Beginning Unix

Paul Love (Cincinnati, OH), CISSP, CISA, CISM, Security+, has been in the IT field for 15 years. Paul holds a Masters of Science degree in Network Security and a Bachelor’s in Information Systems. He has co-authored two Linux security books, contributed to multiple Linux/Unix books, and has been the technical editor for over 10 best selling Linux and Unix books. Paul also ran a successful Linux portal site during the dot com era and has been an avid Unix/Linux user and administrator both professionally and as a hobby for many years. Joe Merlino (Boston, MA) is an experienced system administrator with Unix and Linux for more than a decade. Craig Zimmerman (New York, NY) manages UNIX, Macintosh, and Windows systems for Spontaneous, a post-production company in New York City. He previously worked at Chiat/Day helping build the world’s most famous virtual advertising agency, managing and networking Unix and Macintosh systems in multiple offices. Jeremy C. Reed (Marysville, WA) is a programmer, a member of NetBSD, and has actively taught FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD administration classes for the past three years. Paul Weinstein (Chicago, IL) has worked on various Unix-based computing platforms, from the mainframe (Harris HCX-9) to the desktop (Powerbook G4) and has developed applications on just about all of the current major branches of Unix in the course of the past 10 years. Recently he has been focusing a lot of his attention on developing and integrating Web-based systems using tools such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl, and in doing so has brought his unique understanding to a wide range of computing environments ranging from public elementary schools to pioneering open source companies. Currently, Paul works as President and Chief Consultant for the computer consulting firm Kepler Solutions, Inc. David Mercer (Cape Town, South Africa) is a long-time Unix user and PHP programmer who contributed to Beginning PHP4 and Beginning PHP5. He has maintained a keen interest in all things open source ever since he managed to put together a working Beowulf cluster by nicking old computer parts from colleagues and assembling them under his desk.

Acknowledgements xix Introduction xxi

Who Is This Book For? xxi

What Does This Book Cover? xxii

How This Book Is Structured xxii

What Do You Need to Use This Book? xxv

Conventions xxv

Source Code xxv

Errata xxv

Chapter 1: Unix Fundamentals 1

Chapter 2: First Steps 9

Chapter 3: Understanding Users and Groups 29

Chapter 4: File System Concepts 53

Chapter 5: Customize Your Working Environment 81

Chapter 6: Unix Commands In-Depth 105

Chapter 7: Editing Files with Vi 125

Chapter 8: Advanced Tools 149

Chapter 9: Advanced Unix Commands: Sed and AWK 167

Chapter 10: Job Control and Process Management 181

Chapter 11: Running Programs at Specified Times 199

Chapter 12: Security 213

Chapter 13: Basic Shell Scripting 227

Chapter 14: Advanced Shell Scripting 243

Chapter 15: System Logging 269

Chapter 16: Unix Networking 283

Chapter 17: Perl Programming for Unix Automation 303

Chapter 18: Backup Tools 321

Chapter 19: Installing Software from Source Code 343

Chapter 20: Conversion: Unix for Mac OS Users 371

Chapter 21: Conversion: Unix for Windows Users 389

Appendix A: Answers 411

Appendix B: Useful Unix Web Sites 421

Index 425