1.4. What is this Book About?

This book explains how to install Webmin, how to use almost all of its modules, and how to write your own. The book focuses on the standard modules that come with the Webmin package, not those written by other people. Not all of the 83 standard modules are covered, however, as some are not very useful to the average administrator.

Although this book is written primarily for Linux users, the program behaves almost identically on other operating systems. Each chapter also lists any differences between Linux and other UNIX variants in their “Other Operating Systems” sections. This means that it is still very useful if you are running Webmin on FreeBSD, Solaris, MacOS X, or some other variety of UNIX.

Each chapter in the book covers the use of Webmin for managing a particular service or server, such as NFS exports, Sendmail, or the ProFTPD FTP server. Most chapters only discuss a single module, but some cover two or three that have similar or related purposes. Each chapter is pretty much self-contained, so there is no need to read through the entire book in sequence if you just want to find out how to configure one server. Chapters 2, 3, and possibly Chapter 52, however, should be read first as they explain how to install Webmin, how to secure it, and how to limit what other users can do with a module, respectively.

Each chapter is broken up into sections, and most sections explain how to perform a specific task. A section will generally contain an introduction to the task explaining why you might want to do it, followed by a list of steps to follow in the Webmin user interface to carry it out. At the beginning of each chapter are sections that introduce the server being configured and the concepts behind it, and list the underlying configuration files that get modified when you use the module covered in that chapter.

Chapters 55 to 60 cover the development of your own Webmin modules and themes, and therefore have a different style. The average user does not need to read them, but if you have an idea for a module that is not currently available, they provide all the information that you need to implement it.