Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition
Read an excerpt:
Chapter 4: Boot Methods
Excerpt provided courtesy of O'Reilly and Associates.
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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.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Introduction
The Excitement of Linux
Distribution and Support
Commands on Linux
What This Book Offers
Sources and Licenses
Beginner's Guide
2. System and Network Administration Overview
Common Commands
Overview of Networking
Overview of TCP/IP
Overview of Firewalls and Masquerading
Overview of NFS
Overview of NIS
Administering NIS
RPC and XDR
3. Linux Commands
Alphabetical Summary of Commands
4. Boot Methods
The Boot Process
LILO: The Linux Loader
GRUB: The Grand Unified Bootloader
GRUB Commands
Dual-Booting Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP
Boot-Time Kernel Options
initrd: Using a RAM Disk
5. Package Management
The Red Hat Package Manager
Yum: Yellowdog Updater Modified
up2date: Red Hat Update Agent
The Debian Package Manager
6. The Bash Shell and Korn Shell
Overview of Features
Invoking the Shell
Syntax
Functions
Variables
Arithmetic Expressions
Command History
Job Control
Command Execution
Restricted Shells
Built-in Commands (Bash and Korn Shells)
7. Pattern Matching
Filenames Versus Patterns
Metacharacters
Metacharacters, Listed by Program
Examples of Searching
8. The Emacs Editor
Conceptual Overview
Command-Line Syntax
Summary of Commands by Group
Summary of Commands by Key
Summary of Commands by Name
9. The vi, ex, and vim Editors
Conceptual Overview
Command-Line Syntax
Review of vi Operations
vi Commands
vi Configuration
ex Basics
Alphabetical Summary of ex Commands
10. The sed Editor
Conceptual Overview
Command-Line Syntax
Syntax of sed Commands
Group Summary of sed Commands
Alphabetical Summary of sed Commands
11. The gawk Programming Language
Conceptual Overview
Command-Line Syntax
Patterns and Procedures
Built-in Variables
Operators
Variable and Array Assignment
User-Defined Functions
Gawk-specific Features
Implementation Limits
Group Listing of awk Functions and Commands
Alphabetical Summary of awk Functions and Commands
Source Code
12. Source Code Management: An Overview
Introduction and Terminology
Usage Models
Source Code Management Systems
Other Source Code Management Systems
13. The Concurrent Versions System (CVS)
Conceptual Overview
Command-Line Syntax and Options
Dot Files
Environment Variables
Keywords and Keyword Modes
Dates
CVSROOT Variables
Alphabetical Summary of Commands
14. The Subversion Version Control System
Conceptual Overview
Obtaining Subversion
Using Subversion: A Quick Tour
The Subversion Command Line Client: svn
Repository Administration: svnadmin
Examining the Repository: svnlook
Providing Remote Access: svnserve
Other Subversion Components
Index
About the Authors
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 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 Ximian,
Inc. and wrote the manual for Ximian Evolution, Red Carpet, and Red Carpet Enterprise,
as well as a section on GNOME in 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 is a programmer, animal tracker,
musician and life-long learner. He honed many of his computer skills while working
as O'Reilly's book answer guy. Now living in Lawrence, Kansas, he works as a
writer, editor and consultant.
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, an Atlanta native, is a professional
programmer and technical author. He has worked with Unix systems since 1980,
when he was introduced to a PDP-11 running a version of Sixth Edition Unix.
He has been a heavy AWK user since 1987, when he became involved with gawk,
the GNU project's version of AWK. As a member of the POSIX 1003.2 balloting
group, he helped shape the POSIX standard for AWK. He is currently the maintainer
of gawk and its documentation. He is also coauthor of the sixth edition of O'Reilly's
Learning the vi Editor. Since late 1997, he and his family have been
living happily in Israel.
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