Linux Pocket Guide

O'Reilly's Pocket Guides have earned a reputation as inexpensive, comprehensive, and compact guides that have the stuff but not the fluff. Every page of Linux Pocket Guide lives up to this billing. It clearly explains how to get up to speed quickly on day-to-day Linux use. Once you're up and running, Linux Pocket Guide provides an easy-to-use reference that you can keep by your keyboard for those times when you want a fast, useful answer, not hours in the man pages.

Linux Pocket Guide is organized the way you use Linux: by function, not just alphabetically. It's not the 'bible of Linux; it's a practical and concise guide to the options and commands you need most. It starts with general concepts like files and directories, the shell, and X windows, and then presents detailed overviews of the most essential commands, with clear examples. You'll learn each command's purpose, usage, options, location on disk, and even the RPM package that installed it.

The Linux Pocket Guide is tailored to Fedora Linux--the latest spin-off of Red Hat Linux--but most of the information applies to any Linux system.

Throw in a host of valuable power user tips and a friendly and accessible style, and you'll quickly find this practical, to-the-point book a small but mighty resource for Linux users.

Table of Contents

      What's in This Book?  

                What's Linux?  

                What's Fedora Linux?  

                What's a Command?  

                Users and Superusers  

                Reading This Book  


      Getting Help  


      Fedora: A First View  

                The Role of the Shell  

                How to Run a Shell  

      Logins, Logouts, and Shutdowns  


      The Filesystem  

                Home Directories  

                System Directories  

                Operating System Directories 

                File Protections  


      The Shell  

                The Shell Versus Programs  

                Selected bash Features  

                Job Control  

                Killing a Command in Progress

                Terminating a Shell  

                Tailoring Shell Behavior  


      Installing Software  


      Basic File Operations  


      Directory Operations  


      File Viewing  


      File Creation and Editing  


      File Properties  


      File Location  


      File Text Manipulation  


      File Compression and Packaging  


      File Comparison  


      Disks and Filesystems  


      Backups and Remote Storage  


      File Printing  


      Spelling Operations  


      Viewing Processes  


      Controlling Processes  


      Users and Their Environment  


      Working with User Accounts  


      Becoming the Superuser  


      Working with Groups  


      Basic Host Information  


      Host Location  


      Network Connections  


      Email  


      Web Browsing  


      Usenet News  


      Instant Messaging  


      Screen Output  


      Math and Calculations  


      Dates and Times  


      Scheduling Jobs  


      Graphics and Screensavers  


      Audio and Video  


      Programming with Shell Scripts  

                Whitespace and Linebreaks  

                Variables  

                Input and Output  

                Booleans and Return Codes  

                Conditionals  

                Loops  

                Break and Continue  

                Creating and Running Shell Scripts  

                Command-Line Arguments  

                Exiting with a Return Code  

                Beyond Shell Scripting  


      Final Words  

                Acknowledgments