Finding Linux-Related Information

Red Hat Linux comes with reference pages stored online. You can read these documents by using the info (page 106) or man (page 104) utilities. You can read man and info pages to get more information about specific topics while reading this book or to determine which features are available with Linux. You can search for topics using apropos (see page 145 or give the command man apropos).

Documentation

Good books are available on various aspects of using and managing UNIX systems in general and Linux systems in particular. In addition, you may find the sites listed in Table B-1 useful.^[1]

^[1] The right-hand columns of most of the tables in this appendix show Internet addresses (URLs). All sites have an implicit http:// prefix unless ftp:// or https:// is shown. Refer to "URLs (Web addresses)" on page 18.

Table B-1. Documentation

Site	About the site	URL
freedesktop.org	Creates standards for interoperability between open-source desktop environments.	freedesktop.org
GNOME	GNOME home page.	www.gnome.org
GNU Manuals	GNU manuals.	www.gnu.org/manual
Internet FAQ Archives	Searchable FAQ archives.	www.faqs.org
info	Instructions for using the info utility.	www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/info
KDE Documentation	KDE documentation.	kde.org/documentation
KDE News	KDE news.	dot.kde.org
The Linux Documentation Project	All things related to Linux documentation (in many languages): HOWTOs, guides, FAQs, man pages, and magazines. This is the best overall source for Linux documentation. Make sure to visit the Links page.	www.tldp.org
Red Hat Documentation and Support	This site has a link to the Red Hat Knowledgebase that can help answer questions. It also has links to online documentation for Red Hat products and to a support guide.	www.redhat.com/apps/support
RFCs	Request for comments; see RFC (page 1052).	www.rfc-editor.org
System Administrators Guild (SAGE)	SAGE is a group for system administrators.	www.sage.org

Useful Linux Sites

Sometimes the sites listed in Table B-2 are so busy that you cannot connect to them. In this case, you are usually given a list of alternative, or mirror, sites to try.

Table B-2. Useful Linux Sites

Site	About the site	URL
DistroWatch	A survey of many Linux distributions, including news, reviews, and articles.	distrowatch.com
GNU	GNU Project Web server.	www.gnu.org
ibiblio	A large library and digital archive. Formerly Metalab; formerly Sunsite.	www.ibiblio.org www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux www.ibiblio.org/pub/historic-linux
LinuxHQ.org	An administrator and power user resource site.	www.linuxhq.org
Linux Standard Base (LSB)	A group dedicated to standardizing Linux.	www.linuxbase.org
Rpmfind.Net	A good source for rpm files, especially when you need a specific version.	rpmfind.net
Sobell	The author's home page contains useful links, errata for this book, code for many of the examples in this book, and answers to selected exercises.	www.sobell.com
USENIX	A large, well-established UNIX group. This site has many links, including a list of conferences.	www.usenix.org
X.Org	The X Window System home.	www.x.org

Linux Newsgroups

One of the best ways of getting specific information is through a newsgroup (refer to "Usenet" on page 378). Frequently you can find the answer to a question by reading postings to the newsgroup. Try using Google Groups (groups.google.com) to search through newsgroups to see whether the question has already been asked and answered. Or open a newsreader program and subscribe to appropriate newsgroups. If necessary, you can post a question for someone to answer. Before you do so, make sure you are posting to the correct group and that your question has not already been answered. There is an etiquette to posting questionssee www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html for a good paper by Eric S. Raymond and Rick Moen titled "How To Ask Questions the Smart Way."

The newsgroup comp.os.linux.answers provides postings of solutions to common problems and periodic postings of the most up-to-date versions of the FAQ and HOWTO documents. The comp.os.linux.misc newsgroup has answers to miscellaneous Linux-related questions.

Mailing Lists

Subscribing to a mailing list (page 646) allows you to participate in an electronic discussion. With most lists, you can send and receive email dedicated to a specific topic to and from a group of users. Moderated lists do not tend to stray as much as unmoderated lists, assuming the list has a good moderator. The disadvantage of a moderated list is that some discussions may be cut off when they get interesting if the moderator deems that the discussion has gone on for too long. Mailing lists described as bulletins are strictly unidirectional: You cannot post information to these lists but can only receive periodic bulletins. If you have the subscription address for a mailing list but are not sure how to subscribe, put the word help in the body and/or header of email that you send to the address. You will usually receive instructions via return email. Red Hat hosts several mailing lists; go to www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo for more information. You can also use a search engine to search for mailing list linux.

Words

Many dictionaries, thesauruses, and glossaries are available online. Table B-3 lists a few of them.

Table B-3. Looking up words

Site	About the site	URL
ROGET'S Thesaurus	Thesaurus	humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/ROGET.html
DICT.org	Multiple-database search for words	www.dict.org
Dictionary.com	Everything related to words	dictionary.reference.com
DNS Glossary	DNS glossary	www.menandmice.com/online_docs_and_faq/glossary/glossarytoc.htm
FOLDOC (The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing)	Computer terms	www.foldoc.org
The Jargon File	An online version of The New Hacker's Dictionary	www.catb.org/~esr/jargon
Merriam-Webster	English language	www.m-w.com
OneLook	Multiple-site word search with a single query	www.onelook.com
Webopedia	Commercial technical dictionary	www.webopedia.com
Wikipedia	An open-source (user-contributed) encyclopedia project	wikipedia.org
Wordsmyth	Dictionary and thesaurus	www.wordsmyth.net
Yahoo Reference	Search multiple sources at the same time	education.yahoo.com/reference

Software

There are many ways to learn about interesting software packages and their availability on the Internet. Table B-4 lists sites that you can download software from. For security-related programs, refer to Table C-1 on page 1002. Another way to learn about software packages is through a newsgroup (page 981).

Table B-4. Software

Site	About the site	URL
Apt	Apt installs, removes, and updates system software packages	apt.freshrpms.net
BitTorrent	BitTorrent efficiently distributes large amounts of static data	www.bittorrent.com
CVS	CVS (Concurrent Versions System) is a version control system	www.nongnu.org/cvs
ddd	The ddd utility is a graphical front end for command line debuggers such as gdb	www.gnu.org/software/ddd
Firefox	Web browser	www.mozilla.com/firefox
Free Software Directory	Categorized, searchable lists of free software	directory.fsf.org
Freshmeat	A large index of UNIX and cross-platform software and themes	freshmeat.net
gdb	The gdb utility is a command line debugger	www.gnu.org/software/gdb
GNOME Project	Links to all GNOME projects	www.gnome.org/projects
IceWALKERS	Categorized, searchable lists of free software	www.icewalkers.com
kdbg	The kdbg utility is a graphical user interface to gdb	freshmeat.net/projects/kdbg
Linux Software Map	A database of packages written for, ported to, or compiled for Linux	www.boutell.com/lsm
Mtools	A collection of utilities to access DOS floppy diskettes from Linux without mounting the diskettes	mtools.linux.lu
Network Calculators	Subnet mask calculator	www.subnetmask.info
rpmfind.net	Searchable list of rpm files for various Linux distributions and versions	rpmfind.net/linux/RPM
Savannah	Central point for development, distribution, and maintenance of free software	savannah.gnu.org
SourceForge	A development Web site with a large repository of open-source code and applications	sourceforge.net
strace	The strace utility is a system call trace debugging tool	www.liacs.nl/~wichert/stracesourceforge.net/projects/strace
Thunderbird	Mail application	www.mozilla.com/thunderbird
Tucows-Linux	Commercial, categorized, searchable list of software	www.tucows.com/Linux
ups	The ups utility is a graphical source-level debugger	ups.sourceforge.net
yum	The yum utility installs, removes, and updates system software packages	linux.duke.edu/projects/yumapt.freshrpms.net

Office Suites and Word Processors

Several office suites and many word processors are available for Linux. Table B-5 lists a few of them. If you are exchanging documents with people using Windows, make sure the import from/export to MS Word functionality covers your needs.

Table B-5. Office suites and word processors

Product name	What it does	URL
AbiWord	Word processor	www.abisource.com
KOffice	Integrated suite of office applications including the KWord word processing program	www.koffice.org
OpenOffice	A multiplatform and multilingual office suite	www.openoffice.org www.gnome.org/projects/ooo
Xcoral	A programmer's multiwindow mouse based editor that runs under X	xcoral.free.fr