Conventions of This Book

Introductions

There's a certain amount of overhead involved in learning the Linux system. Some of the concepts can be counterintuitive at first glance, particularly if you're still in the process of switching over from one of the lesser operating systems. Each chapter in this book starts off with a few of pages of notes about the concepts, terms, and theory underlying the commands. Hopefully, this will help you get a feel for how the commands make up subsystems and how the subsystems make up Linux.

Related Files

Most Unix commands take configuration or startup information from one or more files. The entries in this section are a listing of the files associated with the commands in each chapter.

Commands

Each chapter contains a detailed listing of commands, together with options and examples. The typographical conversions used in the command section are explained below:

Commands are listed in the left-hand margins.

Options are listed to the right of the command and above the descripting text.

Tips and notes are set off with the following icons:

File names and paths are listed in bold italics.

Examples are centered and in bold print:

example

Commands that must be run as the superuser are indicated with the following icon:

Occasionally, I will put comments within an example command. In that case, the command will appear as usual, but the comment will be off to the side, not in bold type, and indicated with the pound sign (#).

command # comment

Sample output of system commands is listed in plain text:

This is typed exactly as it appeared on screen.

A Final Word

Any single book that purports to cover the entire Linux operating system is probably lying. There's so much going on that what you can fit between two covers is, of necessity, a reflection of the experiences and prejudices of its author. To the extent that I neglected <your favorite command/suite/utility> I really do apologize. If it's any consolation, it wasn't from lack of effort. If you have comments, corrections, or suggestions for improvement, feel free to contact me at:

s_hawkins@mindspring.com

As a postscript, some of you may be wondering about the significance of the Minotaur on the cover of this book. Tradition has it that Daedalus, a mythological inventor and the spiritual ancestor of hackers everywhere, built a large and complex maze in Crete (the Labyrinth, capital L) at the behest of King Minos. The Minotaur was a bastard child of the Queen Pasiphae (Minos' wife) and some unusually handsome livestock. He had a man's body and the head of a bull, which (understandably) made him a bit shy and grumpy. Perhaps as a consequence, he was also very territorial he never left the Labyrinth, and ran it with an iron fist. Most significantly, the Mintaur had little patience with incompetence. He was famous throughout the kingdom for biting the heads off any ignorant schmucks who became lost in his world. When I was asked to suggest a mythological beastie for the cover of a system administration text, there was really only one choice.