mirror of https://github.com/tLDP/LDP
173 lines
7.8 KiB
Plaintext
173 lines
7.8 KiB
Plaintext
<chapter id="intro">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<blockquote><para><quote>In the beginning, the file was without
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form, and void; and emptiness was upon the face of the bits.
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And the Fingers of the Author moved upon the face of the
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keyboard. And the Author said, Let there be words, and there
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were words.</quote></para></blockquote>
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<para>The Linux System Administrator's Guide,
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describes the system administration aspects of using Linux.
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It is intended for people who know next to nothing about system
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administration (those saying ``what is it?''), but who have already
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mastered at least the basics of normal usage. This manual
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doesn't tell you how to install Linux; that is described in the
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Installation and Getting Started document. See below for more
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information about Linux manuals.</para>
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<para>System administration covers all the things that you have to
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do to keep a computer system in usable order. It includes
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things like backing up files (and restoring them if necessary),
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installing new programs, creating accounts for users (and deleting
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them when no longer needed), making certain that the filesystem
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is not corrupted, and so on. If a computer were, say, a house,
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system administration would be called maintenance, and would
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include cleaning, fixing broken windows, and other such things.
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</para>
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<para>The structure of this manual is such that many of the
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chapters should be usable independently, so if you need information
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about backups, for example, you can read just that chapter. However,
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this manual is first and foremost a tutorial and can be read
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sequentially or as a whole.</para>
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<para>This manual is not intended to be used completely
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independently. Plenty of the rest of the Linux documentation is also
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important for system administrators. After all, a system
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administrator is just a user with special privileges and duties.
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Very useful resources are the manual pages, which should always be
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consulted when you are not familiar with a command. If you do not
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know which command you need, then the <command>apropos</command>
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command can be used. Consult its manual page for more details.</para>
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<para>While this manual is targeted at Linux, a general principle
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has been that it should be useful with other UNIX based operating
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systems as well. Unfortunately, since there is so much variance
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between different versions of UNIX in general, and in system
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administration in particular, there is little hope to cover
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all variants. Even covering all possibilities for Linux is
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difficult, due to the nature of its development.</para>
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<para>There is no one official Linux distribution, so different
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people have different setups and many people have a setup they
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have built up themselves. This book is not targeted at any
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one distribution. Distributions can and do vary considerably.
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When possible, differences have been noted and alternatives
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given. For a list of distributions <indexterm id="Linux-distro">
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<primary>Linux</primary><secondary>Distributions</secondary></indexterm>
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and some of their differences see
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<ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions">
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions</ulink>.
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</para>
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<para>In trying to describe how things work, rather than just
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listing ``five easy steps'' for each task, there is much information
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here that is not necessary for everyone, but those parts are marked
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as such and can be skipped if you use a preconfigured system.
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Reading everything will, naturally, increase your understanding of
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the system and should make using and administering it more
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productive.</para>
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<para>Understanding is the key to success with Linux. This book
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could just provide recipes, but what would you do when confronted by
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a problem this book had no recipe for? If the book can provide
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understanding, then recipes are not required. The answers will be self
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evident.</para>
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<para>Like all other Linux related development, the work
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to write this manual was done on a volunteer basis: I did it because
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I thought it might be fun and because I felt it should be done.
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However, like all volunteer work, there is a limit to how much time,
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knowledge and experience people have. This means that the manual is
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not necessarily as good as it would be if a wizard had been paid
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handsomely to write it
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and had spent millennia to perfect it. Be warned.</para>
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<para>One particular point where corners have been cut is that
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many things that are already well documented in other freely
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available manuals are not always covered here. This applies
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especially to program specific documentation, such as all the
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details of using <command>mkfs</command>. Only the purpose of the
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program and as much of its usage as is necessary for the purposes of
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this manual is described. For further information, consult these
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other manuals. Usually, all of the referred to documentation is
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part of the full Linux
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documentation set.</para>
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<sect1 id="GNU-or-not">
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<title>Linux or GNU/Linux, that is the question.</title>
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<para>Many people feel that Linux should really be called GNU/Linux.
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<indexterm id="ch01-GNU-or-not"><primary>Linux</primary><secondary>GNU
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</secondary></indexterm>
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This is because Linux is only the kernel, not the applications that run
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on it. Most of the basic command line utilities were written by the
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Free Software Foundation while developing their GNU operating system.
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Among those utilities are some of the most basic commands like cp, mv,
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lsof, and dd.</para>
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<para>In a nutshell, what happened was, the FSF <indexterm id="fsf">
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<primary>Free Software Foundation</primary></indexterm>started developing GNU
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by writing things like compliers, C libraries, and basic command line
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utilities before the kernel. Linus Torvalds, started Linux by writing
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the Linux kernel first and using applications written for GNU.</para>
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<para>I do not feel that this is the proper forum to debate what name
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people should use when referring to Linux. I mention it here, because
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I feel it is important to understand the relationship between GNU and
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Linux, and to also explain why some Linux is sometimes referred to as
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GNU/Linux. The document will be simply referring to it as Linux.
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</para>
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<para>GNU's side of the issue is discussed on their website:</para>
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<para>The relationship -
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<ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">
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http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html</ulink></para>
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<para>Why Linux should be GNU/Linux - <ulink
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url="http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html">
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http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html</ulink></para>
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<para>GNU/Linux FAQ's - <ulink
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url="http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html">
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http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html</ulink></para>
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<para>Here are some Alternate views:</para>
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<para><ulink url="http://librenix.com/?inode=2312">
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http://librenix.com/?inode=2312</ulink></para>
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<para><ulink url="http://www.topology.org/linux/lingl.html">
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http://www.topology.org/linux/lingl.html</ulink></para>
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<para><ulink url="http://atulchitnis.net/writings/gnulinux.php">
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http://atulchitnis.net/writings/gnulinux.php</ulink></para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title>Trademarks</title>
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<para>Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP
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are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
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</para>
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<para>Red Hat is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc., in the United States
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and other countries.</para>
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<para>SuSE is a trademark of Novell.</para>
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<para>Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.</para>
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<para>UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other
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countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd.</para>
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<para>GNU is a registered trademark of the Free Software Foundation.
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</para>
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<para>Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or
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registered trademarks of their respective companies. </para>
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</chapter>
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