Finding Linux-Related Information

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Distributions of Linux come with reference pages stored online. You can read these documents by using the info (page 32) or man (page 30) 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 by using apropos (see page 62 or give the command man apropos).

Documentation

Good books are available on various aspects of using and administrating 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 23.

Useful Linux Sites

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

Table B-2. Useful Linux sites

Site

About the site

URL

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

Linux Knowledge Portal

A configurable site that gathers information from other sites and sources and presents it in a well-organized format. Sources include KDE News, GNOME News, Slashdot, and many more. In English and German.

www.linux-knowledge-portal.org

Linux Standard Base (LSB)

A group dedicated to standardizing Linux.

www.linuxbase.org

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. Frequently you can find the answer to your question by reading postings to the newsgroup. Try using Google Groups (groups.google.com) to search through newsgroups to see whether your question has already been asked and answered. Or open a newsreader program and subscribe to appropriate newsgroups. If necessary, you can post your question for someone to answer. Before you do so, make sure you are posting to the correct group and that your question has not been answered. There is an etiquette to posting questions see 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 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. 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

Apt

Apt installs, removes, and updates system software packages

apt.freshrpms.net

ARTFL Project: ROGET'S Thesaurus

Thesaurus

humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/ROGET.html

BitTorrent

BitTorrent efficiently distributes large amounts of static data

www.bittorrent.com

DICT.org

Multiple database search for words

www.dict.org

Dictionary.com

Everything related to words

www.dictionary.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

Merriam-Webster

English language

www.m-w.com

OneLook

Multiple-site word search with a single query

www.onelook.com

The Jargon File

An online version of The New Hacker's Dictionary

www.catb.org/~esr/jargon

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

yum

The yum utility installs, removes, and updates system software packages

linux.duke.edu/projects/yum

apt.freshrpms.net


Software

There are many ways to learn about interesting software packages and where they are available on the Internet. Table B-4 lists sites that you can download software from. Another way to learn about software packages is through a newsgroup (page 841).

Table B-4. Software

Site

About the site

URL

CVS

CVS (Concurrent Versions System) is a version control system

www.cvshome.org

ddd

The ddd utility is a graphical front end for command line debuggers such as gdb

www.gnu.org/software/ddd

Free Software Directory

Categorized, searchable lists of free software

www.gnu.org/directory

savannah.gnu.org

Freshmeat

A large index of UNIX and cross-platform software, themes, and Palm OS software

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

linuxapps

Categorized, searchable list of free software

www.linuxapps.com

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

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/strace

sourceforge.net/projects/strace

Tucows-Linux

Commercial, categorized, searchable list of software

linux.tucows.com

ups

The ups utility is a graphical source-level debugger

ups.sourceforge.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 (free)

www.abisource.com

KOffice

Integrated suite of office applications including the Kword word processing program (free, KDE-based)

www.koffice.org

OpenOffice

An open-source version of StarOffice

www.openoffice.org

www.gnome.org/projects/ooo

Xcoral

A programmer's multiwindow mouse-based editor that runs under X (free)

xcoral.free.fr


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    A Practical Guide to LinuxR Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming
    A Practical Guide to LinuxR Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming
    ISBN: 131478230
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 213

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