provide services to a small group of colleagues, or to administer a site responsible for millions of email and web connections each day, you need quick access to information on a wide range of tools. This book covers all aspects of administering and making effective use of Linux systems. Among its topics are booting, package management, and revision control. But foremost in Linux in a Nutshell are the utilities and commands that make Linux one of the most powerful and flexible systems available.

Now in its fifth edition, Linux in a Nutshell brings users up-to-date with the current state of Linux. Considered by many to be the most complete and authoritative command reference for Linux available, the book covers all substantial user, programming, administration, and networking commands for the most common Linux distributions.

Comprehensive but concise, the fifth edition has been updated to cover new features of major Linux distributions. Configuration information for the rapidly growing commercial network services and community update services is one of the subjects covered for the first time.

But that's just the beginning. The book covers editors, shells, and LILO and GRUB boot options. There's also coverage of Apache, Samba, Postfix, sendmail, CVS, Subversion, Emacs, vi, sed, gawk, and much more. Everything that system administrators, developers, and power users need to know about Linux is referenced here, and they will turn to this book again and again.

About the author

Ellen Siever is a writer and editor specializing in Linux and other open source topics. In addition to Linux in a Nutshell, she co-authored O'Reilly's Perl in a Nutshell. She is a long-time Linux and Unix user, and was a programmer for many years until she decided that writing about computers was more fun.Aaron Weber is a technical writer for Novell, Inc. who wrote the section on GNOME in O'Reilly's Running Linux. He's also published in Interex Enterprise Solutions (interex.com) and Boston's Weekly Dig (www.weeklydig.com), and is the host of secretlyironic.com.Stephen Figgins administrates Linux servers for Sunflower Broadband in Lawrence, KS. He also writes, edits and consults on computing topics. He balances this with his study of nature. Through the Plainscraft school of living (http: //www.plainscraft.com), he teaches wilderness awareness and survival skills including animal tracking, edible and medicinal plants and matchless fire making.Robert Love is a contributing editor at Linux Journal and authored Linux Kernel Development (Sams). He works in Novell's Ximian Desktop Group as a kernel hacker and graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science.Arnold Robbins is a professional programmer and technical author who has worked with Unix systems since 1980. As a member of the POSIX 1003.2 balloting group, he helped shape the POSIX standard for awk and is currently the maintainer of gawk (GNU project's version of awk) and its documentation. Arnold co-authored of the sixth edition of O'Reilly's Learning the vi Editor.