266 lines
6.8 KiB
HTML
266 lines
6.8 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
|
||
|
<HTML
|
||
|
><HEAD
|
||
|
><TITLE
|
||
|
>Introduction</TITLE
|
||
|
><META
|
||
|
NAME="GENERATOR"
|
||
|
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK
|
||
|
REL="HOME"
|
||
|
TITLE="Linux System Administrators Guide"
|
||
|
HREF="index.html"><LINK
|
||
|
REL="PREVIOUS"
|
||
|
TITLE="Typographical Conventions"
|
||
|
HREF="typo-conventions.html"><LINK
|
||
|
REL="NEXT"
|
||
|
TITLE="Linux or GNU/Linux, that is the question."
|
||
|
HREF="gnu-or-not.html"></HEAD
|
||
|
><BODY
|
||
|
CLASS="CHAPTER"
|
||
|
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
|
||
|
TEXT="#000000"
|
||
|
LINK="#0000FF"
|
||
|
VLINK="#840084"
|
||
|
ALINK="#0000FF"
|
||
|
><DIV
|
||
|
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
|
||
|
><TABLE
|
||
|
SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
|
||
|
WIDTH="100%"
|
||
|
BORDER="0"
|
||
|
CELLPADDING="0"
|
||
|
CELLSPACING="0"
|
||
|
><TR
|
||
|
><TH
|
||
|
COLSPAN="3"
|
||
|
ALIGN="center"
|
||
|
>Linux System Administrators Guide: </TH
|
||
|
></TR
|
||
|
><TR
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="10%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="left"
|
||
|
VALIGN="bottom"
|
||
|
><A
|
||
|
HREF="typo-conventions.html"
|
||
|
ACCESSKEY="P"
|
||
|
>Prev</A
|
||
|
></TD
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="80%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="center"
|
||
|
VALIGN="bottom"
|
||
|
></TD
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="10%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="right"
|
||
|
VALIGN="bottom"
|
||
|
><A
|
||
|
HREF="gnu-or-not.html"
|
||
|
ACCESSKEY="N"
|
||
|
>Next</A
|
||
|
></TD
|
||
|
></TR
|
||
|
></TABLE
|
||
|
><HR
|
||
|
ALIGN="LEFT"
|
||
|
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
|
||
|
><DIV
|
||
|
CLASS="CHAPTER"
|
||
|
><H1
|
||
|
><A
|
||
|
NAME="INTRO"
|
||
|
></A
|
||
|
>Chapter 1. Introduction</H1
|
||
|
><DIV
|
||
|
CLASS="TOC"
|
||
|
><DL
|
||
|
><DT
|
||
|
><B
|
||
|
>Table of Contents</B
|
||
|
></DT
|
||
|
><DT
|
||
|
>1.1. <A
|
||
|
HREF="gnu-or-not.html"
|
||
|
>Linux or GNU/Linux, that is the question.</A
|
||
|
></DT
|
||
|
><DT
|
||
|
>1.2. <A
|
||
|
HREF="x186.html"
|
||
|
>Trademarks</A
|
||
|
></DT
|
||
|
></DL
|
||
|
></DIV
|
||
|
><A
|
||
|
NAME="AEN143"
|
||
|
></A
|
||
|
><BLOCKQUOTE
|
||
|
CLASS="BLOCKQUOTE"
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
><SPAN
|
||
|
CLASS="QUOTE"
|
||
|
>"In the beginning, the file was without
|
||
|
form, and void; and emptiness was upon the face of the bits.
|
||
|
And the Fingers of the Author moved upon the face of the
|
||
|
keyboard. And the Author said, Let there be words, and there
|
||
|
were words."</SPAN
|
||
|
></P
|
||
|
></BLOCKQUOTE
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>The Linux System Administrator's Guide,
|
||
|
describes the system administration aspects of using Linux.
|
||
|
It is intended for people who know next to nothing about system
|
||
|
administration (those saying ``what is it?''), but who have already
|
||
|
mastered at least the basics of normal usage. This manual
|
||
|
doesn't tell you how to install Linux; that is described in the
|
||
|
Installation and Getting Started document. See below for more
|
||
|
information about Linux manuals.</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>System administration covers all the things that you have to
|
||
|
do to keep a computer system in usable order. It includes
|
||
|
things like backing up files (and restoring them if necessary),
|
||
|
installing new programs, creating accounts for users (and deleting
|
||
|
them when no longer needed), making certain that the filesystem
|
||
|
is not corrupted, and so on. If a computer were, say, a house,
|
||
|
system administration would be called maintenance, and would
|
||
|
include cleaning, fixing broken windows, and other such things.
|
||
|
</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>The structure of this manual is such that many of the
|
||
|
chapters should be usable independently, so if you need information
|
||
|
about backups, for example, you can read just that chapter. However,
|
||
|
this manual is first and foremost a tutorial and can be read
|
||
|
sequentially or as a whole.</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>This manual is not intended to be used completely
|
||
|
independently. Plenty of the rest of the Linux documentation is also
|
||
|
important for system administrators. After all, a system
|
||
|
administrator is just a user with special privileges and duties.
|
||
|
Very useful resources are the manual pages, which should always be
|
||
|
consulted when you are not familiar with a command. If you do not
|
||
|
know which command you need, then the <B
|
||
|
CLASS="COMMAND"
|
||
|
>apropos</B
|
||
|
>
|
||
|
command can be used. Consult its manual page for more details.</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>While this manual is targeted at Linux, a general principle
|
||
|
has been that it should be useful with other UNIX based operating
|
||
|
systems as well. Unfortunately, since there is so much variance
|
||
|
between different versions of UNIX in general, and in system
|
||
|
administration in particular, there is little hope to cover
|
||
|
all variants. Even covering all possibilities for Linux is
|
||
|
difficult, due to the nature of its development.</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>There is no one official Linux distribution, so different
|
||
|
people have different setups and many people have a setup they
|
||
|
have built up themselves. This book is not targeted at any
|
||
|
one distribution. Distributions can and do vary considerably.
|
||
|
When possible, differences have been noted and alternatives
|
||
|
given. For a list of distributions
|
||
|
and some of their differences see
|
||
|
<A
|
||
|
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions"
|
||
|
TARGET="_top"
|
||
|
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions</A
|
||
|
>.
|
||
|
</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>In trying to describe how things work, rather than just
|
||
|
listing ``five easy steps'' for each task, there is much information
|
||
|
here that is not necessary for everyone, but those parts are marked
|
||
|
as such and can be skipped if you use a preconfigured system.
|
||
|
Reading everything will, naturally, increase your understanding of
|
||
|
the system and should make using and administering it more
|
||
|
productive.</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>Understanding is the key to success with Linux. This book
|
||
|
could just provide recipes, but what would you do when confronted by
|
||
|
a problem this book had no recipe for? If the book can provide
|
||
|
understanding, then recipes are not required. The answers will be self
|
||
|
evident.</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>Like all other Linux related development, the work
|
||
|
to write this manual was done on a volunteer basis: I did it because
|
||
|
I thought it might be fun and because I felt it should be done.
|
||
|
However, like all volunteer work, there is a limit to how much time,
|
||
|
knowledge and experience people have. This means that the manual is
|
||
|
not necessarily as good as it would be if a wizard had been paid
|
||
|
handsomely to write it
|
||
|
and had spent millennia to perfect it. Be warned.</P
|
||
|
><P
|
||
|
>One particular point where corners have been cut is that
|
||
|
many things that are already well documented in other freely
|
||
|
available manuals are not always covered here. This applies
|
||
|
especially to program specific documentation, such as all the
|
||
|
details of using <B
|
||
|
CLASS="COMMAND"
|
||
|
>mkfs</B
|
||
|
>. Only the purpose of the
|
||
|
program and as much of its usage as is necessary for the purposes of
|
||
|
this manual is described. For further information, consult these
|
||
|
other manuals. Usually, all of the referred to documentation is
|
||
|
part of the full Linux
|
||
|
documentation set.</P
|
||
|
></DIV
|
||
|
><DIV
|
||
|
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
|
||
|
><HR
|
||
|
ALIGN="LEFT"
|
||
|
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
|
||
|
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
|
||
|
WIDTH="100%"
|
||
|
BORDER="0"
|
||
|
CELLPADDING="0"
|
||
|
CELLSPACING="0"
|
||
|
><TR
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="left"
|
||
|
VALIGN="top"
|
||
|
><A
|
||
|
HREF="typo-conventions.html"
|
||
|
ACCESSKEY="P"
|
||
|
>Prev</A
|
||
|
></TD
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="34%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="center"
|
||
|
VALIGN="top"
|
||
|
><A
|
||
|
HREF="index.html"
|
||
|
ACCESSKEY="H"
|
||
|
>Home</A
|
||
|
></TD
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="right"
|
||
|
VALIGN="top"
|
||
|
><A
|
||
|
HREF="gnu-or-not.html"
|
||
|
ACCESSKEY="N"
|
||
|
>Next</A
|
||
|
></TD
|
||
|
></TR
|
||
|
><TR
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="left"
|
||
|
VALIGN="top"
|
||
|
>Typographical Conventions</TD
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="34%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="center"
|
||
|
VALIGN="top"
|
||
|
> </TD
|
||
|
><TD
|
||
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
|
ALIGN="right"
|
||
|
VALIGN="top"
|
||
|
>Linux or GNU/Linux, that is the question.</TD
|
||
|
></TR
|
||
|
></TABLE
|
||
|
></DIV
|
||
|
></BODY
|
||
|
></HTML
|
||
|
>
|