Linux Timesaving Techniques For Dummies

Cover
Table of Contents
Introduction
	Saving Time with This Book
	Foolish Assumptions
	What's in This Book
		Part I: Making the Desktop Work for You
		Part II: Getting the Most from Your File System
		Part III: Good Housekeeping with Linux
		Part IV: Tweaking the Kernel on Your Linux System
		Part V: Securing Your Workspace
		Part VI: Networking Like a Professional
		Part VII: Monitoring Your System
		Part VIII: Serving Up the Internet and More
		Part IX: Backing Up Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
		Part X: Programming Tricks
		Part XI: The Scary (Or Fun!) Stuff
	Icons Used in This Book
Part I: Making the Desktop Work for You
	Technique 1: Finding the Power in KDE Protocols
		Discovering Your Protocols
		Working with CD Audio Tracks Using audiocd:
		Managing Snapshots with the camera: Protocol
		Remote File Management with fish:
		Getting Help with help:, info:, and man:
		Viewing Your Local Network with the smb:Protocol
		Other KDE Protocols
	Technique 2: Getting GNOME Virtual File Systems to Do the Work for You
		Using GNOME VFS Modules
		Stacking VFS Modules
		Working with Packages: rpm and rpms
		Putting VFS to Work at the Command Line
		Burning CDs with a VFS
		Skinning Your Desktop with VFS
	Technique 3: Streamlining Your Work with FileAssociations
		Classifying Data with MIME
		Creating KDE File Associations
		Creating New MIME Types with GNOME
	Technique 4: Prompting Yourself with a CustomPrompt
		Making Basic Prompt Transformations
		Adding Dynamically Updated Data to Your Prompt
		Colorizing Your Prompt
		Seeing a Red Alert When You Have Superuser Privileges
		Saving Your Work
	Technique 5: Getting There Quick with DynamicShortcuts
		Completing Names Automatically
		Using the Escape Key to Your Advantage
		Customizing Completion for Maximum Speed
	Technique 6: Using cd Shortcuts for Rapid Transit
		Using cd and ls to Navigate through bash
		Setting Your CDPATH Variables to Find Directories Fast
		Remembering Where You've Been with pushd andpopd
		Manipulating Your Stack with dirs
	Technique 7: Typing Less and Doing More with Handy Automagic Variables
		Show Me the $$: Giving Temporary Files UniqueNames
		Streamlining Archive Searches
		Turning the Output of a Command into a Variable with $( )
		Using $UID and $EUID in Shell Scripts
		Getting Quick Access to Programs with $PATH
		Customizing Variables for Rapid Transit
	Technique 8: Logging In, Logging Out
		Finding the Right Shell Script
			Choosing your victims
			Timing is everything
			Cleaning up made easy
			Changing prototype scripts
		Customizing Your Autostart File
	Technique 9: Making History (Work for You)
		Navigating the History List
			Scrolling
			Summoning a command by number
			Searching through history
		Customizing the History List
			Adjusting key default settings
			Filtering the history list
		Executing Commands Quickly with History Variables
	Technique 10: Keeping Your Life Simple with Aliases and Functions
		Viewing Your Aliases
		Creating Simple Timesaving Aliases
		Using Aliases for Complex Commands
		Automating Tedious Tasks with Functions
			Filtering file searches by file type
			Automatic downloading
		Monitoring Your System in a Snap
		Un-tarring the Easy Way
Part II: Getting the Most from Your File System
	Technique 11: Sharing Files and Printers in a Windows World
		What Is Samba?
		Getting Up and Running with Samba
			Checking whether Samba is installed
			Enabling Samba
		Sharing Linux Resources with Other Computers (SMBClients)
			Adjusting the workgroup name and creating user accounts
			Giving a Windows machine access to your home directory
			Sharing Linux files and directories with other computers
		Hooking Everyone Up to the Printer
			Sharing Linux printers with SWAT
			Using a Windows printer from Linux
		Plugging In to Remote Data with Linux Programs Quickly
	Technique 12: Finding What You Need
		Finding Files with locate
		Finding Files with find
		Qualifying Your Search with the find Command
			Doing updated filename searches
			Adding time-based qualifications
			Filtering by file size
			Joining qualifications with AND and OR operators
			Perusing commonly used qualifications
		Acting on What You Find
			Cracking open a file's info with -ls
			Displaying specific info with -printf
			Checking disk usage by user
			Executing commands with find
		Building Complex Commands with xargs
	Technique 13: Moving Made Easy with Archives
		Creating Archives with File Roller
		Inspecting and Extracting Archives with File Roller
		Adding Functionality to tar with Complex Commands
			Building archives from the command line
			Archiving complex search results
			Backing up an installed package
		Uprooting Entire Directory Trees with scp
		Splitting Big Files into Manageable Chunks
	Technique 14: Downloading and Uploading Files in a Snap
		Building Software from Downloaded tarballs
			Compiling a tarball: The basic steps
			Downloading and compiling SuperKaramba
		Versatile Downloading with wget
			Mirroring sites with wget
			Verifying your bookmarks with wget
			Downloading files with wget
			Downloading and unpacking in one quick step
			wget's optional flags
		Downloading and Uploading with curl
	Technique 15: Building a Playpen with User Mode Linux
		Choosing the ADIOS Version of User Mode Linux
		Setting Up ADIOS
			Downloading ADIOS
			Burning ADIOS to CD
			Installing ADIOS
		Finding Your Way around UML
		Connecting to the Internet from an ADIOS VM
		Using a GUI with UML
		Installing Software into UML
		Merging Changes to Your Prototype
Part III: Good Housekeeping with Linux
	Technique 16: Red-lining RPM Queries
		Querying RPM Packages for Content
		Digesting Information
		Creating a Package Index
		Querying for Prerequisites
		Don't Put That in Your Drive; You Don't Know Where That's Been!
	Technique 17: Installing Made Easy with RPM
		Dissecting an RPM Package
		Using RPM at the Command Line
		Removing RPMs
		Flagging Down RPM
		Getting Graphic with RPM
			Quick installations from distribution media with Fedora's Package Manager
			Using SuSE's package manager to your advantage
			Using Rpmdrake to install from media
			Installing from your Konqueror browser
	Technique 18: Getting Comfortable with RPM
		Saving Time with - -upgrade
		Verifying Your System
		Reading the Tamper-Proof Seal
	Technique 19: Keeping Up-to-Date with apt andSynaptic
		Setting Up Synaptic and apt in a Snap
		Keeping Up-to-Date with apt and Synaptic: The Basics
		Upgrading Your Entire Computer
		Handy Hints about Synaptic
			Changing repositories
			Viewing package details
			Installing new packages with Synaptic
		Importing the Keys to the Repository
	Technique 20: Setting Up Automatic Services
		Letting Task Scheduler Work for You
			Scheduling a new task
			Editing a task
			Adding environment variables
	Technique 21: Making Your Inner System Administrator Happy (And Productive)
		Reining In Resources with Disk Quotas
			Installing the quota RPM package
			Enabling file system quotas
			Getting your files together
			Setting quotas
			Reviewing your quotas
		Using System Accounting to Keep Track of Users
			Setting up system accounting
			Looking up user login hours
			Checking out command and program usage
	Technique 22: Spring Cleaning Essentials
		Running Down the Runlevels
			Runlevel basics
			Customizing runlevels in Fedora
			Customizing runlevels in SuSE
			Customizing runlevels in Mandrake
			Customizing runlevels at the command line
			Switching to a new runlevel
		Disabling Unused Services
		Removing Unneeded Services
		Removing Old Users and Their Files
Part IV: Tweaking the Kernel on Your Linux System
	Technique 23: Taking Good Care of Your Kernel
		Adding and Removing Kernel Modules
			Learning about modules
			Installing a module with insmod
			Taking care of dependencies automatically with modprobe and depmod
			Loading a module for a slightly different kernel with insmod and modprobe
			Removing modules with rmmod
		Manipulating Boot Time Parameters
	Technique 24: Creating a Custom Kernel
		Reconfiguring Your Kernel - Ready, Set, Go!
		Step 1: Making an Emergency Plan, or Boot Disk
		Step 2: Finding the Source Code
		Step 3: Configuring a New Kernel
		Step 4: Customizing the Kernel
		Step 5: Building the Kernel
	Technique 25: Coping with the SELinux SecuritySystem
		Understanding the Principles of SELinux
			Everything is an object
			Identifying subjects in SELinux
			Understanding the security context
		Disabling or Disarming SELinux
		Playing the Right Role
		Finding Out about Your SELinux Policy
	Technique 26: Finding Out about Your System with /proc
		Exploring the Process-Related Entries in /proc
		Surveying Your System from /proc
		Closing Down Security Gaps with /proc
		Popping the Cork: Speeding Up WINE with /proc
Part V: Securing Your Workspace
	Technique 27: Closing Those Prying Eyes
		Reading and Understanding File Permissions
		Controlling Permissions at the Command Line
		Changing File Permissions from a Desktop
	Technique 28: Using Encryption for ExtraSecurity
		Encryption Made Easy with kgpg and the KDE Desktop
			Creating keys with kgpg
			Sharing your key with the world
			Importing a public key from a public-key server
			Encrypting and decrypting documents with drag-and-drop ease
		Encrypting Documents with gpg at the Command Line
			Sharing a secret file
			Creating a key pair and receiving encrypted documents
			Encrypting documents on your home system
		Encrypting E-Mail for Added Security
			Encrypting with Ximian Evolution
			Setting up Mozilla e-mail for encryption
			Sending and receiving encrypted messages with Mozilla mail
	Technique 29: Securing a Large Network with Custom Authentication
		Using Cross-Platform Authentication with Linux and Windows
			Prepping for cross-platform authentication
			Setting up cross-platform authentication
		Using PAM and Kerberos to Serve Up Authentication
			Establishing synchronized system times
			Testing your domain name server (DNS)
			Setting up a Key Distribution Center
			Setting up automatic ticket management with Kerberos and PAM
			Adding users to the Key Distribution Center
	Technique 30: Customizing Authentication with PAM
		Understanding Modules and Configuration Files:The Basics of PAM Authentication
		Finding a Module and Customizing Its Rules
		Building Good Rules with PAM
			Phase
			Control level
			Module pathname
			Arguments
		Dissecting a Configuration File
		Skipping a Password with PAM
	Technique 31: Gaining Privileges
		Feeling the Power
		Gaining Superuser Privileges
		Pretending to Be Other Users
		Limiting Privileges with sudo
	Technique 32: sudo Pseudonyms
	Installing sudo
	Adding Up the Aliases
	Adding Aliases to the sudo Configuration File
	Defining the Alias
		Creating a User_Alias
		Creating a Runas_Alias
		Simplifying group managment with a Host_Alias
		Mounting and unmounting CDs without the superuser password
		Managing access to dangerous commands with command aliases
	Technique 33: Securing Your Connections with SSH
		Using SSH for Top-Speed Connections
		Setting Up Public-Key Authentication to Secure SSH
			Generating the key pair
			Distributing your public key
			Passing on your passphrase
		Logging In with SSH and Key Authentication
			Starting from the command line
			Getting graphic
		Creating Shortcuts to Your Favorite SSH Locations
		Copying Files with scp
		Secure (And Fast) Port Forwarding with SSH
Part VI: Networking Like a Professional
	Technique 34: Protecting Yourself with aFirewall
		Finding Your Firewall
			Setting up a simple firewall in Mandrake Linux
			Setting up a simple firewall in Fedora Linux
			Setting up a simple firewall in SuSE Linux
		Editing the Rules with Webmin
			Starting a Webmin session
			Reading the rules with Webmin
			Changing the rules
			Editing existing rules
			Adding a new rule with Webmin
	Technique 35: Using VNC to Connect to RemoteDesktops
		Sharing Desktops with VNC
		Inviting Your Friends to Use Your Desktop
		Serving Up a New Desktop with VNC Server
		Using tsclient to View Remote Desktops from Linux
			Using tsclient with a VNC server
			Using tsclient with an RDP server
		Making Cut and Paste Commands Work on a Remote Desktop
		Creating New VNC Desktops on Demand
			Switching display managers in SuSE Linux
			Switching display managers in Mandrake Linux
			Connecting gdm and VNC
	Technique 36: Streamlining Your Network Surveillance
		Exploring Your Network with lsof
			Running lsof
			Interpreting the lsof output
			Reading file types
		Discovering Network Connections
		Other Timesaving lsof Tricks
		Packet Sniffing with the Ethereal Network Analyzer
			Starting Ethereal
			Capturing packets
			Applying filters to screen packets
			Peeking in packets
			Color-coding packets coming from your network
	Technique 37: Evaluating Your Network Security with Nessus
		Getting Up and Running with Nessus
			Installing programs Nessus needs to run
			Installing Nessus
			Adding a user to Nessus
			Generating a certificate
		Using Nessus to Scan Your Network
			Starting the daemon and the interface
			Reading the grim results
		Keeping Your Plug-ins Up-to-Date
	Technique 38: Person-to-Person Networking with IRC
		Finding the Answers You Seek in a Linux Chat Room
		Chatting in the Fedora Chat Room
		Looking for Answers in the SuSE Chat Room
		Finding Fellow Mandrake Users in the Mandrake ChatRoom
		Customizing KSirc - Who Do You Want to Be Today?
Part VII: Monitoring Your System
	Technique 39: Controlling Troublesome Processes at the Command Line
		Processing Processes with procps
		Keeping Track of Process Status with ps,pstree, and pgrep
			Using ps to filter process status information
			Viewing ps output the way you want to see it
			Making parent-child relationships stand out in a ps listing
			Climbing the family tree with pstree
			Finding processes with pgrep
		Killing Processes with pkill
		Killing Processes with killall
		Closing Windows with xkill
		Getting Your Processes' Priorities Straight
	Technique 40: Taking Care of New (And Old)Users
		Managing Users and Groups with the Fedora/Mandrake User Manager
			Adding new users
			Modifying user accounts
			Adding groups
			Filtering users and groups
		Managing Users and Groups with the SuSE User Administrator
			Adding new users
			Modifying user accounts
			Adding groups
			Filtering users and groups
	Technique 41: Keeping an Eye on Your System
		Keeping an Eye on the System Logs
			Viewing and filtering log files with Fedora and Mandrake
			Adding and deleting log files from the viewer
			Setting up alerts and warnings
			Viewing your log files from SuSE
			Monitoring your log files from SuSE
		Customizing Your Log Files
		Keeping an Eye on Resources with KDE System Guard
			Finding and killing runaway processes
			Prioritizing processes to smooth a network bottleneck
			Watching your system load
			Creating a new worksheet
			Creating system resource logs
			Displaying network resources
Part VIII: Serving Up the Internet and More
	Technique 42: Keeping an Apache Server in Top Form
		Setting Up Apache - Quick!
			Using Synaptic to download and install Apache
			Installing Apache from disc
		Starting the Apache Service
		Building a Quick Web Page with OpenOffice.org
		Taking Your Site Public with Dynamic DNS
			Understanding how dynamic DNS works
			Setting up dynamic DNS
			Updating your IP address
		Keeping Your Apache Server Up-to-Date the Easy Way
			Installing the Fedora HTTP Configuration tool
			Putting the HTTP Configuration tool to work
	Technique 43: Keeping an Eye on Your Servers
		Watching Your Web Server Traffic with apachetop
		Installing apachetop
			Running and exiting apachetop
			Navigating apachetop
			Switching among the log files (or watching several at once)
			Changing the display time of apachetop statistics
		Monitoring MySQL Server with the MySQL ControlCenter
			Downloading and installing the MySQL ControlCenter
			Accessing MySQL Control Center features
			Viewing, managing, and repairing a database with the Databases controls
			Putting the Server Administration controls to work
			Adding a new user
		Watching Your MySQL Traffic with mtop
			Gathering all the packages that mtop needs
			Installing mtop
			Monitoring traffic
	Technique 44: Making a MySQL Server Your SQL Server
		Building a MySQL Server
			Installing the necessary packages
			Starting the MySQL server
		Replicating MySQL Data
			Configuring replication: The three topologies
			Setting up replication for a single slave and master
		Choosing a Method to Back Up MySQL Data
		Backing Up and Restoring with mysqldump
			mysqldump backup options
			Backing up multiple databases
			Compressing the archive
			Restoring a mysqldump archive
		Backing Up with File System Tools
		Making a mysqlhotcopy of Your Database
		Archiving a Replication Slave
		Taking Care of Business with MySQL Administrator
			Installing MySQL Administrator
			Starting MySQL Administrator
			Exploring MySQL Administrator's tools
	Technique 45: Safeguarding Your Apache Server with SSL Certificates
		Understanding the Basics of How Certificates Work
		Choosing an SSL Certificate
		Creating a Certificate Signing Request
		Creating a Self-Signed Certificate
		Creating a Signing Authority with openssl
			Creating a certificate authority
			Signing a CSR
		Trusting in Trusted Certification Authorities
		Exploring Your Certificate Collection with Mozilla
	Technique 46: Retrieving HTTPMail Using hotway and Evolution
		Introducing hotway
		Getting Started with hotway
		Setting Up Evolution to Read HTTPMail Accounts with hotway
		Ringing the Bells and Blowing the Whistles: Your Evolution Summary Page
	Technique 47: Stopping Spam with SpamAssassin
		Installing SpamAssassin
			Installing from the distribution media
			Installing from RPM downloads
			Starting the service
		Fine-Tuning SpamAssassin to Separate the Ham from the Spam
			Customizing settings
			Saving your settings
		Adding a New Filter to Evolution
		Serving Up a Big Bowl of the RulesDuJour
	Technique 48: Using Webmin to Simplify Sendmail Configuration
		Registering Your Address
		Taming a Sendmail Server
		Tweaking Your Configuration Files with Webmin
			Serving up mail for multiple domains
			Relaying e-mail
			Using aliases to simplify mail handling
Part IX: Backing Up Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
	Technique 49: Getting Ready to Back Up Your Data
		Deciding What to Archive
		Choosing Archive Media
			Tape drives
			Removable and external disk drives
			Removable media
			Optical media (CDs and DVDs)
			Online storage
		Choosing an Archive Scheme
			Full backups
			Differential backups
			Incremental backups
			Incremental versus differential backups
		Choosing an Archive Program
	Technique 50: Backing Up Your Data
		Estimating Your Media Needs
		Creating Data Archives with tar
			Backing up files and directories
			Backing up account information and passwords
			Targeting bite-sized backups for speedier restores
			Rolling whole file systems into a tarball
		Starting a Differential Backup Cycle
		Starting an Incremental Backup Cycle
		Restoring from Backup with tar
		Backing Up to CD (Or DVD) with cdbackup
			Creating the backup
			Restoring from a CD or DVD backup
			Restoring from a disc containing multiple archives
	Technique 51: Quick Backup to Remote Storage
		Combining the Power of tar with ssh for Quick Remote Backups
			Testing the ssh connection to the remote host
			Creating a tar archive over the ssh connection
			Backing up to tape drives on remote machines
		Backing Up to a Remote Computer with rdist and ssh
			Testing the ssh connection to the remote host
			Creating the distfile
			Backing up
	Technique 52: Archiving Changes with CVS
		Getting Started with CVS
			Checking whether CVS is installed
			Discovering what to use CVS for
		Creating a CVS Repository
		Populating Your Repository with Files
		Checking Files In and Out (Or Playing in Your Sandbox)
		Simplifying CVS with cervisia
			Installing cervisia
			Putting files in your sandbox
			Adding more files to your repository
			Committing your changes
			Diplomacy 101 - resolving conflicts
			Browsing your log files
			Marking milestones with tags
			Branching off with cervisia
Part X: Programming Tricks
	Technique 53: Using Open-Source APIs to Save Time
		Using the libcurl Library (C Programming)
		Uploading a File with a Simple Program Using libcurl
			Line 7: Defining functions and data types
			Line 14: Calling the initialization function
			Lines 18– 21: Defining the transfer
			Line 23: Starting the transfer
			Line 26: Finishing the upload
		Installing the Ming Library
		Building a Simple Flash Movie with Ming
			Examining the program
			Compiling the program
			Running the program
		Building Interactive Movies with Ming
			Examining the program
			Compiling the program
			Running the program
	Technique 54: Timesaving PHP Tricks
		Doing the curl E-shuffle with PHP
			Combining PHP with curl and XML: An overview
			Checking out the XML file
			Downloading and displaying the XML file with a PHP script (and curl)
		Sending E-Mail from PHP When Problems Occur
	Technique 55: Using the DDD Graphical Debugger with Perl
		Debugging Perl Code with DDD
			Installing and starting DDD
			Examining the main window
			Reviewing and stepping through source code
		Making Stop Signs: Using Breakpoints to Watch Code
			Setting a breakpoint
			Modifying a breakpoint
		Tracking Variable Values in the Data Window
			Opening the data window
			Adding a variable to the data window
			Changing the display to a table
			Using the Backtrace feature
			Using the Help menu
Part XI: The Scary (Or Fun!) Stuff
	Technique 56: Burning CD-Rs without GettingBurned
		Making Fedora Distribution CDs
			Downloading the ISO images
			Verifying the checksums
		Burning an ISO File to Disc at the Command Line
			Finding the identity of your drive
			Running a test burn
			Burning the distribution discs
		Creating an ISO Image at the Command Line
		Burning CDs without Making an ISO First
	Technique 57: Search and Destroy setuid and setgid Programs
		Exploring How setuid and setgid Can Be Dangerous
		Identifying the Potential Troublemakers - Fast
			Finding setuid quickly and easily with kfind
			Finding setuid and setgid programs at the command line
		Deciding to Turn Off setuid or setgid
		Changing the setuid or setgid Bit
	Technique 58: Quarantining Suspicious Programs with UML
		Who Belongs in Jail?
		Using UML to Jail Programs
		Changing the Default Password to the Jail
		Installing New Software and Resolving Conflicts
	Technique 59: Troubleshooting Persnickety Programs
		Using lsof to Find Out Which Files Are Open
		Debugging Your Environment with strace
		Investigating Programs with ltrace
		Handy strace and ltrace Options
		Recording Program Errors with valgrind
	Technique 60: Securing the Fort with Bastille
		Hardening Your Hat with Bastille
			Downloading and installing Bastille and its dependencies
			Welcome to the Bastille
			Addressing file permission issues
			Clamping down on SUID privileges
			Moving on to account security
			Making the boot process more secure
			Securing connection broker
			Limiting compiler access
			Limiting access to hackers
			Logging extra information
			Keeping the daemons in check
			Securing sendmail
			Closing the gaps in Apache
			Keeping temporary files safe
			Building a better firewall
			Port scanning with Bastille
			You're almost done!
		Keeping Abreast of Security Issues
	Technique 61: Creating a Second Line of Defense with LIDS
		Turning LIDS On and Off
		Testing LIDS before Applying It to Your System
		Understanding the LIDS Access Control List
		Controlling File Access with LIDS
		Hiding Processes with LIDS
		Running Down the Privilege List
	Technique 62: Getting Graphical with ShellScripts
		Getting Graphical at the Command Line
			Getting graphical in GNOME
			Getting graphical with KDE
			Staying desktop neutral
Index