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Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, A, 4th Edition

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Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, A, 4th Edition

By Mark G. Sobell
Published May 9, 2008 by Pearson.

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Description

Copyright 2008
Edition: 4th

Book
ISBN-10: 0-13-714295-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-714295-8

Master All the Techniques You Need to Succeed with Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the Workplace

You’re studying Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a single goal: to succeed with these state-of-the-art operating systems in real workplace environments. In this book, one of the world’s leading Linux experts brings together all the knowledge you’ll need to achieve that goal. Writing in plain English, best-selling author Mark Sobell explains Linux clearly and effectively, focusing on the skills you will actually use as a professional administrator, user, or programmer. Sobell assumes no prior Linux knowledge: He starts at the very beginning and walks you through every topic and skill that matters.

Step by step, you’ll learn how to install and configure Linux from the accompanying DVD, navigate its graphical user interfaces, set up Linux to provide file/print sharing and Internet services, make sure Linux desktops and networks are as secure as possible, work with the powerful command line, and administer Linux in real business environments.

Mark Sobell has taught hundreds of thousands of Linux and UNIX professionals. He knows every Linux nook and cranny–and he never forgets what it’s like to be new to Linux. Whatever your Linux-related career goals, this book gives you all you need–and more.

Compared with the other Linux books out there, A Practical Guide to Fedora^™ and Red Hat^® Enterprise Linux^®, College Edition, delivers

Complete, up-to-the-minute coverage of Fedora 8 and Enterprise Linux 5
Deeper coverage of the command line and the GNOME and KDE GUIs, including customizing the desktop
More practical coverage of file sharing using Samba, NFS, and FTP
More usable, realistic coverage of Internet server configuration, including Apache, sendmail, NFS, DNS/BIND, and LDAP
More state-of-the-art security techniques, including SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux), ACLs (Access Control Lists), firewall setup using both the Red Hat GUI and iptables, and a full chapter on OpenSSH
More and better coverage of “meat-and-potatoes” system/network administration tasks
A more practical introduction to writing bash shell scripts
Complete instructions on keeping Linux systems up-to-date using yum
And much more...including a 500+ term glossary and a comprehensive index to help you find what you need fast!

Includes DVD! Get the full version of the Fedora 8 release!

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Extras

Author's Site

Please visit the author's website at www.sobell.com .

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Sample Content

Preface xxxi

Chapter 1: Welcome to Linux 1

The GNU—Linux Connection 2

The Linux 2.6 Kernel 5

The Heritage of Linux: UNIX 5

What Is So Good About Linux? 6

Overview of Linux 10

Additional Features of Linux 14

Conventions Used in This Book 16

Chapter Summary 19

Exercises 19

Part I: Installing Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 21

Chapter 2: Installation Overview 23

The Desktop Live Media CD and the Install Media DVD 24

Planning the Installation 24

The Installation Process 36

The Medium: Where Is the Source Data? 36

Downloading a CD/DVD (FEDORA) 37

Checking and Burning the CD/DVD 41

Rescue CD 42

Gathering Information About the System 43

Finding the Installation Manual 44

More Information 44

Chapter Summary 45

Exercises 46

Advanced Exercises 46

Chapter 3: Step-by-Step Installation 47

Running a Fedora Live Session 48

Installing Fedora/RHEL Linux 50

Installation Tasks 63

The X Window System 80

Chapter Summary 88

Exercises 89

Advanced Exercises 89

Part II: Getting Started with Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 91

Chapter 4: Introduction to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 93

Curbing Your Power: Superuser/root Access 94

A Tour of the Fedora/RHEL Desktop 94

Getting the Facts: Where to Find Documentation 114

More About Logging In 123

Controlling Windows: Advanced Operations 131

Chapter Summary 134

Exercises 135

Advanced Exercises 136

Chapter 5: The Linux Utilities 137

Special Characters 138

Basic Utilities 139

Working with Files 141

| (Pipe): Communicates Between Processes 148

Four More Utilities 149

Compressing and Archiving Files 151

Locating Commands 156

Obtaining User and System Information 158

Communicating with Other Users 162

Email 164

Tutorial: Creating and Editing a File with vim 164

Chapter Summary 171

Exercises 174

Advanced Exercises 175

Chapter 6: The Linux Filesystem 177

The Hierarchical Filesystem 178

Directory Files and Ordinary Files 178

Pathnames 183

Directory Commands 185

Working with Directories 190

Access Permissions 192

ACLs: Access Control Lists 197

Links 202

Chapter Summary 208

Exercises 210

Advanced Exercises 212

Chapter 7: The Shell 213

The Command Line 214

Standard Input and Standard Output 220

Running a Program in the Background 231

Filename Generation/Pathname Expansion 233

Builtins 237

Chapter Summary 238

Exercises 239

Advanced Exercises 241

Part III: Digging into Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 243

Chapter 8: Linux GUIs: X, GNOME, and KDE 245

X Window System 246

Using GNOME 255

Using KDE 266

Chapter Summary 276

Exercises 277

Advanced Exercises 277

Chapter 9: The Bourne Again Shell 279

Background 280

Shell Basics 281

Parameters and Variables 299

Special Characters 313

Processes 314

History 316

Aliases 332

Functions 335

Controlling bash Features and Options 338

Processing the Command Line 342

Chapter Summary 351

Exercises 353

Advanced Exercises 355

Chapter 10: Networking and the Internet 357

Types of Networks and How They Work 359

Communicate Over a Network 374

Network Utilities 376

Distributed Computing 383

Usenet 392

WWW: World Wide Web 395

Chapter Summary 397

Exercises 398

Advanced Exercises 399

Part IV: System Administration 401

Chapter 11: System Administration: Core Concepts 403

System Administrator and Superuser 405

Rescue Mode 411

SELinux 414

System Operation 417

System Administration Utilities 429

Setting Up a Server 435

nsswitch.conf: Which Service to Look at First 449

PAM 452

Chapter Summary 457

Exercises 458

Advanced Exercises 459

Chapter 12: Files, Directories, and Filesystems 461

Important Files and Directories 462

File Types 473

Filesystems 478

Chapter Summary 487

Exercises 488

Advanced Exercises 488

Chapter 13: Downloading and Installing Software 489

yum: Keeps the System Up-to-Date 490

pirut: Adds and Removes Software Packages 497

BitTorrent 498

rpm: Red Hat Package Manager 501

Installing Non-rpm Software 504

Keeping Software Up-to-Date 506

wget: Downloads Files Noninteractively 508

Chapter Summary 509

Exercises 509

Advanced Exercises 509

Chapter 14: Printing with CUPS 511

Introduction 512

JumpStart I: Configuring a Local Printer 513

system-config-printer: Configuring a Printer 514

JumpStart II: Configuring a Remote Printer Using the CUPS Web Interface 518

Traditional UNIX Printing 523

Configuring Printers 524

The KDE Printing Manager 531

Printing from Windows 532

Printing to Windows 534

Chapter Summary 534

Exercises 535

Advanced Exercises 535

Chapter 15: Rebuilding the Linux Kernel 537

Preparing the Source Code 538

Read the Documentation 540

Configuring and Compiling the Linux Kernel 541

Installing the Kernel and Associated Files 544

Rebooting 544

Boot Loader 545

dmesg: Displays Kernel Messages 547

Chapter Summary 547

Exercises 548

Advanced Exercises 548

Chapter 16: Administration Tasks 549

Configuring User and Group Accounts 550

Backing Up Files 552

Scheduling Tasks 559

System Reports 560

Keeping Users Informed 563

Creating Problems 564

Solving Problems 565

Chapter Summary 576

Exercises 576

Advanced Exercises 577

Chapter 17: Configuring a LAN 579

Setting Up the Hardware 580

Configuring the Systems 582

Setting Up Servers 586

More Information 587

Chapter Summary 587

Exercises 588

Advanced Exercises 588

Part V: Using Clients and Setting Up Servers 589

Chapter 18: OpenSSH: Secure Network Communication 591

Introduction 592

About OpenSSH 592

OpenSSH Clients 595

sshd: OpenSSH Server 603

Troubleshooting 607

Tunneling/Port Forwarding 608

Chapter Summary 610

Exercises 610

Advanced Exercises 611

Chapter 19: FTP: Transferring Files Across a Network 613

Introduction 614

More Information 615

FTP Client 615

FTP Server (vsftpd) 624

Chapter Summary 636

Exercises 637

Advanced Exercises 637

Chapter 20: sendmail: Setting Up Mail Clients, Servers, and More 639

Introduction 640

JumpStart I: Configuring sendmail on a Client 642

JumpStart II: Configuring sendmail on a Server 643

How sendmail Works 644

Configuring sendmail 647

Additional Email Tools 652

Authenticated Relaying 662

Alternatives to sendmail 664

Chapter Summary 664

Exercises 665

Advanced Exercises 665

Chapter 21: NIS and LDAP 667

Introduction to NIS 668

How NIS Works 668

Setting Up an NIS Client 671

Setting Up an NIS Server 675

LDAP 682

Setting Up an LDAP Server 685

Chapter Summary 693

Exercises 694

Advanced Exercises 694

Chapter 22: NFS: Sharing Filesystems 697

Introduction 698

More Information 700

Setting Up an NFS Client 700

Setting Up an NFS Server 706

automount: Automatically Mounts Directory Hierarchies 714

Chapter Summary 716

Exercises 716

Advanced Exercises 717

Chapter 23: Samba: Integrating Linux and Windows 719

Introduction 720

About Samba 721

JumpStart: Configuring a Samba Server Using system-config-samba 723

swat: Configures a Samba Server 725

Manually Configuring a Samba Server 729

Accessing Linux Shares from Windows 735

Accessing Windows Shares from Linux 736

Troubleshooting 738

Chapter Summary 740

Exercises 741

Advanced Exercises 741

Chapter 24: DNS/BIND: Tracking Domain Names and Addresses 743

Introduction to DNS 744

About DNS 755

JumpStart I: Setting Up a DNS Cache 757

JumpStart II: Setting Up a Domain Using system-config-bind 759

Setting Up BIND 763

Troubleshooting 775

A Full-Functioned Nameserver 777

A Slave Server 780

A Split Horizon Server 781

Chapter Summary 786

Exercises 786

Advanced Exercises 787

Chapter 25: iptables: Setting Up a Firewall 789

How iptables Works 790

About iptables 792

JumpStart: Building a Firewall Using system-config-firewall 794

Anatomy of an iptables Command 795

Building a Set of Rules 796

system-config-firewall: Generates a Set of Rules 803

Sharing an Internet Connection Using NAT 805

Chapter Summary 809

Exercises 809

Advanced Exercises 809

Chapter 26: Apache (httpd): Setting Up a Web Server 811

Introduction 812

About Apache 812

JumpStart I: Getting Apache Up and Running 814

JumpStart II: Setting Up Apache Using system-config-httpd 816

Filesystem Layout 818

Configuration Directives 820

The Fedora/RHEL httpd.conf File 840

Redirects 843

Multiviews 844

Server-Generated Directory Listings (Indexing) 844

Virtual Hosts 844

Troubleshooting 845

Modules 846

webalizer: Analyzes Web Traffic 851

MRTG: Monitors Traffic Loads 852

Error Codes 852

Chapter Summary 853

Exercises 854

Advanced Exercises 854

Part VI: Programming 855

Chapter 27: Programming Tools 857

Programming in C 858

Using Shared Libraries 866

make: Keeps a Set of Programs Current 868

Debugging C Programs 876

Threads 886

System Calls 887

Source Code Management 889

Chapter Summary 899

Exercises 900

Advanced Exercises 901

Chapter 28: Programming the Bourne Again Shell 903

Control Structures 904

File Descriptors 937

Parameters and Variables 940

Builtin Commands 952

Expressions 966

Shell Programs 974

Chapter Summary 984

Exercises 986

Advanced Exercises 988

Part VII: Appendixes 991

Appendix A: Regular Expressions 993

Characters 994

Delimiters 994

Simple Strings 994

Special Characters 994

Rules 997

Bracketing Expressions 998

The Replacement String 998

Extended Regular Expressions 999

Appendix Summary 1001

Appendix B: Help 1003

Solving a Problem 1004

Finding Linux-Related Information 1005

Specifying a Terminal 1010

Appendix C: Security 1013

Encryption 1014

File Security 1019

Email Security 1019

Network Security 1020

Host Security 1023

Security Resources 1028

Appendix Summary 1031

Appendix D: The Free Software Definition 1033

Appendix E: The Linux 2.6 Kernel 1037

Native Posix Thread Library (NPTL) 1038

IPSecurity (IPSec) 1038

Asynchronous I/O (AIO) 1038

O(1) Scheduler 1039

OProfile 1039

kksymoops 1039

Reverse Map Virtual Memory (rmap VM) 1039

HugeTLBFS: Translation Look-Aside Buffer Filesystem 1040

remap_file_pages 1040

2.6 Network Stack Features (IGMPv3, IPv6, and Others) 1040

Internet Protocol Virtual Server (IPVS) 1040

Access Control Lists (ACLs) 1041

4GB-4GB Memory Split: Physical Address Extension (PAE) 1041

Scheduler Support for HyperThreaded CPUs 1041

Block I/O (BIO) Block Layer 1041

Support for Filesystems Larger Than 2 Terabytes 1042

New I/O Elevators 1042

Interactive Scheduler Response Tuning 1042

Glossary 1043

Index 1091

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