Linux in a Nutshell

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. Stephen Figgins is a computer hacker, animal tracker, musician and student of the humanities. His ambition is to gain a deep and powerful native awareness of both the Noosphere and the Biosphere and share that with others. For five years he made his living as O'Reilly's book answer guy, drinking in the knowledge contained in their tomes. Now, having returned to the valley of the Kaw River on the eastern edge of the free state of Kansas, he uses his knowledge to make a living as a writer, editor and consultant. 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.

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 Loadlin: Booting from MS-DOS Dual-Booting Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP Boot-Time Kernel Options initrd: Using a RAM Disk 5. Red Hat and Debian Package Managers The Red Hat Package Manager The Debian Package Manager 6. The Linux Shells: An Overview Purpose of the Shell Shell Flavors Common Features Differing Features 7. bash: The Bourne-Again Shell Invoking the Shell Syntax Variables Arithmetic Expressions Command History Job Control Built-in Commands 8. tcsh: An Extended C Shell Overview of Features Invoking the Shell Syntax Variables Expressions Command History Command-Line Manipulation Job Control Built-in Commands 9. Pattern Matching Filenames Versus Patterns Metacharacters, Listed by Linux Program Metacharacters Examples of Searching 10. The Emacs Editor Emacs Concepts Typical Problems Notes on the Tables Summary of Commands by Group Summary of Commands by Key Summary of Commands by Name 11. The vi Editor Review of vi Operations vi Command-Line Options ex Command-Line Options Movement Commands Edit Commands Saving and Exiting Accessing Multiple Files Window Commands Interacting with the Shell Macros Miscellaneous Commands Alphabetical List of Keys in Command Mode Syntax of ex Commands Alphabetical Summary of ex Commands vi Configuration 12. The sed Editor Command-Line Syntax Syntax of sed Commands Group Summary of sed Commands Alphabetical Summary of sed Commands 13. The gawk Scripting Language Command-Line Syntax Patterns and Procedures gawk System Variables PROCINFO Array Operators Variable and Array Assignments Group Listing of gawk Commands Alphabetical Summary of Commands 14. RCS Overview of RCS Commands Basic RCS Operations General RCS Specifications Alphabetical Summary of RCS Commands 15. CVS Basic Concepts CVS Command Format Common Global Options Gotchas CVS Administrator Reference CVS User Reference 16. Graphical Desktop Overview Desktop Environments and Window Managers Desktop Differences: Development 17. GNOME Desktop Overview The Panel The GNOME Menu and the Menu Panel Menus The GNOME Control Center History and Changes in GNOME 2 18. KDE Desktop Overview The Panel The KDE Control Center 19. An Alternative Window Manager: fvwm2 Running fvwm2 Implementing Window Manager Customizations Adding Keyboard Shortcuts Customizing Menus The WinList: Switching the Focus Index