About the Book
Get more done faster at the Linux command line! This best-selling
Linux Phrasebook has been thoroughly updated in the second edition to reflect the newest distributions, incorporate feedback from hundreds of active Linux users, and cover today's newest tools and techniques -- including an entirely new chapter on text file manipulation.
Linux Phrasebook, Second Edition offers a concise, handy reference to the Linux commands that, like a language phrasebook, can be used on the spot on moment's notice. Don't waste a minute on non-essentials: this straight-to-the-point reference delivers specific information and tested commands designed to work with any modern Linux distribution. Portable enough to take anywhere, it starts with a quick introduction to essential command line concepts, and then delivers all the modern Linux command examples, variations, and parameters you need to:
- View, manipulate, archive, and compress files
- Control file ownership and permissions
- Find anything on your systems
- Efficiently use the Linux shell
- Monitor system resources
- Install software
- Test, fix, and work with networks
Linux Phrasebook, Second Edition is the perfect quick command line reference for millions of Linux users and administrators at all levels of experience: people who want to get reliable information they can use right now -- with no distractions and no diversions!
Contents at a Glance Part I: Getting Started
Chapter 1 Things to Know About Your Command Line Everything Is a File Maximum Filename Lengths Names Are Case-Sensitive Special Characters to Avoid in Names Wildcards and What They Mean Special Files That Affect Your Command Line If There's Too Much Stuff on Screen, Reset
Chapter 2 Navigating Your File System List Files and Folders List the Contents of Other Folders List Folder Contents Using Wildcards View a List of Files in Subfolders View a List of Contents in a Single Column View Contents As a Comma-Separated List View Hidden Files and Folders Visually Display a File's Type Display Contents in Color List Permissions, Ownership, and More Reverse the Order Contents Are Listed Sort Contents by Date and Time Sort Contents by Size Express File Sizes in Terms of K, M, and G Display the Path of Your Current Directory Change to a Different Directory Change to Your Home Directory Change to Your Previous Directory
Chapter 3 Creation and Destruction Change a File to the Current Time Change a File to Any Desired Time Create a New, Empty File Create a New Directory Create a New Directory and Any Necessary Subdirectories Copy Files Copy Files Using Wildcards Copy Files Verbosely Stop Yourself from Copying over Important Files Copy Directories Copy Files As Perfect Backups in Another Directory Move Files and Folders Rename Files and Folders Understand How Linux Stores Files Create a Link Pointing to Another File or Directory Delete Files Remove Several Files at Once with Wildcards Prevent Yourself from Deleting Key Files Delete an Empty Directory Remove Files and Directories That Aren't Empty Deleting Troublesome Files
Chapter 4 Learning About Commands Find Out About Commands with man Quickly Find Out What a Command Does Based on Its Name Search for a Command Based on What It Does Read a Command's Specific Man Page Learn About Commands with info Navigate Within info Locate the Paths for a Command's Executable, Source Files, and Man Pages Find Out Which Version of a Command Will Run Discover How a Command Will Be Interpreted
Chapter 5 Building Blocks Run Several Commands Sequentially Run Commands Only If the Previous Ones Succeed Run a Command Only If the Previous One Fails Plug the Output of a Command into Another Command Understand Input/Output Streams Use the Output of One Command As Input for Another Redirect a Command's Output to a File Prevent Overwriting Files When Using Redirection Append a Command's Output to a File Use a File As Input for a Command Combine Input and Output Redirection Send Output to a File and to stdout at the Same Time
Part II: Working with Files
Chapter 6 Viewing (Mostly Text) Files Figure Out a File's Type View Files on stdout Concatenate Files to stdout Concatenate Files to Another File Concatenate Files and Number the Lines View Text Files a Screen at a Time Search Within Your Pager Edit Files Viewed with a Pager View the First 10 Lines of a File View the First 10 Lines of Several Files View the First Several Lines of a File or Files View the First Several Bytes, Kilobytes, or Megabytes of a File View the Last 10 Lines of a File View the Last 10 Lines of Several Files View the Last Several Lines of a File or Files View the Constantly Updated Last Lines of a File or Files
Chapter 7 Manipulating Text Files with Filters Count the Number of Words, Lines, and Characters in a File Number Lines in a File Select an Entire Column of Data in a Delimited File Sort the Contents of a File Sort the Contents of a File Numerically Remove Duplicate Lines in a File Substitute Selected Characters with Others Replace Repeated Characters with a Single Instance Delete Matching Characters Transform Text in a File Print Specific Fields in a File
Chapter 8 Ownerships and Permissions Become Another User Become Another User, with His Environment Variables Become root Become root, with Its Environment Variables Change the Group Owning Files and Directories Recursively Change the Group Owning a Directory Change the Owner of Files and Directories Change the Owner and Group of Files and Directories Understand the Basics of Permissions Change Permissions on Files and Directories Using Alphabetic Notation Change Permissions on Files and Directories Using Numeric Permissions Change Permissions Recursively Set and Then Clear suid Set and Then Clear sgid Set and Then Clear the Sticky Bit
Chapter 9 Archiving and Compression Archive and Compress Files Using zip Get the Best Compression Possible with zip Archive and Compress Files of a Specified Type in Directories and Subdirectories Password-Protect Compressed Zip Archives Unzip Files Test Files That Will Be Unzipped Archive and Compress Files Using gzip Archive and Compress Files Recursively Using gzip Uncompress Files Compressed with gzip Test Files That Will Be Unzipped with gunzip Archive and Compress Files Using bzip2 Uncompress Files Compressed with bzip2 Test Files That Will Be Unzipped with bunzip2 Archive Files with tar Archive and Compress Files with tar and gzip Test Files That Will Be Untarred and Uncompressed Untar and Uncompress Files
Part III: Finding Files, Words, and More
Chapter 10 Finding Files, Directories, Words, and Phrases Search a Database of Filenames Search a Database of Filenames Without Worrying About Case Update the Database Used by locate Searching Inside Text Files for Patterns The Basics of Searching Inside Text Files for Patterns Search Recursively for Text in Files Search for Words and Highlight the Results Search for Text in Files, Ignoring Case Search for Whole Words in Files Show Line Numbers Where Words Appear in Files Search the Output of Other Commands for Specific Words See Context for Words Appearing in Files Show Lines Where Words Do Not Appear in Files List Files Containing Searched-for Words List the Number of Occurrences of Words in Files Search for Words Inside Search Results
Chapter 11 The find Command Find Files by Name Find Files by Ownership Find Files by File Size Find Files by File Type Find Files by Time Show Results If the Expressions Are True (AND) Show Results If Either Expression Is True (OR) Show Results If the Expression Is Not True (NOT) Execute a Command on Found Files Execute a Command on Found Files More Efficiently Execute a Command on Found Files Containing Spaces
Part IV: Your Environment
Chapter 12 Your Shell View Your Command-Line History Run the Last Command Again Run a Previous Command Using Numbers Run a Previous Command Using a String Search for a Previous Command and Run It Display All Command Aliases View a Specific Command Alias Create a New Temporary Alias Create a New Permanent Alias Remove an Alias Create a New Temporary Function Create a New Permanent Function Display All Functions Remove a Function When to Use an Alias and When to Use a Function
Chapter 13 Monitoring System Resources Discover How Long Your Computer Has Been Running View All Currently Running Processes View a Process Tree View Processes Owned by a Particular User End a Running Process View a Dynamically Updated List of Running Processes List Open Files List a User's Open Files List Users for a Particular File List Processes for a Particular Program Display Information About System RAM Show File System Disk Usage Report File Space Used by a Directory Report Just the Total Space Used for a Directory
Chapter 14 Installing Software Install Software Packages (RPM) Remove Software Packages (RPM) Install Software Packages and Dependencies (RPM) Remove Software Packages and Dependencies (RPM) Upgrade Software Packages and Dependencies (RPM) Find Packages Available for Download (RPM) Install Software Packages (DEB) Remove Software Packages (DEB) Install Software Packages and Dependencies (DEB) Remove Software Packages and Dependencies (DEB) Upgrade Software Packages and Dependencies (DEB) Find Packages Available for Download (DEB) Clean Up Unneeded Installation Packages (DEB) Troubleshoot Problems with APT (DEB)
Part V: Networking
Chapter 15 Connectivity View the Status of Your Network Interfaces Verify That a Computer Is Running and Accepting Requests Trace the Route Packets Take Between Two Hosts Query DNS Records Configure a Network Interface View the Status of Your Wireless Network Interfaces Configure a Wireless Network Interface Grab a New Address Using DHCP Make a Network Connection Active Bring a Network Connection Down Display Your IP Routing Table Change Your IP Routing Table Troubleshooting Network Problems
Chapter 16 Working on the Network Securely Log In to Another Compute Securely Log In to Another Machine Without a Password Securely Transfer Files Between Machines Securely Copy Files Between Hosts Securely Transfer and Back Up Files Download Files Non-interactively Download Websites Non-interactively Download Sequential Files and Internet Resources
