Contents
Chapter 1: Starting Linux Command-Line Administration
Commands, Options, and Arguments
Getting Information on Installed Packages
Using the Shell to Best Effect
Managing Bash with Key Sequences
Chapter 2: Performing Essential Command Line tasks
Obtaining Information About Other Users
Communicating with Other Users
Sending Mail from the Command Line
Finding Your Way in the File System
Working with the Linux File System
Displaying a Calendar with cal
Clearing Your Screen with clear
Displaying System Information with uname and hostname
Counting Words, Lines, and Characters with wc
Changing and Showing Date and Time with date
Chapter 3: Administering the Linux File System
Automating Mounts with /etc/fstab
Checking File System Integrity
Making Device Backups Using dd
Chapter 4: Working with Text Files
Changing All Occurrences of a String in a Text File
Displaying Contents of Text Files
Showing File Contents with cat and tac
Showing a File’s Last Lines with tail
Displaying the First Lines in a File with head
Browsing File Contents with less and more
Cool Text File Manipulation Tools
Changing Contents in a Batch with tr
Finding Differences Between Text Files with diff
Checking Whether a Line Exists Twice with uniq
Getting Specific Information with cut
Advanced Text File Filtering and Processing
Working with Basic Regular Expressions
Working with Programmable Filters
Chapter 5: Managing Partitions and Logical Volumes
Understanding MBR and GPT Disks
Managing Partitions with fdisk
Creating GPT Partitions with gdisk
Recovering Lost Partitions with gpart
Setting Up a Disk with Logical Volume Manager
About Superblocks, Inode Bitmaps, and Block Bitmaps
Analyzing and Repairing XFS File Systems
Resizing a File System in a Logical Volume
Resizing Partitions with GParted
Working with Windows File Systems
Chapter 6: Managing Users and Groups
Understanding Users and Their Properties
Working with Default Values for User Management
Performing Account Maintenance with passwd
Behind the Commands: Configuration Files
Managing the User’s Shell Environment
Showing Messages to Users Logging In
Applying Quota to Allow a Maximum Amount of Files
Preparing the File System for Quota
Setting Quota for Users and Groups
Techniques Behind Authentication
Understanding Pluggable Authentication Modules
The role of /etc/nsswitch.conf
Configuring Administrator Tasks with sudo
Chapter 7: Managing Permissions
Basic Permissions: Read, Write, and Execute
Understanding Read, Write, and Execute Permissions
Applying Read, Write, and Execute Permissions
Understanding Advanced Permissions
Working with Access Control Lists
Preparing Your File System for ACLs
Changing and Viewing ACL Settings with setfacl and getfacl
Setting Default Permissions with umask
Understanding Software Management
Managing .deb Software Repositories
Ubuntu Package Management Utilities
Chapter 9: Process and System Management
Showing Parent-Child Relations with pstree
Adjusting Process Priority with nice
Understanding cron.{hourly|daily|weekly|monthly}
Configuring the syslog Service
Sending Logs Yourself with logger
Chapter 11: Configuring the Network
A Quick Introduction to Computer Networking
Understanding Network Device Naming
Using Virtual Ip addresses with ifconfig
Storing IP Address Configuration on Ubuntu
Storing IP Address Configuration on Red Hat
Storing IP Address Configuration on SUSE
Managing the Default Route with route
Managing the Default Route with the ip Tool
Resolving DNS Names to IP Addresses
The Role of the /etc/nsswitch.conf File
Tuning the Network Card with ethtool
Testing Availability of Services
Connecting Remotely with Secure Shell
Working with Public/Private Key Pairs
Using SSH Key-Based Authentication
Caching Keys with ssh- ssh-agent
Chapter 12: Configuring a File Server
Operating File Servers Securely
Background of the Samba Project
Configuring a Samba File Server
Chapter 13: Working with the Kernel
Loading and Unloading Modules with modprobe
Displaying Module Properties with modinfo
Legacy Commands for Module Management
Compiling Your Own Kernel and Kernel Modules
Modifying and Compiling the Kernel
Chapter 14: Introduction to Bash Shell Scripting
Elements of a Good Shell Script
Working with Variables and Input
Variables, Subshells, and Sourcing