UNIX For Dummies by John Levine and Margaret Levine Young John Wiley & Sons © 2004 ISBN:0764541471 This guide presents thorough coverage of how to handle Unix installation, file management, software, utilities, networks, Internet access, GNOME and KDE desktops, common problems, and more Table of Contents Unix For Dummies Introduction Part I - Before the Beginning Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 - Log Me In, UNIX! - What Is UNIX, Anyway? - A Few Lines on Linux Part II - Some Basic Stuff Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 - Opening Windows on UNIX - Files for Fun and Profit - Directories for Fun and Profit - The Shell Game - Where’s That File? - Printing (The Gutenberg Thing) Part III - Getting Things Done Chapter 10 - Writing Deathless Prose Chapter 11 - Umpteen Useful UNIX Utilities Chapter 12 - Installing Software Can Be Tricky Chapter 13 - Juggling a Bunch of Programs Chapter 14 - Taming Linux Part IV - UNIX and the Net Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 - Your Computer Is Not Alone - Across a Crowded Network - Automating Your Office Gossip - Web Surfing for UNIX Users - Grabbing Files from the Net - Now Serving the Internet Part V - Help! Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 - Disaster Relief - The Case of the Missing Files - Some Programs Just Won’t Die - “My Computer Hates Me” Part VI - The Part of Tens Chapter 25 - Ten Common Mistakes Ten Times More Information Than You Chapter 26 Want about UNIX Index Cheat Sheet - UNIX For Dummies, 5th Edition List of Figures List of Tables List of Listings List of Sidebars Back Cover Understand the UNIX shell, go online with new browser options, and get things done So you’re using UNIX these days? Sure, it can be a little tricky, but this friendly guide will lead you through all its peculiarities Soon you’ll understand the GNOME and KDE desktops, know the secret names of your Web files, Samba with the file server, and most importantly, know how to sidestep common problems Discover how to: Find out which flavor of UNIX you have Manage UNIX on a LAN Handle files and directories for Web sites Build good directory structures Recover missing or damaged files About the Authors John Levine and Margaret Levine Young are the dynamic For Dummies duo with more than 50 books to their credit, including eight editions of The Internet For Dummies Unix For Dummies John R Levine Margaret Levine Young UNIXđ For Dummiesđ, 5th Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 Copyright â 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 108 or 109 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8700 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4447, e-mail: permcoordinator@wiley.com Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX Systems Laboratories, Inc All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation You should consult with a professional where appropriate Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S at 317-572-3993, or fax 317572-4002 Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books Library of Congress Control Number available from publisher ISBN: 0-7645-4147-1 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 5O/QZ/QR/QU/IN About the Authors John R Levine was a member of a computer club in high school — before high school students, or even high schools, had computers — where he met Theodor H Nelson, the author of Computer Lib/Dream Machines and the inventor of hypertext, who reminded us that computers should not be taken seriously and that everyone can and should understand and use computers John wrote his first program in 1967 on an IBM 1130 (a computer somewhat less powerful than your typical modern digital wristwatch, only more difficult to use) He became an official system administrator of a networked computer running UNIX at Yale in 1975 He began working part-time (for a computer company, of course) in 1977 and has been in and out of the computer and network biz ever since He got his company on Usenet (the Internet’s worldwide bulletin-board system) early enough that it appears in a 1982 Byte magazine article on a map of Usenet, which then was so small that the map fit on half a page Although John used to spend most of his time writing software, now he mostly writes books (including UNIX For Dummies and Privacy For Dummies, both published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.) because it’s more fun and he can do so at home in the tiny village of Trumansburg, New York, where he is the sewer commissioner (Guided tours! Free samples!) and can play with his small daughter when he’s supposed to be writing John also does a fair amount of public speaking (Go to www.johnlevine.com to see where he’ll be.) He holds a BA and a PhD in computer science from Yale University, but please don’t hold that against him In high school, Margaret Levine Young was in the same computer club as her big brother, John She stayed in the field throughout college against her better judgment and despite John’s presence as a graduate student in the computer science department Margy graduated from Yale and went on to become one of the first PC managers in the early 1980s at Columbia Pictures, where she rode the elevator with big stars whose names she wouldn’t dream of dropping here Since then, Margy has co-authored more than 25 computer books about the topics of the Internet, UNIX, WordPerfect, Microsoft Access, and (stab from the past) PC-File and Javelin, including Dummies 101: The Internet For Windows 98, UNIX For Dummies, and WordPerfect For Linux For Dummies (all published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.), and Windows XP: The Complete Reference and Internet: The Complete Reference (published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill) She met her future husband, Jordan, in the R.E.S.I.S.T.O.R.S (that computer club we mentioned) Her other passion is her children, along with music, Unitarian Universalism (www.uua.org), reading, and anything to do with eating She lives in Vermont (see www.gurus.com/margy for some scenery) Dedication John and Margy both dedicate this book to their dad, wherever he is When last sighted, he was traveling somewhere in China finding out just how great the wall is, unless he was at the beach here in the U.S — he’s a man who knows how to live! Authors’ Acknowledgments The authors thank Antonia Saxon, Jordan Young, Sarah Willow Levine Saxon, Meg Young, and Zac Young for putting up with us while we updated this book Thanks also go to our Internet providers: Finger Lakes Technologies Group and the Trumansburg Home Telephone Company (Trumansburg, NY), the Shoreham Telephone Company (Shoreham, VT), and SoVerNet (Bellows Falls, VT) We thank Peter Seebach for research and revisions (you can guess what that really means) on KDE and GNOME in Chapters 4 and 17, and Nancy McGough for helping make our comments on Linux bear at least some relation to reality Chris Morris patiently shepherded the text from our hazy scribblings (electronically speaking) to a printed book with a blend of patience and midnight wit He got lots of help, of course, from all the folks listed on the other side of this page Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/ Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor Christopher Morris (Previous Edition Rebecca Whitney) Acquisitions Editor Steven Hayes Copy Editor Rebecca Senninger Technical Editor James F Kelly Editorial Manager Kevin Kirschner Permissions Editor Laura Moss Media Development Specialist Travis Silvers Media Development Manager Laura VanWinkle Media Development Supervisor Richard Graves Editorial Assistant Amanda Foxworth Cartoons Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Production Project Coordinator Courtney MacIntyre Layout and Graphics Seth Conley Andrea Dahl Lauren Goddard Stephanie D Jumper Barry Offringa Heather Ryan Mary Gillot Virgin Melanie Wolven Proofreaders Laura Albert Andy Hollandbeck Kathy Simpson TECHBOOKS Publishing Services Indexer TECHBOOKS Publishing Services Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher Andy Cummings Editorial Director Mary C Corder Publishing for Consumer Dummies Vice President and Publisher Diane Graves Steele Acquisitions Director Joyce Pepple Composition Services Vice President of Production Services Gerry Fahey Director of Composition Services Debbie Stailey Chapter 7: The Shell Game Warning Look before you delete! Technical Stuff Instant script — just add water Chapter 8: Where’s That File? Technical Stuff Links to shadow files Tip Quick ‘n’ dirty database Directory assistance Tip Linking once and linking twice Chapter 9: Printing (The Gutenberg Thing) Tip Woodsman, spare that file! Technical Stuff Why you don’t want to know about PostScript Why UNIX succeeded Chapter 10: Writing Deathless Prose Howdy, TeX! Tip Emergency exit from vi Tip More than just a text editor Tip Emergency exit from emacs Tip Moving text in emacs Editors galore Tip Emergency exit from ed Tip What if ed commands end up in my text? Chapter 11: Umpteen Useful UNIX Utilities Technical Stuff How does file compression work, anyway? Chapter 12: Installing Software Can Be Tricky Tip Why is it named bin? Technical Stuff Your search path Tip Don’t give me any arguments! Chapter 13: Juggling a Bunch of Programs Lots of X Windows Technical Stuff Why processes are not programs and vice versa Technical Stuff Why cd isn’t a process Tip Do windows and job control mix? Tip Taming background terminal output Chapter 14: Taming Linux Windows users of the world, unite! Linux: Not just for PCs Linux goes commercial Chapter 16: Across a Crowded Network How do I get networked, anyway? Terminal type tedium Technical Stuff Why NFS is out of state Chapter 17: Automating Your Office Gossip All the news that’s fit to print UNIX mail programs Tip Sending mail to people who use online services Tip Sign here Tip What’s all this junk at the beginning of the message? Mail hound Tip Netiquette Outlook: Partly cloudy Advanced e-mail magic Chapter 18: Web Surfing for UNIX Users Technical Stuff URL! Tip There’s no place like home The text, the whole text, and nothing but the text Technical Stuff Here’s HTML in your eye! Pop off, buddy Chapter 19: Grabbing Files from the Net Warning Patience is a virtue Technical Stuff What’s with all these three-digit numbers? An FTP cheat sheet Network URLs for FTP-ing A few words about navigation Chapter 20: Now Serving the Internet Domainia Not too patchy We’re from AOL, and we’re here to give you a really good Web server for free Chapter 22: The Case of the Missing Files Technical Stuff Links, copies, moves, truncations, and other details about file destruction Remember Why you need backups Tip Backup strategies Chapter 23: Some Programs Just Won’t Die Tip Resuscitating a terminal ... dynamic For Dummies duo with more than 50 books to their credit, including eight editions of The Internet For Dummies Unix For Dummies John R Levine Margaret Levine Young UNIX For Dummies , 5th Edition. .. 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4447, e-mail: permcoordinator @wiley. com Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies. com, and related... the topics of the Internet, UNIX, WordPerfect, Microsoft Access, and (stab from the past) PC-File and Javelin, including Dummies 101: The Internet For Windows 98, UNIX For Dummies, and WordPerfect For Linux For Dummies (all published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.), and