starts our exploration of the basic language of the command line, including such things as the structure of commands, filesystem navigation, command line editing, and finding help and documentation for commands.
covers editing configuration files that control the computer’s operation from the command line.
explores many of the ordinary tasks that are commonly performed from the command line. Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux, contain many “classic” commandline programs that are used to perform powerful operations on data.
introduces shell programming, an admittedly rudimentary, but easy to learn, technique for automating many common computing tasks. By learning shell programming, you will become familiar with concepts that can be applied to many other programming languages.
Start at the beginning of the book and follow it to the end. It isn’t written as a reference work; it’s really more like a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
To use this book, all you will need is a working Linux installation. You can get this in one of two ways:
Install Linux on a (not so new) computer. It doesn’t matter which distribution you choose, though most people today start out with Ubuntu, Fedora, or OpenSUSE. If in doubt, try Ubuntu first. Installing a modern Linux distribution can be ridiculously easy or ridiculously difficult, depending on your hardware. I suggest a desktop computer that is a couple of years old and has at least 256MB of RAM and 6GB of free hard disk space. Avoid laptops and wireless networks if at all possible, as these are often more difficult to get working.
Use a live CD. One of the cool things you can do with many Linux distributions is run them directly from a CD-ROM without installing them at all. Just go into your BIOS setup, set your computer to “Boot from CDROM,” insert the live CD, and reboot. Using a live CD is a great way to test a computer for Linux compatibility prior to installation. The disadvantage of using a live CD is that it may be very slow compared to having Linux installed on your hard drive. Both Ubuntu and Fedora (among others) have live CD versions.
Note
Regardless of how you install Linux, you will need to have occasional superuser (i.e., administrative) privileges to carry out the lessons in this book.
After you have a working installation, start reading and follow along with your own computer. Most of the material in this book is “hands on,” so sit down and get typing!
Войти в систему
Войти с помощью соц. сетей:
