This page is provided as a convenient way to download. It should also be helpful for people on dial-up to have one big page to read. A list of the other “AllOfs” can be found at http://linuxbasics.org/course/book/allallofs.

Please take into considerations that once you save this page, it cannot keep up with the dynamics of the wiki. If you find something to be corrected or improved, you need to check or edit the actual current wiki-page.

The current version of this document can be found at http://linuxbasics.org/course/book/index.

This book is licensed and may be distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. A copy of the license can be found at http://linuxbasics.org/course/book/allof_appendix

Usually, these snapshots are updated daily between 05:00 and 05:15 UTC

This snapshot was created: Sun Jul 20 06:08:07 CEST 2008

1. Why this guide?
2. Who should read this book?
3. New versions and availability
4. Revision History
5. Contributions
6. Feedback
7. Copyright information
8. What do you need?
9. Conventions used in this document
10. Organization of this document

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Many people still believe that learning Linux is difficult, or that only experts can understand how a Linux system works. Though there is a lot of free documentation available, it is widely scattered on the Web, and often confusing due to being usually oriented toward experienced UNIX or Linux users. Today, thanks to the advancements in development, Linux has grown in popularity both at home and at work. The goal of this guide is to show people of all ages that Linux can be simple, fun and used for all kinds of purposes.

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System. It is geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter. For more advanced readers it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of base knowledge needed in system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the authors’ experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. We hope these examples will help you gain a better understanding of Linux and encourage you to try out things on your own.

Everybody who wants to get a “CLUE”, a Command Line User Experience, with Linux (and UNIX in general) will find this book useful.

The most recent edition is available online at http://linuxbasics.org/course/book.

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• 2007-02-22 Starting our second tour through the book. A snapshot was taken for “convenience purposes”. To look at a page in its “pre-2nd-round-state”, simply replace the /course/ in the URL with /course-2006/ (Does that make sense? If not, just use the regular history-button :)

• 2006-10-01 Modifications by Anita Lewis, Diane Marks, Sam Morgan, Stefan Waidele and other contributors to the LinuxBasics.org community. The changes can be seen via the “History-button” in the menu of each section. Published via the internet by LinuxBasics.org.

Introduction to Linux: A Hands on Guide

This document is published in the Guides section of the Linux Documentation Project collection at http://www.tldp.org/guides.html; you can also download PDF and PostScript formatted versions here.

The most recent edition is available at http://tille.xalasys.com/training/tldp/.

This guide is available in print from Fultus.com Books by Print On Demand. Fultus distributes this document to many bookstores, including Baker & Taylor and the on-line bookstores Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, BarnesAndNoble.com and Google's Froogle.

Figure 1. Introduction to Linux front cover

The guide has been translated into Hindi by:

• Alok Kumar
• Dhananjay Sharma
• Kapil
• Puneet Goel
• Ravikant Yuyutsu

Andrea Montagner translated the guide into Italian.

• Revision 1.26 20070919 Revised by: MG

Comments from readers, license.

• Revision 1.25 20070511 Revised by: MG

Comments from readers, minor updates, E-mail etiquette, updated info about availability (thanks Oleg).

• Revision 1.24 2006-11-01 Revised by: MG

added index terms, prepared for second printed edition, added gpg and proxy info.

• Revision 1.23 2006-07-25 Revised by: MG and FK

Updates and corrections, removed app5 again, adapted license to enable inclusion in Debian docs.

• Revision 1.22 2006-04-06 Revised by: MG

chap8 revised completely, chap10: clarified examples, added ifconfig and cygwin info, revised network apps.

• Revision 1.21 2006-03-14 Revised by: MG

Added exercises in chap11, corrected newline errors, command overview completed for chapter 9, minor corrections in chap10.

• Revision 1.20 2006-01-06 Revised by: MG

Split chap7: audio stuff is now in separate chapter, chap11.xml. Small revisions, updates for commands like aptitude, more on USB storage, Internet telephony, corrections from readers.

• Revision 1.19 2005-09-07 Revised by: MG

clarified file descriptors, exercises in chap3, corrected links, added more Debian refs, corrected language errors.

• Revision 1.18 2005-05-23 Revised by: MG

note about pagers, lots of clarifications, removed quite some RedHat-centric paragraphs, reviewed and updated lots in sound and video, removed xmms-mp3 stuff, added time zone info because I was just dealing with date and time, contrary to the title of the section, removed Mandrake refs.

• Revision 1.17 2005-03-01 Revised by: MG

Lots of little details that were outdated, added several notes, removed tracer image, added info about new apps.

• Revision 1.16 2004-12-06 Revised by: MG

Changes because of domain move, minor corrections.

• Revision 1.15 2004-07-09 Revised by: MG

Added tracer image 1×1 pixel http://tille.xalasys.com/images/blank.png in each section and sect1, corrected wrong links in glossary, added textobjects for all images, made signal list and disk I/O problems list more clear.

• Revision 1.14 2004-06-19 Revised by: MG

Added tee command in chap5, corrected typos, acted upon remarks sent in by readers, added newgrp explanations, explained user private group scheme, added a remark on umask.

• Revision 1.13 2004-04-27 Revised by: MG

Last read-through before sending everything to Fultus for printout. Added Fultus referrence in New Versions section, updated Conventions and Organization sections. Minor changes in chapters 4, 5, 6 and 8, added rdesktop info in chapter 10, updated glossary, replaced references to fileutils with coreutils, thankyou to Hindi translators.

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Many thanks to all the people who shared their experiences. And especially to the Belgian Linux users for hearing me out every day and always being generous in their comments.

Also a special thought for Tabatha Marshall for doing a really thorough revision, spell check and styling, and to Eugene Crosser for spotting the errors that we two overlooked.

And thanks to all the readers who notified me about missing topics and who helped to pick out the last errors, unclear definitions and typos by going through the trouble of mailing me all their remarks. These are also the people who help me keep this guide up to date, like Filipus Klutiero who did a complete review in 2005 and 2006, and Alexey Eremenko who sent me the foundation for chapter 11.

Finally, a big thank you for the volunteers who are currently translating this document in French, Swedish, German, Farsi, Hindi and more. It is a big work that should not be underestimated; I admire your courage.

The maintainers of LinuxBasics.org want to thank Mechtelt Garrels very much for creating such a fine piece of manual, and giving it to us under such a fine license.

We would like to thank everybody who helped making Linux what it is today.

And of course we thank everybody who contributed to our course, by editing the wiki, participation on the mailing-list, or by putting a link to our site on their homepage.

Missing information, missing links, missing characters? Mail it to the maintainer of this document: Contact

Don’t forget to check with the latest version first!

© 2002-2007 Machtelt Garrels.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of the license is included in Appendix D entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.

The LinuxBasics.org community used the permissions granted in the GNU Free Documentation License to create this modified work upon Machtelt Garrels’ book. These modifications are © by the authors as can be determined by the individual pages’ history. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in Appendix D entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.

All authors and publishers have made every effort in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information. However, the information contained in this book is offered without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor the publisher nor any dealer or distributor will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book.

The logos, trademarks and symbols used in this book are the properties of their respective owners.

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You will require a computer and a medium containing a Linux distribution. Most of this guide applies to all Linux distributions - and UNIX in general. Apart from time, there are no further specific requirements.

The Installation HOWTO contains helpful information on obtaining Linux software and installing it on your computer. Hardware requirements and coexistence with other operating systems are also discussed.

CD images can be downloaded from linux-iso.com and many other locations, see Appendix A.

For those who don’t dare take the step of actually installing Linux on their machine, there are Linux distributions you can run from a CD, such as Knoppix, Ubuntu, Kanotix or Mepis. These LiveCDs, as they are called, are not installed on your system at all - they run from RAM only. You get back to your usual OS as soon as you reboot.

Kanotix and Knoppix LiveCD distributions are fast. Kanotix is optimized for laptops. As for Ubuntu, it is noticeably slower, but easy to install when one wants to switch from LiveCD to an installed Linux OS.

Other LiveCD distributions are listed on this Distrowatch.com webpage: CD-based Linux Distributions and Live Linux CDs

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The following typographic and usage conventions occur in this text:

Text type	Meaning
“Quoted text”	Quotes from people, quoted computer output.
terminal view	Literal computer input and output captured from the terminal, usually rendered with a light blue background.
command	Name of a command that can be entered on the command line.
VARIABLE	Name of a variable or pointer to content of a variable, as in $VARNAME.
option	Option to a command, as in “the -a option to the ls command”.
argument	Argument to a command, as in “read man ls ”.
prompt	User prompt, usually followed by a command that you type in a terminal window, like in hilda@home> ls -l
command options arguments	Command synopsis or general usage, on a separated line.
filename	Name of a file or directory, for example “Change to the /usr/bin directory.”
Key	Keys to hit on the keyboard, such as “type Q to quit”.
Button	Graphical button to click, like the OK button.
Menu→Choice	Choice to select from a graphical menu, for instance: “SelectHelp→About Mozilla in your browser.”
Terminology	Important term or concept: “The Linux kernel is the heart of the system.”
\	The backslash in a terminal view or command synopsis indicates an unfinished line. In other words, if you see a long command that is cut into multiple lines, \ means “Don’t press Enter yet!”
See Chapter 1	link to related subject within this guide.
Google Linux	Clickable link to an external web resource.

This is a note: It contains additional information or remarks.

This is a caution: It means be careful.

This is a warning: Be very careful.

This is a tip: Tips and tricks.

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This guide’s aim is to be the foundation for all other materials available from The Linux Documentation Project. As such, it provides the fundamental knowledge needed by anyone wanting to start working with a Linux system, while trying to consciously avoid re-inventing hot water. Thus, you can expect this book to be incomplete and full of links to sources of additional information on your system, on the Internet and in your system documentation.

The first chapter is an introduction to the subject of Linux; the next two discuss basic commands. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss some more advanced but still basic topics. Chapter 6 discusses editing files, an ability you need to continue with this text and pass from Linux newbie to Linux user. The remaining chapters discuss somewhat more advanced topics that you will have to deal with in everyday Linux use.

All chapters come with exercises that will test your preparedness for the next chapter.

• Chapter 1: What is Linux, how did it come into existence, advantages and disadvantages, what does the future hold for Linux, who should use it, installing on your computer.
• Chapter 2: Getting started, connecting to the system, basic commands, where to find help.
• Chapter 3: The filesystem, important files and directories, managing files and directories, protecting your data.
• Chapter 4: Understanding and managing processes, boot and shutdown procedures, postponing tasks, repetitive tasks.
• Chapter 5: What are standard input, output and error and how are these features used from the command line.
• Chapter 6: Why you should learn to work with an editor, discussion of the most common editors.
• Chapter 7: Configuring your graphical, text and audio environment, settings for the non-native English speaking Linux user, tips for adding extra software.
• Chapter 8: Converting files to a printable format, getting them out of the printer, hints for solving print problems.
• Chapter 9: Preparing data to be backed up, discussion of various tools, remote backup.
• Chapter 10: Overview of Linux networking tools and user applications, with a short discussion of the underlying service daemon programs and secure networking.
• Chapter 11: Sound and video, including Voice over IP and sound recording.
• Appendix A: Which books to read and sites to visit when you have finished reading this one.
• Appendix B: A comparison of DOS and Linux commands.
• Appendix C: Standard features and major differences between the standard shell (sh), Bourne Again SHell (bash), Korn shell (ksh) and the C shell (csh).
• Appendix D: What you can do with this guide, from the legal perspective.

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