CompTIA Linux+ Complete Study Guide by Roderick W. Smith

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  • 1. CompTIA Linux+ Complete Study Guide
  • 2. CompTIA Linux+ Complete Study Guide (Exams LX0-101 and LX0-102) Roderick W. Smith
  • 3. Acquisitions Editor: Jeff Kellum Development Editors: Kim Wimpsett and Pete Gaughan Technical Editors: Emmett Dulaney and Evan Blomquist Production Editor: Liz Britten Copy Editor: Tiffany Taylor Production Manager: Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher Associate Producer: Kit Malone Quality Assurance: Angie Denny Book Designer: Judy Fung, Bill Gibson Compositor: Craig Johnson, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Proofreader: Publication Services, Inc. Indexer: Ted Laux Project Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey Stanford Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-88845-2 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 Sec- tions 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Pub- lisher, 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) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for per- mission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situa- tion. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. 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 (877) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. 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 Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, Roderick W. CompTIA Linux+ study guide : exams LX0-101 and LX0-102 / Roderick W. Smith.—1st ed. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-470-88845-2 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-470-88845-8 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-470-91307-9 (ebk) ISBN 978-0-470-91305-5 (ebk) ISBN 978-0-470-91306-2 (ebk) 1. Electronic data processing personnel—Certification. 2. Operating systems (Computers)—Examinations— Study guides. 3. Linux. I. Title. QA76.3.S47652 2010 005.4’32—dc22 2010016921 TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo 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. 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. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Disclaimer: This eBook does not include ancillary media that was packaged with the printed version of the book.
  • 4. Dear Reader, Thank you for choosing CompTIA Linux+ Complete Study Guide (Exams LX0-101 and LX0-102). This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching. Sybex was founded in 1976. More than thirty years later, we’re still committed to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles we’re working hard to set a new stan- dard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available. I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at, or if you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit Cus- tomer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex. Best regards, Neil Edde Vice President and Publisher Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley
  • 5. From one writer to another: Lola, keep writing your stories!
  • 6. Acknowledgments Although this book bears my name as author, many other people contributed to its creation. Without their help, this book wouldn’t exist, or at best would exist in a lesser form. Jeff Kellum was the Acquisitions Editor, and so helped get the book started. Pete Gaughan, the Development Editor, and Liz Britten, the Production Editor, oversaw the book as it progressed through all its stages. Emmett Dulaney was the Technical Editor, who checked the text for technical errors and omissions—but any mistakes that remain are my own. Tiffany Taylor, the copy editor, helped keep the text grammatical and understandable. The proofreader, Publications Services, Inc., checked the text for typos. I’d also like to thank Neil Salkind and others at Studio B, who helped connect me with Wiley to write this book. About the Author Roderick W. Smith is a Linux consultant and author. He has written over a dozen books on Linux, FreeBSD, and computer networking, including the LPIC-1 Study Guide and Linux Administrator Street Smarts (both from Sybex). He can be reached at
  • 7. Contents at a Glance Introduction xxi Assessment Test xlvii Part I The CompTIA Linux+ LX0-101 Exam 1 Chapter 1 Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools 3 Chapter 2 Managing Software 45 Chapter 3 Configuring Hardware 105 Chapter 4 Managing Files 177 Chapter 5 Booting Linux and Editing Files 225 Part II The CompTIA Linux+ LX0-102 Exam 265 Chapter 6 Configuring the X Window System, Localization, and Printing 267 Chapter 7 Administering the System 329 Chapter 8 Configuring Basic Networking 383 Chapter 9 Writing Scripts, Configuring E-Mail, and Using Databases 427 Chapter 10 Securing Your System 475 Appendix About the Companion CD 519 Glossary 523 Index 551
  • 8. Contents Introduction xxi Assessment Test xlvii Part I The CompTIA Linux+ LX0-101 Exam 1 Chapter 1 Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools 3 Understanding Command-Line Basics 4 Exploring Your Linux Shell Options 4 Using a Shell 5 Exploring Shell Configuration 11 Using Environment Variables 12 Getting Help 13 Using Streams, Redirection, and Pipes 14 Exploring Types of Streams 14 Redirecting Input and Output 15 Piping Data Between Programs 16 Generating Command Lines 17 Processing Text Using Filters 18 File-Combining Commands 18 File-Transforming Commands 20 File-Formatting Commands 24 File-Viewing Commands 27 File-Summarizing Commands 29 Using Regular Expressions 31 Understanding Regular Expressions 31 Using grep 32 Using sed 34 Summary 36 Exam Essentials 37 Review Questions 38 Answers to Review Questions 42 Chapter 2 Managing Software 45 Package Concepts 46 Using RPM 48 RPM Distributions and Conventions 48 The rpm Command Set 50 Extracting Data from RPMs 54 Using Yum 55 RPM and Yum Configuration Files 59 RPM Compared to Other Package Formats 60
  • 9. xii  Contents Using Debian Packages 61 Debian Distributions and Conventions 61 The dpkg Command Set 62 Using apt-cache 65 Using apt-get 65 Using dselect, aptitude, and Synaptic 69 Reconfiguring Packages 71 Debian Packages Compared to Other Package Formats 71 Configuring Debian Package Tools 72 Converting Between Package Formats 73 Package Dependencies and Conflicts 74 Real and Imagined Package Dependency Problems 75 Workarounds to Package Dependency Problems 76 Startup Script Problems 78 Managing Shared Libraries 78 Library Principles 79 Locating Library Files 80 Library Management Commands 83 Managing Processes 85 Understanding the Kernel: The First Process 85 Examining Process Lists 85 Understanding Foreground and Background Processes 91 Managing Process Priorities 92 Killing Processes 93 Summary 94 Exam Essentials 95 Review Questions 97 Answers to Review Questions 101 Chapter 3 Configuring Hardware 105 Configuring the BIOS and Core Hardware 106 Understanding the Role of the BIOS 107 IRQs 109 I/O Addresses 112 DMA Addresses 113 Boot Disks and Geometry Settings 113 Coldplug and Hotplug Devices 115 Configuring Expansion Cards 117 Configuring PCI Cards 117 Learning about Kernel Modules 119 Loading Kernel Modules 120 Removing Kernel Modules 122
  • 10. Contents  xiii Configuring USB Devices 123 USB Basics 123 Linux USB Drivers 124 USB Manager Applications 125 Configuring Hard Disks 126 Configuring PATA Disks 126 Configuring SATA Disks 127 Configuring SCSI Disks 128 Configuring External Disks 129 Designing a Hard Disk Layout 130 Why Partition? 130 Understanding Partitioning Systems 131 An Alternative to Partitions: LVM 134 Mount Points 134 Common Partitions and Filesystem Layouts 135 Creating Partitions and Filesystems 136 Partitioning a Disk 137 Preparing a Partition for Use 141 Maintaining Filesystem Health 147 Tuning Filesystems 148 Maintaining a Journal 152 Checking Filesystems 153 Monitoring Disk Use 155 Mounting and Unmounting Filesystems 158 Temporarily Mounting or Unmounting Filesystems 158 Permanently Mounting Filesystems 164 Summary 167 Exam Essentials 167 Review Questions 169 Answers to Review Questions 173 Chapter 4 Managing Files 177 Managing Files 178 File Naming and Wildcard Expansion Rules 178 File Commands 180 File Archiving Commands 185 Managing Links 191 Directory Commands 192 Managing File Ownership 193 Assessing File Ownership 194 Changing a File’s Owner 194 Changing a File’s Group 195
  • 11. xiv  Contents Controlling Access to Files 195 Understanding Permissions 195 Changing a File’s Mode 200 Setting the Default Mode and Group 203 Changing File Attributes 205 Managing Disk Quotas 206 Enabling Quota Support 206 Setting Quotas for Users 207 Locating Files 208 The FHS 208 Tools for Locating Files 212 Summary 216 Exam Essentials 216 Review Questions 218 Answers to Review Questions 222 Chapter 5 Booting Linux and Editing Files 225 Installing Boot Loaders 226 Boot Loader Principles 227 Using LILO as the Boot Loader 228 Using GRUB as the Boot Loader 233 Understanding the Boot Process 238 Extracting Information about the Boot Process 238 Locating and Interpreting Boot Messages 239 The Boot Process 240 Dealing with Runlevels and the Initialization Process 241 Runlevel Functions 241 Identifying the Services in a Runlevel 243 Managing Runlevel Services 245 Checking Your Runlevel 247 Changing Runlevels on a Running System 247 Editing Files with Vi 250 Understanding Vi Modes 251 Exploring Basic Text-Editing Procedures 251 Saving Changes 254 Summary 255 Exam Essentials 255 Review Questions 257 Answers to Review Questions 261
  • 12. Contents  xv PART II The CompTIA Linux+ LX0-102 Exam 265 Chapter 6 Configuring the X Window System, Localization, and Printing 267 Configuring Basic X Features 268 X Server Options for Linux 268 Methods of Configuring X 269 X Configuration Options 273 Obtaining X Display Information 281 Configuring X Fonts 282 Font Technologies and Formats 282 Configuring X Core Fonts 283 Configuring a Font Server 285 Configuring Xft Fonts 286 Managing GUI Logins 287 The X GUI Login System 288 Running an XDMCP Server 289 Configuring an XDMCP Server 290 Using X for Remote Access 291 X Client/Server Principles 292 Using Remote X Clients 292 X Accessibility 295 Keyboard and Mouse Accessibility Issues 295 Screen Display Settings 297 Using Additional Assistive Technologies 299 Configuring Localization and Internationalization 299 Setting Your Time Zone 300 Querying and Setting Your Locale 301 Configuring Printing 305 Conceptualizing the Linux Printing Architecture 305 Understanding PostScript and Ghostscript 306 Running a Printing System 308 Configuring CUPS 309 Monitoring and Controlling the Print Queue 315 Summary 318 Exam Essentials 318 Review Questions 320 Answers to Review Questions 325
  • 13. xvi  Contents Chapter 7 Administering the System 329 Managing Users and Groups 330 Understanding Users and Groups 330 Configuring User Accounts 333 Configuring Groups 344 Tuning User and System Environments 348 Using System Log Files 349 Understanding syslogd 349 Setting Logging Options 350 Manually Logging Data 352 Rotating Log Files 353 Reviewing Log File Contents 356 Maintaining the System Time 358 Linux Time Concepts 358 Manually Setting the Time 359 Using NTP 360 Running Jobs in the Future 366 Understanding the Role of cron 366 Creating System cron Jobs 367 Creating User cron Jobs 368 Using at 372 Summary 374 Exam Essentials 374 Review Questions 376 Answers to Review Questions 380 Chapter 8 Configuring Basic Networking 383 Understanding TCP/IP Networking 384 Knowing the Basic Functions of Network Hardware 384 Investigating Types of Network Hardware 385 Understanding Network Packets 387 Understanding Network Protocol Stacks 387 Knowing TCP/IP Protocol Types 389 Understanding Network Addressing 390 Using Network Addresses 391 Resolving Hostnames 397 Network Ports 399 Configuring Linux for a Local Network 402 Network Hardware Configuration 402 Configuring with DHCP 402 Configuring with a Static IP Address 404
  • 14. Contents  xvii Configuring Routing 406 Using GUI Configuration Tools 408 Using the ifup and ifdown Commands 408 Configuring Hostnames 409 Diagnosing Network Connections 412 Testing Basic Connectivity 412 Tracing a Route 412 Checking Network Status 414 Examining Raw Network Traffic 414 Using Additional Tools 416 Summary 418 Exam Essentials 418 Review Questions 420 Answers to Review Questions 424 Chapter 9 Writing Scripts, Configuring E-mail, and Using Databases 427 Managing the Shell Environment 428 Reviewing Environment Variables 428 Understanding Common Environment Variables 429 Using Aliases 433 Modifying Shell Configuration Files 433 Writing Scripts 435 Beginning a Shell Script 436 Using Commands 436 Using Variables 438 Using Conditional Expressions 441 Using Loops 443 Using Functions 444 Managing E‑mail 446 Understanding E‑mail 446 Choosing E‑mail Software 448 Managing E‑mail 450 Securing Your E-mail Server 454 Managing Data with SQL 455 Picking a SQL Package 455 Understanding SQL Basics 456 Using MySQL 457 Summary 465 Exam Essentials 466 Review Questions 468 Answers to Review Questions 472
  • 15. xviii  Contents Chapter 10 Securing Your System 475 Administering Network Security 476 Using Super Server Restrictions 477 Disabling Unused Servers 483 Administering Local Security 490 Securing Passwords 490 Limiting root Access 494 Setting Login, Process, and Memory Limits 495 Locating SUID/SGID Files 497 Configuring SSH 499 SSH Basics 499 Setting SSH Options for Your System 500 SSH Security Considerations 507 Using GPG 507 Generating and Importing Keys 508 Encrypting and Decrypting Data 509 Signing Messages and Verifying Signatures 510 Summary 510 Exam Essentials 511 Review Questions 512 Answers to Review Questions 516 Appendix About the Companion CD 519 What You’ll Find on the CD 520 Sybex Test Engine 520 Electronic Flashcards 520 PDF of the Book 520 Adobe Reader 520 System Requirements 521 Windows 521 Linux 521 Using the CD 521 Troubleshooting 522 Customer Care 522 Glossary 523 Index 551
  • 16. Table of Exercises Exercise 1.1 Editing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Exercise 2.1 Managing Packages Using RPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Exercise 2.2 Managing Debian Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Exercise 3.1 Creating Filesystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Exercise 4.1 Modifying Ownership and Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Exercise 4.2 Locating Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Exercise 5.1 Changing Runlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Exercise 6.1 Changing the X Resolution and Color Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Exercise 7.1 Creating User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Exercise 7.2 Creating User cron Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 Exercise 8.1 Configuring a Network Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Exercise 9.1 Changing Your bash Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432 Exercise 9.2 Creating a Simple Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 Exercise 9.3 Creating a SQL Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461 Exercise 10.1 Monitor Network Port Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
  • 17. Introduction Why should you learn about Linux? It’s a fast-growing operating system, and it is inexpen- sive and flexible. Linux is also a major player in the small and mid-sized server field, and it’s an increasingly viable platform for workstation and desktop use as well. By understanding Linux, you’ll increase your standing in the job market. Even if you already know Windows or Mac OS and your employer uses these systems exclusively, understanding Linux will give you an edge when you’re looking for a new job or if you’re looking for a promotion. For instance, this knowledge will help you to make an informed decision about if and when you should deploy Linux. The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) promotes the Linux+ exam as an introductory certification for people who want to enter careers involving Linux. The exam is meant to certify that an individual has the skills necessary to install, operate, and troubleshoot a Linux system and is familiar with Linux-specific concepts and basic hardware. The purpose of this book is to help you pass the 2010 version of the Linux+ exams (LX0-101 and LX0-102). Because these exams cover basic Linux installation, configura- tion, maintenance, applications, networking, and security, those are the topics that are emphasized in this book. You’ll learn enough to get a Linux system up and running and how to configure it for many common tasks. Even after you’ve taken and passed the Linux+ exam, this book should remain a useful reference. In 2010, CompTIA announced a partnership with Linux Professional Institute, the organization behind the popular LPI Certification (LPIC) program . With this partnership, CompTIA will be offering the LPIC Level 1 exams under the Linux+ umbrella . The exams and the exam objectives are identical for the two programs . However, Linux+ candidates have the option of receiving their LPIC-1 as well as the Novell Certified Linux Administrator certification by passing the CompTIA Linux+ exams . This book has undergone its own testing and certification by ProCert Labs (http://www, and has achieved the CompTIA Authorized Quality Curriculum (CACQ) status. This means that you can rest assured that the book covers the Linux+ objectives. What Is Linux? Linux is a clone of the Unix operating system (OS) that has been popular in academia and many business environments for years. Formerly used exclusively on large mainframes, Unix and Linux can now run on small computers—which are actually far more powerful than the mainframes of just a few years ago. Because of its mainframe heritage, Unix (and hence also Linux) scales well to perform today’s demanding scientific, engineering, and network server tasks.
  • 18. xxii  Introduction Linux consists of a kernel, which is the core control software, and many libraries and utilities that rely on the kernel to provide features with which users interact. The OS is available in many different distributions, which are collections of a specific kernel with spe- cific support programs. Why Become Linux+ Certified? There are several good reasons to get your Linux+ certification: Provides proof of professional achievement ​ ​Certifications are quickly becoming status symbols in the computer service industry. Organizations, including members of the computer service industry, are recognizing the benefits of certification, such as Linux+. Organizations are pushing for their members to become certified. Every day, more people are putting the CompTIA official certification logo on their business cards. Increases your marketability ​ ​Linux+ certification makes individuals more marketable to potential employers. Also, Linux+ certified employees might receive a higher salary base because employers won’t have to spend as much money on vendor-specific training. Provides an opportunity for advancement ​ ​Most raises and advancements are based on performance. Linux+ certified employees work faster and more efficiently. The more pro- ductive employees are, the more money they will make for their company; and, of course, the more money they make for the company, the more valuable they will be to the company. So, if employees are Linux+ certified, their chances of getting promoted will be greater. Fulfills training requirements ​ ​Each year, more and more major computer hardware vendors, including (but not limited to) IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Novell, are recognizing CompTIA’s certifications as prerequisites in their own respective certification programs. The use of out- side certifications like Linux+ has the side benefit of reducing training costs for employers. Because more and more small companies are deploying the flexible and inexpensive OS we call Linux, the demand for experienced users is growing. CompTIA anticipates that the Linux+ certification, like the A+ certification, will find itself integrated into various certifi- cation programs as well. Raises customer confidence ​ ​As the IT community, users, small business owners, and the like become more familiar with the Linux+ certified professional moniker, more of them will realize that the Linux+ professional is more qualified to work in their Linux environ- ment than is a noncertified individual. How to Become Linux+ Certified The Linux+ certification is available to anyone who passes the two required exams: LX0-101 and LX0-102. You don’t have to work for a particular company. It’s not a secret society. The exam is administered by Thomson Prometric and Pearson VUE. The exam can be taken at any Thomson Prometric or Pearson VUE testing center. If you pass, you will get a certificate in the mail from CompTIA saying that you have passed, and you will also receive
  • 19. Introduction xxiii a lapel pin and business cards. To find the Thomson Prometric testing center nearest you, call (800) 755-EXAM (755-3926). Contact (877) 551-PLUS (551-7587) for Pearson VUE information. To register for the exam with Thomson Prometric, call (800) 776-MICRO (776-4276), or register online at To register with Pearson VUE, call (877) 551-PLUS (551-7587), or register online at How- ever you do it, you’ll be asked for your name, mailing address, phone number, employer, when and where you want to take the test (i.e., which testing center), and your credit card number (arrangement for payment must be made at the time of registration). As noted above, if you pass the CompTIA Linux+ exams, you do have the option of also obtaining your LPIC-1 certification from LPI, as well as your Novell Certified Linux Administrator (CLA) certification at the same time . All that is required is authorization to submit your information to LPI . You are given this option at the testing site . Who Should Buy This Book Anybody who wants to pass the Linux+ exams may benefit from this book. If you’re new to Linux, this book covers the material you will need to learn the OS from the beginning, and it continues to provide the knowledge you need up to a proficiency level sufficient to pass the LX0-101 and LX0-102 exams. You can pick up this book and learn from it even if you’ve never used Linux before, although you’ll find it an easier read if you’ve at least casu- ally used Linux for a few days. If you’re already familiar with Linux, this book can serve as a review and as a refresher course for information with which you might not be completely familiar. In either case, reading this book will help you to pass the Linux+ exams. This book is written with the assumption that you know at least a little bit about Linux (what it is, and possibly a few Linux commands). I also assume that you know some basics about computers in general, such as how to use a keyboard, how to insert a disc into a CD- ROM drive, and so on. Chances are, you have used computers in a substantial way in the past—perhaps even Linux, as an ordinary user, or maybe you have used Windows or Mac OS. I do not assume that you have extensive knowledge of Linux system administration, but if you’ve done some system administration, you can still use this book to fill in gaps in your knowledge. As a practical matter, you’ll need a Linux system with which to practice and learn in a hands-on way . Neither the exams nor this book covers actually install- ing Linux on a computer from scratch, although some of the prerequisites (such as disk partitioning) are covered . You may need to refer to your distribution’s documentation to learn how to accomplish this task . Alternatively, several vendors now sell computers with Linux pre-installed .
  • 20. xxiv  Introduction How This Book Is Organized This book consists of 10 chapters plus supplementary information: a glossary, this intro- duction, and the assessment test after the introduction. The chapters are organized as follows: Chapter 1, “Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools,” covers the basic tools you needNN to interact with Linux. These include shells, redirection, pipes, text filters, and regular expressions. Chapter 2, “Managing Software,” describes the programs you’ll use to manage soft-NN ware. Much of this task is centered around the RPM and Debian package management systems. The chapter also covers handling shared libraries and managing processes (that is, running programs). Chapter 3, “Configuring Hardware,” focuses on Linux’s interactions with the hard-NN ware on which it runs. Specific hardware and procedures for using it include the BIOS, expansion cards, USB devices, hard disks, and the partitions and filesystems used on hard disks. Chapter 4, “Managing Files,” covers the tools used to manage files. This includesNN commands to manage files, ownership, and permissions, as well as Linux’s standard directory tree and tools for archiving files. Chapter 5, “Booting Linux and Editing Files,” explains how Linux boots up and howNN you can edit files in Linux. Specific topics include the LILO and GRUB boot loaders, boot diagnostics, runlevels, and the Vi editor. Chapter 6, “Configuring the X Window System, Localization, and Printing,” describesNN the Linux GUI and printing subsystems. Topics include X configuration, managing GUI logins, configuring location-specific features, enabling accessibility features, and setting up Linux to use a printer. Chapter 7, “Administering the System,” describes miscellaneous administrative tasks.NN These include user and group management, tuning user environments, managing log files, setting the clock, and running jobs in the future. Chapter 8, “Configuring Basic Networking,” focuses on basic network configuration.NN Topics include TCP/IP basics, setting up Linux on a TCP/IP network, and network diagnostics. Chapter 9, “Writing Scripts, Configuring E-mail, and Using Databases,” covers theseNN miscellaneous topics. Scripts are small programs that administrators often use to help automate common tasks. E‑mail, of course, is an important topic for any computer user, particularly on Linux, which often runs an e‑mail server for local or remote use. Linux can run databases that help you store and retrieve information, and these tools can be very important ones on many Linux systems. Chapter 10, “Securing Your System,” covers security. Specific subjects include networkNN security, local security, and the use of encryption to improve security.
  • 21. Introduction xxv Chapters 1 through 5 cover the LX0-101 exam, while chapters 6 through 10 cover the LX0-102 exam. These make up Part I and Part II of the book, respectively. Each chapter begins with a list of the Linux+ objectives that are covered in that chapter. The book doesn’t cover the objectives in order. Thus, you shouldn’t be alarmed at some of the odd ordering of the objectives within the book. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a couple of elements you can use to prepare for the exam: Exam Essentials This section summarizes important information that was covered in the chapter. You should be able to perform each of the tasks or convey the information requested. Review Questions Each chapter concludes with 20 review questions. You should answer these questions and check your answers against the ones provided after the questions. If you can’t answer at least 80 percent of these questions correctly, go back and review the chapter, or at least those sections that seem to be giving you difficulty. The review questions, assessment test, and other testing elements included in this book are not derived from the Linux+ exam questions, so don’t mem- orize the answers to these questions and assume that doing so will enable you to pass the exam . You should learn the underlying topic, as described in the text of the book . This will let you answer the questions provided with this book and pass the exam . Learning the underlying topic is also the approach that will serve you best in the workplace—the ultimate goal of a certification like CompTIA’s . To get the most out of this book, you should read each chapter from start to finish and then check your memory and understanding with the chapter-end elements. Even if you’re already familiar with a topic, you should skim the chapter; Linux is complex enough that there are often multiple ways to accomplish a task, so you may learn something even if you’re already competent in an area. Bonus CD-ROM Contents This book comes with a CD-ROM that contains several additional elements. Items avail- able on the CD-ROM include the following: Sample tests All of the questions in this book appear on the CD-ROM—including the 30-question assessment test at the end of this introduction and the 200 questions that make up the 20-question review question sections for each chapter. In addition, there are two 50-question bonus exams. The test engine runs on both Windows and Linux. Electronic “flashcards” The CD-ROM includes 150 questions in flashcard format (a ques- tion followed by a single correct answer). You can use these to review your knowledge of the Linux+ exam objectives. The flashcards run on both Windows and Linux. Book contents as a PDF file The entire book is available as a fully searchable PDF that runs on all Windows platforms as well as on Linux.
  • 22. xxvi Introduction Conventions Used in This Book This book uses certain typographic styles in order to help you quickly identify important information and to avoid confusion over the meaning of words such as on-screen prompts. In particular, look for the following styles: Italicized textNN indicates key terms that are described at length for the first time in a chapter. (Italics are also used for emphasis.) A monospaced fontN indicates the contents of configuration files, messages displayed at a text-mode Linux shell prompt, filenames, text-mode command names, and Internet URLs. Italicized monospaced textNN indicates a variable—information that differs from one system or command run to another, such as the name of a client computer or a process ID number. Bold monospaced textN is information that you’re to type into the computer, usually at a Linux shell prompt. This text can also be italicized to indicate that you should substi- tute an appropriate value for your system. (When isolated on their own lines, commands are preceded by non-bold monospaced $ or # command prompts, denoting regular user or system administrator use, respectively.) In addition to these text conventions, which can apply to individual words or entire paragraphs, a few conventions highlight segments of text: A note indicates information that’s useful or interesting but that’s some- what peripheral to the main text . A note might be relevant to a small num- ber of networks, for instance, or it may refer to an outdated feature . A tip provides information that can save you time or frustration and that may not be entirely obvious . A tip might describe how to get around a limi- tation or how to use a feature to perform an unusual task . Warnings describe potential pitfalls or dangers . If you fail to heed a warn- ing, you may end up spending a lot of time recovering from a bug, or you may even end up restoring your entire system from scratch . Sidebars A sidebar is like a note but longer . The information in a sidebar is useful, but it doesn’t fit into the main flow of the text .
  • 23. Introduction xxvii Real World Scenario A real world scenario is a type of sidebar that describes a task or example that’s par- ticularly grounded in the real world . This may be a situation I or somebody I know has encountered, or it may be advice on how to work around problems that are common in real, working Linux environments . E X E R C I S E S Exercises An exercise is a procedure you should try out on your own computer to help you learn about the material in the chapter . Don’t limit yourself to the procedures described in the exercises, though! Try other commands and procedures to really learn about Linux . The Exam Objectives Behind every computer industry exam you can be sure to find exam objectives—the broad topics in which exam developers want to ensure your competency. The official Linux+ objectives are listed here. (They’re also printed at the start of the chapters in which they’re covered, as well as in the front of the book in a useful tear-out card that also maps the objectives to the chapters in which they are covered.) Exam objectives are subject to change at any time without prior notice and at CompTIA’s sole discretion . Please visit the Linux+ Certification page of CompTIA’s website ( linux.aspx) for the most current listing of exam objectives . LX0-101 Objectives The following are the areas (or domains according to CompTIA) in which you must be pro- ficient in order to pass LX0-101 101 System Architecture 14% 102 Linux Installation and Package Management 18% 103 GNU and Unix Commands 43% 104 Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard 25%
  • 24. xxviii  Introduction 101 System Architecture 101.1 Determine and Configure hardware settings Enable and disable integrated peripheralsNN Configure systems with or without external peripherals such as keyboardsNN Differentiate between the various types of mass storage devicesNN Set the correct hardware ID for different devices, especially the boot deviceNN Know the differences between coldplug and hotplug devicesNN Determine hardware resources for devicesNN Tools and utilities to list various hardware information (e.g. lsusb, lspci, etc.)NN Tools and utilities to manipulate USB devicesNN Conceptual understanding of sysfs, udev, hald, dbusNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /sysNN /procNN /devNN modprobeNN lsmodNN lspciNN lsusbNN 101.2 Boot the System Provide common commands to the boot loader and options to the kernel at boot timeNN Demonstrate knowledge of the boot sequence from BIOS to boot completionNN Check boot events in the log fileNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN /var/log/messagesNN dmesgNN BIOSNN bootloaderNN kernelNN initNN
  • 25. Introduction  xxix 101.3 Change runlevels and shutdown or reboot system Set the default runlevelNN Change between runlevels including single user modeNN Shutdown and reboot from the command lineNN Alert users before switching runlevels or other major system eventsNN Properly terminate processesNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN /etc/inittabNN shutdownNN initNN /etc/init.dNN telinitNN 102 Linux Installation and Package Management 102.1 Design hard disk layout Allocate filesystems and swap space to separate partitions or disksNN Tailor the design to the intended use of the systemNN Ensure the /boot partition conforms to the hardware architecture requirements forNN booting The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN / (root) filesystemNN /var filesystemNN /home filesystemNN swap spaceNN mount pointsNN partitionsNN 102.2 Install a boot manager Providing alternative boot locations and backup boot optionsNN Install and configure a boot loader such as GRUBNN Interact with the boot loaderNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilitiesNN /boot/grub/menu.lstNN grub-installNN
  • 26. xxx  Introduction MBRNN superblockNN /etc/lilo.confNN liloNN 102.3 Manage shared libraries Identify shared librariesNN Identify the typical locations of system librariesNN Load shared librariesNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilitiesNN lddNN ldconfigNN /etc/ LD_LIBRARY_PATHNN 102.4 Use Debian package management Install, upgrade and uninstall Debian binary packagesNN Find packages containing specific files or libraries which may or may not be installedNN Obtain package information like version, content, dependencies, package integrity andNN installation status (whether or not the package is installed) The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN /etc/apt/sources.listNN dpkgNN dpkg-reconfigureNN apt-getNN apt-cacheNN aptitudeNN 102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management Install, re-install, upgrade and remove packages using RPM and YUMNN Obtain information on RPM packages such as version, status, dependencies, integrityNN and signatures Determine what files a package provides, as well as find which package a specific fileNN comes from
  • 27. Introduction  xxxi The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN rpmNN rpm2cpioNN /etc/yum.confNN /etc/yum.repos.d/NN yumNN yumdownloaderNN 103 GNU and Unix Commands 103.1 Work on the command line Use single shell commands and one line command sequences to perform basic tasks onNN the command line Use and modify the shell environment including defining, referencing and exportingNN environment variables Use and edit command historyNN Invoke commands inside and outside the defined pathNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN .NN bashNN echoNN envNN execNN exportNN pwdNN setNN unsetNN manNN unameNN historyNN 103.2 Process text streams using filters Send text files and output streams through text utility filters to modify the outputNN using standard UNIX commands found in the GNU textutils package
  • 28. xxxii  Introduction The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN catNN cutNN expandNN fmtNN headNN odNN joinNN nlNN pasteNN prNN sedNN sortNN splitNN tailNN trNN unexpandNN uniqNN wcNN 103.3 Perform basic file management Copy, move and remove files and directories individuallyNN Copy multiple files and directories recursivelyNN Remove files and directories recursivelyNN Use simple and advanced wildcard specifications in commandsNN Using find to locate and act on files based on type, size, or timeNN Usage of tar, cpio, and ddNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN cpNN findNN mkdirNN mvNN lsNN rmNN rmdirNN touchNN
  • 29. Introduction  xxxiii tarNN cpioNN ddNN fileNN gzipNN gunzipNN bzip2NN file globbingNN 103.4 Use streams, pipes and redirects Redirecting standard input, standard output and standard errorNN Pipe the output of one command to the input of another commandNN Use the output of one command as arguments to another commandNN Send output to both stdout and a fileNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN teeNN xargsNN 103.5 Create, monitor and kill processes Run jobs in the foreground and backgroundNN Signal a program to continue running after logoutNN Monitor active processesNN Select and sort processes for displayNN Send signals to processesNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN &NN bgNN fgNN jobsNN killNN nohupNN psNN topNN freeNN uptimeNN killallNN
  • 30. xxxiv  Introduction 103.6 Modify process execution priorities Know the default priority of a job that is createdNN Run a program with higher or lower priority than the defaultNN Change the priority of a running processNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN niceNN psNN reniceNN topNN 103.7 Search text files using regular expressions Create simple regular expressions containing several notational elementsNN Use regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file contentNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN grepNN egrepNN fgrepNN sedNN regex(7)NN 103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi Navigate a document using viNN Use basic vi modesNN Insert, edit, delete, copy and find textNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN viNN /, ?NN h,j,k,lNN i, o, aNN c, d, p, y, dd, yyNN ZZ, :w!, :q!, :e!NN
  • 31. Introduction  xxxv 104 Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard 104.1 Create partitions and filesystems Use various mkfs commands to set up partitions and create various filesystems such as:NN ext2NN ext3NN xfsNN reiserfs v3NN vfatNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN fdiskNN mkfsNN mkswapNN 104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems Verify the integrity of filesystemsNN Monitor free space and inodesNN Repair simple filesystem problemsNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN duNN dfNN fsckNN e2fsckNN mke2fsNN debugfsNN dumpe2fsNN tune2fsNN xfs tools (such as xfs_metadump and xfs_info)NN 104.3 Control mounting and unmounting of filesystems Manually mount and unmount filesystemsNN Configure filesystem mounting on bootupNN Configure user mountable removeable filesystemsNN
  • 32. xxxvi  Introduction The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN /etc/fstabNN /mediaNN mountNN umountNN 104.4 Manage disk quotas Set up a disk quota for a filesystemNN Edit, check and generate user quota reportsNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN quotaNN edquotaNN repquotaNN quotaonNN 104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership Manage access permissions on regular and special files as well as directoriesNN Use access modes such as suid, sgid and the sticky bit to maintain securityNN Know how to change the file creation maskNN Use the group field to grant file access to group membersNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN chmodNN umaskNN chownNN chgrpNN 104.6 Create and change hard and symbolic links Create linksNN Identify hard and/or softlinksNN Copying versus linking filesNN Use links to support system administration tasksNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN lnNN
  • 33. Introduction  xxxvii 104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location Understand the correct locations of files under the FHSNN Find files and commands on a Linux systemNN Know the location and propose of important file and directories as defined in the FHSNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:NN findNN locateNN updatedbNN whereisNN whichNN typeNN /etc/updatedb.confNN LX0-102 The following are the areas (or domains according to CompTIA) in which you must be pro- ficient in order to pass LX0-102 105 Shells, Scripting and Data Management 17% 106 User Interfaces and Desktops 8% 107 Administrative Tasks 20% 108 Essential System Services 17% 109 Networking Fundamentals 23% 110 Security 15% 105 Shells, Scripting and Data Management 105.1 Customize and use the shell environment Set environment variables (e.g. PATH) at login or when spawning a new shellNN Write BASH functions for frequently used sequences of commandsNN Maintain skeleton directories for new user accountsNN Set command search path with the proper directoryNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/profileNN envNN exportNN
  • 34. xxxviii  Introduction setNN unsetNN ~/.bash_profileNN ~/.bash_loginNN ~/.profileNN ~/.bashrcNN ~/.bash_logoutNN functionNN aliasNN listsNN 105.2 Customize or write simple scripts Use standard sh syntax (loops, tests)NN Use command substitutionNN Test return values for success or failure or other information provided by a commandNN Perform conditional mailing to the superuserNN Correctly select the script interpreter through the shebang (#!) lineNN Manage the location, ownership, execution and suid-rights of scriptsNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN forNN whileNN testNN ifNN readNN seqNN 105.3 SQL data management Use of basic SQL commandsNN Perform basic data manipulationNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN insertNN updateNN selectNN deleteNN
  • 35. Introduction  xxxix fromNN whereNN group byNN order byNN joinNN 106 User Interfaces and Desktops 106.1 Install and configure X11 Verify that the video card and monitor are supported by an X serverNN Awareness of the X font serverNN Basic understanding and knowledge of the X Window configuration fileNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/X11/xorg.confNN xhostNN DISPLAYNN xwininfoNN xdpyinfoNN XNN 106.2 Setup a display manager Turn the display manager on or offNN Change the display manager greetingNN Change default color depth for the display managerNN Configure display managers for use by X-stationsNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/inittabNN xdm configuration filesNN kdm configuration filesNN gdm configuration filesNN 106.3 Accessibility Keyboard Accessibility Settings (AccessX?)NN Visual Settings and ThemesNN Assistive Technology (ATs)NN
  • 36. xl  Introduction The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN Sticky/Repeat KeysNN Slow/Bounce/Toggle KeysNN Mouse KeysNN High Contrast/Large Print Desktop ThemesNN Screen ReaderNN Braille DisplayNN Screen MagnifierNN On-Screen KeyboardNN Gestures (used at login, for example gdm)NN OrcaNN GOKNN emacspeakNN 107 Administrative Tasks 107.1 Manage user and group accounts and related system files Add, modify and remove users and groupsNN Manage user/group info in password/group databasesNN Create and manage special purpose and limited accountsNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/passwdNN /etc/shadowNN /etc/groupNN /etc/skelNN chageNN groupaddNN groupdelNN groupmodNN passwdNN useraddNN userdelNN usermodNN
  • 37. Introduction  xli 107.2 Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs Manage cron and at jobsNN Configure user access to cron and at servicesNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/cron.{d,daily,hourly,monthly,weekly}NN /etc/at.denyNN /etc/at.allowNN /etc/crontabNN /etc/cron.allowNN /etc/cron.denyNN /var/spool/cron/*NN crontabNN atNN atqNN atrmNN 107.3 Localization and internationalization Locale settingsNN Timezone settingsNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/timezoneNN /etc/localtimeNN /usr/share/zoneinfoNN Environment variables:NN LC_*NN LC_ALLNN LANGNN /usr/bin/localeNN tzselectNN tzconfigNN dateNN iconvNN UTF-8NN
  • 38. xlii  Introduction ISO-8859NN ASCIINN UnicodeNN 108 Essential System Services 108.1 Maintain system time Set the system date and timeNN Set the hardware clock to the correct time in UTCNN Configure the correct timezoneNN Basic NTP configurationNN Knowledge of using the serviceNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /usr/share/zoneinfoNN /etc/timezoneNN /etc/localtimeNN /etc/ntp.confNN dateNN hwclockNN ntpdNN ntpdateNN pool.ntp.orgNN 108.2 System logging Syslog configuration filesNN syslogNN standard facilities, priorities and actionsNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN syslog.confNN syslogdNN klogdNN loggerNN 108.3 Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) basics Create e‑mail aliasesNN Configure e‑mail forwardingNN
  • 39. Introduction  xliii Knowledge of commonly available MTA programs (postfix, sendmail, qmail, exim) (noNN configuration) The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN ~/.forwardNN sendmail emulation layer commandsNN newaliasesNN mailNN mailqNN postfixNN sendmailNN eximNN qmailNN 108.4 Manage printers and printing Basic CUPS configuration (for local and remote printers)NN Manage user print queuesNN Troubleshoot general printing problemsNN Add and remove jobs from configured printer queuesNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN CUPS configuration files, tools and utilitiesNN /etc/cupsNN lpd legacy interface (lpr, lprm, lpq)NN 109 Networking Fundamentals 109.1 Fundamentals of internet protocols Demonstrate an understanding network masksNN Knowledge of the differences between private and public “dotted quad” IP-AddressesNN Seeting a default routeNN Knowledge about common TCP and UDP ports (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 119,NN 139, 143, 161, 443, 465, 993, 995) Knowledge about the differences and major features of UDP, TCP and ICMPNN Knowledge of the major differences between IPv4 and IPV6NN
  • 40. xliv  Introduction The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/servicesNN ftpNN telnetNN hostNN pingNN digNN tracerouteNN tracepathNN 109.2 Basic network configuration Manually and automatically configure network interfacesNN Basic TCP/IP host configurationNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/hostnameNN /etc/hostsNN /etc/resolv.confNN /etc/nsswitch.confNN ifconfigNN ifupNN ifdownNN routeNN pingNN 109.3 Basic network troubleshooting Manually and automatically configure network interfaces and routing tables to includeNN adding, starting, stopping, restarting, deleting or reconfiguring network interfaces Change, view or configure the routing table and correct an improperly set default routeNN manually Debug problems associated with the network configurationNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN ifconfigNN ifupNN ifdownNN routeNN
  • 41. Introduction  xlv hostNN hostnameNN digNN netstatNN pingNN tracerouteNN 109.4 Configure client side DNS Demonstrate the use of DNS on the local systemNN Modify the order in which name resolution is doneNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/hostsNN /etc/resolv.confNN /etc/nsswitch.confNN 110 Security 110.1 Perform security administration tasks Audit a system to find files with the suid/sgid bit setNN Set or change user passwords and password aging informationNN Being able to use nmap and netstat to discover open ports on a systemNN Set up limits on user logins, processes and memory usageNN Basic sudo configuration and usageNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN findNN passwdNN lsofNN nmapNN chageNN netstatNN sudoNN /etc/sudoersNN suNN usermodNN ulimitNN
  • 42. xlvi  ﻿ 110.2 Setup host security Awareness of shadow passwords and how they workNN Turn off network services not in useNN Understand the role of TCP wrappersNN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN /etc/nologinNN /etc/passwdNN /etc/shadowNN /etc/xinetd.d/*NN /etc/xinetd.confNN /etc/inetd.d/*NN /etc/inetd.confNN /etc/inittabNN /etc/init.d/*NN /etc/hosts.allowNN /etc/hosts.denyNN 110.3 Securing data with encryption Perform basic OpenSSH 2 client configuration and usageNN Understand the role of OpenSSH 2 server host keysNN Perform basic GnuPG configuration and usageNN Understand SSH port tunnels (including X11 tunnels)NN The following is a partial list of the used files, terms, and utilities:NN sshNN ssh-keygenNN ssh-agentNN ssh-addNN ~/.ssh/id_rsa and id_rsa.pubNN ~/.ssh/id_dsa and id_dsa.pubNN /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key and ssh_host_rsa_key.pubNN /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key and ssh_host_dsa_key.pubNN ~/.ssh/authorized_keysNN /etc/ssh_known_hostsNN gpgNN ~/.gnupg/*NN
  • 43. Assessment Test  xlvii Assessment Test 1. The following line appears in your X server’s mouse configuration area. What can you conclude? Option “Protocol” “PS/2” A. The mouse is connected to the PS/2 hardware mouse port. B. The mouse uses the PS/2 software communication standard. C. The computer is an ancient IBM PS/2 system. D. The mouse was designed for use with IBM’s OS/2. 2. How can you tell whether your system is using inetd or xinetd as a super server? (Choose all that apply.) A. Type ps ax | grep inetd, and examine the output for signs of inetd or xinetd. B. Type superserver to see a report on which super server is running. C. Look for the /etc/inetd.conf file or /etc/xinetd.d subdirectory, which is a sign of inetd or xinetd, respectively. D. Examine the /etc/inittab file to see which super server is launched by init, which is responsible for this task. 3. How does the lpc utility for CUPS differ from its counterpart in BSD LPD and LPRng? A. The lpc utility is unique to CUPS; it doesn’t ship with BSD LPD or LPRng. B. CUPS doesn’t ship with an lpc command, but BSD LPD and LPRng do. C. CUPS’s lpc is much more complex than its counterpart in BSD LPD and LPRng. D. CUPS’s lpc is much simpler than its counterpart in BSD LPD and LPRng. 4. What file would you edit to restrict the number of simultaneous logins a user can employ? A. /etc/pam.d/login-limits B. /etc/bashrc C. /etc/security/limits.conf D. /etc/inittab 5. Which of the following are required when configuring a computer to use a static IP address? (Choose all that apply.) A. The IP address of the DHCP server B. The hostname of the NBNS server C. The computer’s IP address D. The network mask
  • 44. xlviii  Assessment Test 6. What does the following command accomplish? $ wc report.txt | tee wc A. It launches the wc editor on both the report.txt and wc.txt files; each file opens in its own window. B. It displays a count of the windows in which the report.txt file is displayed and shows that information in a new window called wc. C. It displays a count of newlines, words, and bytes in the report.txt file and copies that output to the wc file. D. It cleans up any memory leaks associated with the tee program’s use of the report.txt file. 7. Which of the following lines, when entered in /etc/lilo.conf, begins a definition to boot Linux using the /boot/bzImage-2.6.19 kernel when the /boot partition is /dev/hda2? A. image=(hd0,1)/bzImage-2.6.19 B. kernel=/boot/bzImage-2.6.19 C. image=/boot/bzImage-2.6.19 D. kernel=(hd0,1)/boot/bzImage-2.6.19 8. What does the number 703 represent in the following /etc/passwd entry? george:x:703:100:George Brown:/home/george:/bin/tcsh A. The account’s human ID (HID) number B. The account’s process ID (PID) number C. The account’s group ID (GID) number D. The account’s user ID (UID) number 9. What does the grep command accomplish? A. It creates a pipeline between two programs. B. It searches files’ contents for a pattern. C. It concatenates two or more files. D. It displays the last several lines of a file. 10. Which of the following are journaling filesystems for Linux? (Choose all that apply.) A. HPFS B. JFS C. Ext2fs D. Ext3fs
  • 45. Assessment Test  xlix 11. You’ve configured your computer to use SMTP and IMAP via a tunneled SSH connection to your ISP’s e‑mail server for improved security. Why might you still want to use GPG encryption for your e‑mails on top of the encryption provided by SSH? A. The SSH tunnel only reaches as far as the first e‑mail server; GPG encrypts data on all the computers all the way to or from your e‑mail correspondents. B. SSH encryption is notoriously poor for e‑mail, although it’s perfectly adequate for login sessions; thus, adding GPG encryption improves security. C. SSH only doesn’t encrypt the headers of the e‑mail messages; GPG encrypts the headers to keep snoopers from learning your correspondents’ identities. D. Using GPG guarantees that your e‑mail messages won’t contain unwanted viruses or worms that might infect your correspondents’ computers. 12. Which of the following ports are commonly used to retrieve e‑mail from a mail-server computer? (Select all that apply.) A. 110 B. 119 C. 139 D. 143 13. You’re experiencing sporadic problems with a Secure Shell (SSH) login server—sometimes users can log in, and sometimes they can’t. What might you try immediately after a failure to help diagnose this problem? A. On the server computer, type http://localhost:631 into a Web browser to access the SSH configuration page and check its error subpage for error messages. B. Type diagnose sshd to run a diagnostic on the SSH server daemon (sshd). C. Type tail /var/log/messages to look for error messages from the server. D. Examine the /dev/ssh device file to look for error messages from the server. 14. What is the function of the ~/.profile file? A. It’s the user configuration file for the ProFTP server. B. It’s one of a user’s bash startup scripts. C. It’s the user configuration file for the ProFile file manager. D. Its presence tells tcsh to ignore file modes. 15. You want your computer to remind you to get your car inspected in two years. What is the best way to do this, of the specified options? A. Create a program that repeatedly checks the time and, when two years has passed, displays a message to get your car inspected. B. Type at date, where date is a date specification. You can then specify a command, such as mail with appropriate options, to notify you of the need to get your car inspected. C. Create a cron job that runs hourly. This job should check the date and, when the correct date comes up, use mail to notify you of the need for a car inspection. D. Use the NTP GUI calendar program to create an alarm for the specified date. The program will then display the message you enter at the specified date and time.
  • 46. l  Assessment Test 16. How would you configure a computer to use the computer whose IP address is as a gateway for all network traffic that’s not otherwise configured? A. gateway default B. gateway C. route gateway D. route add default gw 17. What software can you use to drive a Braille display device? (Select all that apply.) A. Emacspeak B. BRLTTY C. A 2.6.26 or later kernel D. GOK 18. Which is true of source RPM packages? A. They consist of three files: an original source tarball, a patch file of changes, and a PGP signature indicating the authenticity of the package. B. They require programming knowledge to rebuild. C. They can sometimes be used to work around dependency problems with a binary package. D. They are necessary to compile software for RPM-based distributions. 19. Which utility should you use to rename the file pumpkin.txt to lantern.txt? A. dd B. rm C. cp D. mv 20. You want to run a lengthy scientific simulation program, called simbigbang, which doesn’t require any user interaction; the program operates solely on disk files. If you don’t want to tie up the shell from which you run the program, what should you type to run simbigbang in the background? A. start simbigbang B. simbigbang & C. bg simbigbang D. background simbigbang 21. Which of the following commands will install an RPM package called theprogram-1.2.3-4.i386.rpm on a computer? (Choose all that apply.) A. rpm -Uvh theprogram-1.2.3-4.i386.rpm B. rpm -i theprogram-1.2.3-4.i386.rpm C. rpm -U theprogram D. rpm -e theprogram-1.2.3-4.i386.rpm
  • 47. Assessment Test  li 22. What tool can diagnose and fix many common Linux filesystem problems? A. mkfs B. fsck C. chkdsk D. scandisk 23. You’ve just installed MySQL, and you intend to use it to store information about the animals in a zoo, from the anteaters to the zebras. What command are you likely to use first, once you start MySQL? A. CREATE DATABASE animals; B. USE animals; C. CREATE TABLE animals; D. INSERT INTO animals; 24. Which of the following commands displays help on topic, when typed in a Linux shell? (Choose all that apply.) A. manual topic B. man topic C. ? topic D. info topic 25. A computer’s hardware clock keeps track of the time while the computer is powered off. In what formats may this time be stored on an x86 Linux system? (Choose all that apply.) A. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) B. Internet Time C. Local time D. 12-hour time 26. You want to know what kernel modules are currently loaded. What command would you type to learn this information? A. insmod B. depmod C. modprobe D. lsmod 27. You want to enable all members of the music group to read the instruments.txt file, which currently has 0640 (-rw-r-----) permissions, ownership by root, and group ownership by root. How might you accomplish this goal? (Choose all that apply.) A. Type chown music instruments.txt in the file’s directory. B. Type chgrp music instruments.txt in the file’s directory. C. Type chgroup music instruments.txt in the file’s directory. D. Type chown .music instruments.txt in the file’s directory.
  • 48. lii  Assessment Test 28. You want to create a link to the /usr/local/bin directory in another location. Which of the following statements is true? A. The link will probably have to be a symbolic link. B. You must own /usr/local/bin to create the link. C. You can create the link only if the link’s location is on the same filesystem as the original directory. D. Only the system administrator can do this. 29. Which of the following, when typed in Vi’s command mode, saves a file and quits the program? A. :rq B. :wq C. :re D. :we 30. A user’s home directory includes a file called ~/.forward that consists of one line: |~/junkme. What is the effect of this configuration? A. The user’s incoming mail is forwarded to the junkme user on the same system. B. The user’s incoming mail is stored in the ~/junkme file. C. The user’s incoming mail is sent through the ~/junkme program file. D. The user’s incoming mail is flagged as spam and deleted.
  • 49. Answers to Assessment Test  liii Answers to Assessment Test 1. B.  “PS/2” can refer to both a hardware interface and a software protocol, but used in the context of the Protocol option, it unambiguously refers to the software protocol. Option A might be correct, but the specified line is insufficient evidence of that; USB mice generally use the PS/2 protocol or a variant of it, such as the Intellimouse PS/2 protocol. Although the PS/2 hardware port and protocol originated with the IBM PS/2 computer mentioned in option C, many other computers now use them. Mice that use the PS/2 protocol may be used with just about any OS, not just IBM’s OS/2. For more information, please see Chapter 6, “Configur- ing the X Window System, Localization, and Printing.” 2. A, C.  Examining a process listing (obtained from ps) for signs of the super server is the most reliable way to determine which one is actually running. The presence of the super server’s configuration file or files (as in option C) is also a good diagnostic, although some older systems that have been upgraded may have both sets of configuration files. There is no standard superserver utility to report on which one is used. Most distributions launch the super server through a SysV startup script; the /etc/inittab file isn’t directly involved in this process, so examining it would be pointless. For more information, please see Chapter 10, “Securing Your System.” 3. D.  The lpc utility is used to start, stop, change the priority of, and otherwise control jobs in a print queue. CUPS ships with an lpc utility, but it’s quite rudimentary compared to the lpc utilities of BSD LPD and LPRng. Instead, CUPS relies on its Web-based interface to provide the ability to control print jobs. For more information, please see Chapter 6, “Con- figuring the X Window System, Localization, and Printing.” 4. C.  The /etc/security/limits.conf file defines various limits on user resources, including the number of simultaneous logins individual users are permitted. Thus, option C is correct. The /etc/pam.d/login-limits file is fictitious, although login limits do rely on the pam_ limits module to the Pluggable Authentication System (PAM). The /etc/bashrc file is a global bash startup script file, but it’s not normally used to impose login limits. The /etc/ inittab file is a key Linux startup file, but it doesn’t have any direct bearing on imposing login limits. For more information, please see Chapter 10, “Securing Your System.” 5. C, D.  The computer’s IP address and network mask (a.k.a. subnet mask or netmask) are the most critical components in TCIP/IP network configuration. (Additional information you may need to provide on many networks includes the IP address of 1–3 DNS servers, the hostname or IP address of a router, and the computer’s hostname.) You shouldn’t need the IP address of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server—and if a DHCP server is present, chances are you should be using DHCP rather than static IP address assignment. A NetBIOS Name Service (NBNS) server converts between names and IP addresses on Net- BIOS networks. The hostname of such a computer isn’t likely to be a critical configuration element, although you may need to provide this information to Samba for some operations to function correctly when sharing files. For more information, please see Chapter 8, “Con- figuring Basic Networking.”
  • 50. liv  Answers to Assessment Test 6. C.  The wc command displays a count of newlines, words, and bytes in the specified file (report.txt). Piping this data through tee causes a copy of the output to be stored in the new file (wc in this example—you shouldn’t run this command in the same directory as the wc executable file!). Thus, option C is correct. Contrary to option A, wc isn’t an editor, and the remaining syntax wouldn’t cause two files to open in separate windows even if wc were an editor. Contrary to option B, wc doesn’t count windows or open a new window. Contrary to option D, wc has nothing to do with cleaning up memory leaks, and tee doesn’t directly use the report.txt file. For more information, please see Chapter 1, “Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools.” 7. C.  The image= line in /etc/lilo.conf identifies a kernel image to be booted using normal Linux filenames, so /boot/bzImage-2.6.19 is the correct notation. There is no kernel= option in LILO’s configuration file. The (hd0,1) notation in options A and D is a GRUB hard- disk identifier; this notation isn’t used in LILO. Option D also uses both the GRUB disk identi- fier notation and the /boot Linux filesystem specification. For more information, please see Chapter 5, “Booting Linux and Editing Files.” 8. D.  The third field of /etc/passwd entries holds the UID number for the account. Linux doesn’t use any standard identifier called a human ID (HID), although the acronym HID stands for human interface device, a class of USB devices. Accounts don’t have PID numbers; those belong to running processes. The account’s GID number is stored in the fourth field of /etc/passwd—100 in this example. For more information, please see Chapter 7, “Adminis- tering the System.” 9. B.  The grep command scans files to find those that contain a specified string or pattern. In the case of text files, it displays the matching line or lines; for binary files, it reports that the file matches the pattern. The method of creating a pipeline involves separating two com- mands with a vertical bar (|). The grep command can be used in a pipeline, but it doesn’t create one. The command that concatenates files is cat, and the command that displays the last several lines of a file is tail. For more information, please see Chapter 1, “Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools.” 10. B, D.  The Journaled Filesystem (JFS) is a journaling filesystem written by IBM for AIX and OS/2 and later ported to Linux. The Third Extended Filesystem (ext3fs) is a journal- ing filesystem based on the older non-journaling Second Extended Filesystem (ext2fs). The High-Performance Filesystem (HPFS) is a non-journaling filesystem designed by Microsoft for OS/2. For more information, please see Chapter 3, “Configuring Hardware.” 11. A.  Option A correctly describes the features of SSH and GPG in this context. Option B is incorrect because SSH should do a fine job of encrypting your e‑mail so that it can’t be decoded between your system and your ISP’s e‑mail server. Option C has it backward; e‑mail transferred via SSH will be completely encrypted, including its headers. GPG doesn’t encrypt headers, just message bodies. Option D is incorrect because GPG isn’t a virus scanner, just an encryption tool. For more information, please see Chapter 10, “Securing Your System.” 12. A, D.  Port 110 is assigned to the Post Office Protocol (POP), and port 143 is assigned to the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), both of which may be used to retrieve e‑mail messages from an e‑mail server system. Port 119 is assigned to the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP), and port 139 is assigned to the Server Message Block/Common Internet
  • 51. Answers to Assessment Test  lv File System (SMB/CIFS) protocol, neither of which is commonly used for e‑mail retrieval. For more information, please see Chapter 8, “Configuring Basic Networking.” 13. C.  Log files, such as /var/log/messages and sometimes others in /var/log, often contain useful information concerning server errors. The tail program displays the last few lines of a file, so using it to examine log files immediately after a problem occurs can be a useful diagnostic procedure. The http://localhost:631 URL accesses the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) configuration utility, which has nothing to do with SSH. There is no standard diagnose utility to help diagnose server problems, and there is no standard /dev/ssh file. For more information, please see Chapter 5, “Booting Linux and Editing Files.” 14. B.  The ~/.profile file is one of several bash startup scripts. It has nothing to do with the ProFTP server or the tcsh shell. The ProFile file manager mentioned in option C is fictitious. For more information, please see Chapter 9, “Writing Scripts, Configuring E-mail, and Using Databases.” 15. B.  The at utility was created to run programs at one specified point in the future. Thus, option B will accomplish the stated goal. Options A and C might also work; but neither is the best way to accomplish this goal. Option A will tie up CPU time, and if the program crashes or the system is shut down during the intervening two years, the message will never display. Option C would be more reliable, but it adds unnecessary complexity to your hourly cron job schedule. A GUI calendar program, as specified in option D, might work; but NTP is the Network Time Protocol, a protocol and like-named program for synchronizing clocks across a network. Thus, NTP isn’t the tool for the job, and option D is incorrect. For more information, please see Chapter 7, “Administering the System.” 16. D.  Option D provides the correct command to add as the default gateway. Options A and B both use the fictitious gateway command, which doesn’t exist and therefore won’t work unless you create a script of this name. Option C uses the correct route command, but there is no gateway option to route; you must use add default gw, as in option D. For more information, please see Chapter 8, “Configuring Basic Networking.” 17. B, C.  The BRLTTY package is an add-on daemon for handling a Braille display device, and some features for using these devices have been added to the 2.6.26 kernel, so options B and C are correct. Emacspeak is speech-synthesis software; it can be used to “speak” a text display to a user, but it doesn’t interface with Braille displays. GOK ( is an on- screen keyboard, not a Braille display tool. For more information, please see Chapter 6, “Con- figuring the X Window System, Localization, and Printing.” 18. C.  Some dependencies result from dynamically linking binaries to libraries at compile time and so can be overcome by recompiling the software from a source RPM. Option A describes Debian source packages, not RPM packages. Recompiling a source RPM requires only issuing an appropriate command, although you must also have appropriate compilers and libraries installed. Source tarballs can also be used to compile software for RPM systems, although this results in none of RPM’s advantages. For more information, please see Chapter 2, “Managing Software.”
  • 52. lvi  Answers to Assessment Test 19. D.  The mv utility can be used to rename files as well as move them from one location to another. The dd utility is used to copy files to backups, whereas rm is used to remove (delete) files and cp copies files. For more information, please see Chapter 4, “Managing Files.” 20. B.  Appending an ampersand (&) to a command causes that command to execute in the back- ground. The program so launched still consumes CPU time, but it won’t monopolize the shell you used to launch it. The start and background commands are fictitious. Although bg does place a job into the background, it doesn’t launch a program that way; it places a process that’s been suspended (by pressing Ctrl+Z) into the background. For more information, please see Chapter 2, “Managing Software.” 21. A, B.  The -Uvh parameter issues an upgrade command (which installs the program whether or not an earlier version is installed) and creates a series of hash marks to display the command’s progress. The -i parameter installs the program if it’s not already installed but causes no prog- ress display. Option C uses a package name, not a complete filename, and so it will fail to install the package file. The -e option removes a package. For more information, please see Chapter 2, “Managing Software.” 22. B.  Option B, fsck, is Linux’s filesystem check utility. It’s similar in purpose to the DOS and Windows CHKDSK and ScanDisk utilities, but these DOS and Windows utilities don’t work on Linux filesystems like ext2fs or ReiserFS. Option A, mkfs, creates new filesystems; it doesn’t diagnose or fix filesystem problems. For more information, please see Chapter 3, “Configuring Hardware.” 23. A.  A freshly installed MySQL database is unlikely to have a ready-made database of ani- mals, so your first task is to create that database with the CREATE DATABASE command, as shown in option A. (You could call the database something other than animals, of course.) The USE command in option B will only be useful once the database has been created. Once the database is created, you can use CREATE TABLE, as in option C, to create a table; but you’ll need an existing database first, and this command also requires information about the type of data to be stored, which option C doesn’t provide. Option D’s INSERT INTO command stores data into a table once it’s been created, so it’s far from the first command you’ll use. It also requires additional specification of the data to be stored, so it’s incom- plete. For more information, please see Chapter 9, “Writing Scripts, Configuring E-mail, and Using Databases.” 24. B, D.  The correct answers, man and info, are two common Linux help packages. Although ? is a common help command within certain interactive programs, it isn’t a help command in bash or other common Linux shells. There is no common command called manual. For more information, please see Chapter 1, “Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools.” 25. A, C.  Unix systems traditionally store time in UTC (a.k.a. Greenwich Mean Time), and Linux may do so as well. Most other x86 PC OSs traditionally store time as the local time however, so Linux also supports this option. Internet Time is an alternative to the 24-hour clock in which the day is broken into 1,000 “beats.” Standard PC BIOSs don’t support this time format. Likewise, a 12-hour clock isn’t terribly useful to computers because it doesn’t differentiate a.m. from p.m. For more information, please see Chapter 7, “Administering the System.”
  • 53. Answers to Assessment Test  lvii 26. D.  Typing lsmod produces a list of the modules that are currently loaded. The insmod and modprobe programs both load modules—either a single module or a single module and all those on which it depends, respectively. The depmod command generates the modules.dep file that contains module dependency information. For more information, please see Chapter 3, “Configuring Hardware.” 27. B, D.  The chgrp and chown commands can both change the group ownership of a file. The chgrp command takes a group name and a filename as parameters, as in option B. The chown command normally changes a file’s owner; but if you provide a group name preceded by a dot (.), as in option D, it changes the group of a file. The chown command shown in option A will change the primary ownership of the file to the music user, if such a user exists on the system; it won’t change the group ownership. There is no standard chgroup command, as in option C. For more information, please see Chapter 4, “Managing Files.” 28. A.  Hard links to directories aren’t permitted by most filesystems, so you’ll probably have to create a symbolic link, as noted in option A. Contrary to option B, anybody may create a link, not just the original’s owner. Option C describes a restriction of hard links; but because this link will probably have to be a symbolic link, this restriction is unimportant and option C is incorrect. Option D describes a more severe restriction than option B, but it’s incorrect for the same reasons. For more information, please see Chapter 4, “Managing Files.” 29. B.  The colon (:) starts ex mode, from which you can enter commands. In ex mode, r includes a file in an existing one, w writes a file, e loads an entirely new file, and q quits the program. Thus, the desired combination is :wq. For more information, please see Chapter 5, “Booting Linux and Editing Files.” 30. C.  The ~/.forward file is a user e‑mail forwarding file. The vertical bar character (|) at the start of such a file is a code to send the e‑mail through the specified program file, so option C is correct. To do as option A describes, the file would need to read junkme or junkme@hostname, where hostname is the computer’s hostname. To do as option B describes, the leading vertical bar would have to be omitted. It’s conceivable that the ~/junkme script does as option D describes, but there’s no way of knowing this for certain. For more information, please see Chapter 9, “Writing Scripts, Configuring E-mail, and Using Databases.”
  • 54. The CompTIA Linux+ LX0-101 Exam Part I
  • 55. Chapter 1 Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools The following CompTIA Linux+ objectives are covered in this chapter: 1.103.1 Work on the command lineÛÛ 1.103.2 Process text streams using filtersÛÛ 1.103.4 Use streams, pipes, and redirectsÛÛ 1.103.7 Search text files using regular expressionsÛÛ
  • 56. Linux borrows heavily from Unix, and Unix began as a text- based operating system (OS). Unix and Linux retain much of this heritage, which means that to understand how to use and, especially, administer Linux, you must understand at least the basics of its command- line tools. Thus, this book begins with an introduction to Linux shells (the programs that accept and interpret text-mode commands) and many of the basic commands and procedures you can use from a shell. This chapter begins with basic shell information, including shell options and procedures for using them. From there, this chapter covers streams, pipes, and redirects, which you can use to shunt input and output between programs or between files and programs. These techniques are frequently combined with text processing using filters—commands you can use to manipulate text without the help of a conventional text editor. Sometimes you must manipulate text in an abstract way, using codes to represent several different types of text. This chapter therefore covers this topic. Understanding Command-Line Basics Before you do anything else with Linux, you should understand how to use a Linux shell. Several shells are available, but most provide similar capabilities. Understanding a few basics will take you a long way in your use of Linux, so I describe some of these techniques and commands. You should also understand shell environment variables, which are place- holders for data that may be useful to many programs. Finally, on the topic of command- line basics, you should know how to get help with commands you’re trying to use. Exploring Your Linux Shell Options As with many key software components, Linux provides a range of options for shells. A complete list would be quite long, but the more common choices include the following: bash ​ ​The GNU Bourne Again Shell (bash) is based on the earlier Bourne shell for Unix but extends it in several ways. In Linux, bash is the most common default shell for user accounts, and it’s the one emphasized in this book and on the Linux+ exam.
  • 57. Understanding Command-Line Basics 5 bsh The Bourne shell upon which bash is based also goes by the name bsh. It’s not often used in Linux, although the bsh command is sometimes a symbolic link to bash. tcsh This shell is based on the earlier C shell (csh). It’s a fairly popular shell in some circles, but no major Linux distributions make it the default shell. Although it’s similar to bash in many respects, some operational details differ. For instance, you don’t assign environment variables in the same way in tcsh as in bash. csh The original C shell isn’t much used on Linux, but if a user is familiar with csh, tcsh makes a good substitute. ksh The Korn shell (ksh) was designed to take the best features of the Bourne shell and the C shell and extend them further. It has a small but dedicated following among Linux users. zsh The Z shell (zsh) takes shell evolution further than the Korn Shell, incorporating features from earlier shells and adding still more. In addition to these shells, dozens more obscure ones are available. In Linux, most users run bash because it’s the default. Some other OSs use csh or tcsh as the default, so if your users have backgrounds on non-Linux Unix-like OSs, they may be more familiar with these other shells. You can change a user’s default shell by editing the account, as described in Chapter 7, “Administering the System.” The file /bin/sh is a symbolic link to the system’s default shell—normally /bin/bash for Linux. This practice enables you to point to a shell (say, at the start of a simple shell script, as described in Chapter 9, “Writing Scripts, Configuring E-Mail, and Using Databases”) and be assured that a shell will be called, even if the system’s available shells change. This feature is particularly important when developing shell scripts that might be run on other computers, as described in Chapter 9. Using a Shell Linux shell use is fairly straightforward for anybody who’s used a text-mode OS before: You type a command, possibly including options to it, and the computer executes the command. For the most part, Linux commands are external—that is, they’re separate programs from the shell. A few commands are internal to the shell, though, and knowing the distinction can be important. You should also know some of the tricks that can make using the command shell easier—how to have the computer complete a long command or filename, retrieve a command you’ve recently run, or edit a command you’ve recently used (or haven’t yet fully entered). One class of commands—those for handling basic file management—is very important but isn’t described here in great detail . For more informa- tion on these commands, consult Chapter 4, “Managing Files .”
  • 58. 6  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Starting a Shell If you log into Linux using a text-mode login screen, chances are you’ll be dropped directly into your default shell—the shell is what presents the prompt and accepts subsequent commands. If you log into Linux using a graphical user interface (GUI) login screen, though, you’ll have to start a shell manually. Some GUIs provide a menu option to start a program called a terminal, xterm, Konsole, or something similar. These programs enable you to run text- mode programs within Linux, and by default they come up running your shell. If you can’t find such a menu option, look for one that enables you to run an arbitrary command. Select it, and type xterm or konsole as the command name; this will launch an xterm-type pro- gram that will run a shell. Using Internal and External Commands Internal commands are, as you might expect, built into the shell. Most shells offer a similar set of internal commands, but shell-to-shell differences do exist; consult your shell’s man page (as described later, in “Getting Help”) for details, particularly if you’re using an exotic shell. Internal commands you’re likely to use enable you to perform some common tasks: Change the working directory ​ ​Whenever you’re running a shell, you’re working in a specific directory. When you refer to a file without providing a complete path to the file, the shell works on the file in the current working directory. (Similar rules apply to many programs.) The cd command changes the current working directory. For instance, typing cd /home/sally changes to the /home/sally directory. The tilde (~) character is a useful shortcut; it stands for your home directory, so cd ~ will have the same effect as cd /home/sally if your home direc- tory is /home/sally. Display the working directory ​ ​The pwd command displays (“prints” to the screen) the cur- rent working directory. Display a line of text ​ ​The echo command displays the text you enter; for instance, typing echo Hello causes the system to display the string Hello. This may seem pointless, but it’s useful in scripts (described in Chapter 9), and it can also be a good way to review the contents of environment variables (described later in this chapter, in “Using Environment Variables”). Execute a program ​ ​The exec command runs an external program that you specify, as in exec myprog to run myprog. In most cases, this is better accomplished by typing the name of the program you want to run. The exec command has one special feature, though: Rather than create a new process that runs alongside the shell, the new process replaces the shell. When the new process terminates, it’s as if you terminated the shell. Time an operation ​ ​The time command times how long subsequent commands take to execute. For instance, typing time pwd tells you how long the system took to execute the pwd command. The time is displayed after the full command terminates. Three times are displayed: total execution time (a.k.a. real time), user CPU time, and system CPU time. The final two values tell you about CPU time consumed, which is likely to be much less than the total execution time.
  • 59. Understanding Command-Line Basics 7 Set options In its most basic form, set displays a wide variety of options relating to bash oper- ation. These options are formatted much like environment variables, but they aren’t the same things. You can pass various options to set to have it affect a wide range of shell operations. Terminate the shell The exit and logout commands both terminate the shell. The exit command terminates any shell, but the logout command terminates only login shells—that is, those that are launched automatically when you initiate a text-mode login as opposed to those that run in xterm windows or the like. This list isn’t complete . Later sections of this chapter and later chapters describe some additional internal commands . Consult your shell’s docu- mentation for a complete list of its internal commands . Some of these internal commands are duplicated by external commands that do the same thing, but these external commands aren’t always installed on all systems. Even when these external commands are installed, the internal command takes precedence unless you provide the complete path to the external command on the command line, as in typing /bin/pwd rather than pwd. Confusion over Internal and External Commands When duplicate internal and external commands exist, they sometimes produce subtly different results or accept different options . These differences can occasionally cause problems . For instance, consider the pwd command and symbolic links to directories . (Symbolic links are described in more detail in Chapter 4 . For now, know that they’re files that point to other files or directories and for most intents and purposes can be accessed just like the files or directories to which they point .) Suppose you create a symbolic link to /bin within your home directory and then cd into that directory . You then want to know where you are . The pwd command that’s internal to bash will produce a different result from the external pwd command: $ pwd /home/sally/binlink $ /bin/pwd /usr/bin As you can see, bash’s internal pwd shows the path via the symbolic link, whereas the external command shows the path to which the link points . Sometimes these differ- ences can cause confusion, such as if you read the man page or other documentation that describes one version but you use the other and a difference is important . You may won- der why the command isn’t operating as you expect . If in doubt, look up the documenta- tion for, and type the complete path to, the external command to be sure you use it .
  • 60. 8 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools When you type a command that’s not recognized by the shell as one of its internal com- mands, the shell checks its path to find a program by that name to execute it. The path is a list of directories in which commands can be found. It’s defined by the PATH environment variable, as described shortly in “Using Environment Variables.” A typical user account has about half a dozen or a dozen directories in its path. You can adjust the path by changing the PATH environment variable in a shell configuration file, as described in “Exploring Shell Configuration.” You can run programs that aren’t on the path by providing a complete path on the com- mand line. For instance, typing ./myprog runs the myprog program in the current directory, and /home/arthur/thisprog runs the thisprog program in the /home/arthur directory. The root account should normally have a shorter path than ordinary user accounts . Typically, you’ll omit directories that store GUI and other user- oriented programs from root’s path in order to discourage use of the root account for routine operations, thus minimizing the risk of security breaches related to buggy or compromised binaries being run by root . Most important, root’s path should never include the current directory (./) . Placing this directory in root’s path makes it possible for a local miscreant to trick root into running replacements for common programs, such as ls, by having root change into a directory with such a program . Indeed, omitting the current directory from ordinary user paths is also generally a good idea . If this directory must be part of the ordinary user path, it should appear at the end of the path so that the standard programs take precedence over any replacement programs in the current directory . In the case of both programs on the path and those whose complete paths you type as part of the command, the program file must be marked as executable. This is done via the execute bit that’s stored with the file. Standard programs are marked executable when they’re installed, but if you need to adjust a program’s executable status, you can do so with the chmod command, as described in Chapter 4. Performing Some Shell Command Tricks Many users find typing commands to be tedious and error prone. This is particularly true of slow or sloppy typists. For this reason, Linux shells include various tools that can help speed up operations. The first of these is command completion: Type part of a command or (as an option to a command) a filename, and then press the Tab key. The shell tries to fill in the rest of the command or the filename. If just one command or filename matches the characters you’ve typed so far, the shell fills it in and places a space after it. If the characters you’ve typed don’t uniquely identify a command or filename, the shell fills in what it can and then stops. Depending on the shell and its configuration, it may beep. If you press the Tab key again, the system responds by displaying the possible completions. You can then type another character or two and, if you haven’t completed the command or filename, press the Tab key again to have the process repeat.
  • 61. Understanding Command-Line Basics 9 The most fundamental Linux commands have fairly short names—mv, ls, set, and so on. Some other commands are much longer, though, such as traceroute or sane-find- scanner. Filenames can also be quite lengthy—up to 255 characters on many filesystems. Thus, command completion can save a lot of time when you’re typing. It can also help you avoid typos. The most popular Linux shells, including bash and tcsh, support command and filename completion . Some older shells, though, don’t support this helpful feature . Another helpful shell shortcut is the history. The history keeps a record of every com- mand you type (stored in ~/.bash_history in the case of bash). If you’ve typed a long command recently and want to use it again, or use a minor variant of it, you can pull the command out of the history. The simplest way to do this is to press the Up arrow key on your keyboard; this brings up the previous command. Pressing the Up arrow key repeatedly moves through multiple commands so you can find the one you want. If you overshoot, press the Down arrow key to move down the history. The Ctrl+P and Ctrl+N keystrokes double for the Up and Down arrow keys, respectively. Another way to use the command history is to search through it. Press Ctrl+R to begin a backward (reverse) search, which is what you probably want, and begin typing characters that should be unique to the command you want to find. The characters you type need not be the ones that begin the command; they can exist anywhere in the command. You can either keep typing until you find the correct command or, after you’ve typed a few charac- ters, press Ctrl+R repeatedly until you find the one you want. The Ctrl+S keystroke works similarly but searches forward in the command history, which might be handy if you’ve used a backward search or the Up arrow key to look back and have overshot. In either event, if you can’t find the command you want or change your mind and want to terminate the search, press Ctrl+G to do so. Frequently, after finding a command in the history, you want to edit it. The bash shell, like many shells, provides editing features modeled after those of the Emacs editor: Move within the line Press Ctrl+A or Ctrl+E to move the cursor to the start or end of the line, respectively. The Left and Right arrow keys move within the line a character at a time. Ctrl+B and Ctrl+F do the same, moving backward and forward within a line. Pressing Ctrl plus the Left or Right arrow key moves backward or forward a word at a time, as does press- ing Esc and then B or F. Delete text Pressing Ctrl+D or the Delete key deletes the character under the cursor, whereas pressing the Backspace key deletes the character to the left of the cursor. Pressing Ctrl+K deletes all text from the cursor to the end of the line. Pressing Ctrl+X and then Backspace deletes all the text from the cursor to the beginning of the line. Transpose text Pressing Ctrl+T transposes the character before the cursor with the charac- ter under the cursor. Pressing Esc and then T transposes the two words immediately before (or under) the cursor.
  • 62. 10 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Change case Pressing Esc and then U converts text from the cursor to the end of the word to uppercase. Pressing Esc and then L converts text from the cursor to the end of the word to lowercase. Pressing Esc and then C converts the letter under the cursor (or the first letter of the next word) to uppercase, leaving the rest of the word unaffected. Invoke an editor You can launch a full-fledged editor to edit a command by pressing Ctrl+X followed by Ctrl+E. The bash shell attempts to launch the editor defined by the $FCEDIT or $EDITOR environment variable or Emacs as a last resort. These editing commands are just the most useful ones supported by bash; consult its man page to learn about many more obscure editing features. In practice, you’re likely to make heavy use of command and filename completion, the command history, and perhaps a few editing features. If you prefer the Vi editor to Emacs, you can use a Vi-like mode in bash by typing set -o vi . (Vi is described in Chapter 5, “Booting Linux and Editing Files .”) The history command provides an interface to view and manage the history. Typing history alone displays all the commands in the history (typically the latest 500 com- mands); adding a number causes only that number of the latest commands to appear. You can execute a command by number by typing an exclamation mark followed by its number, as in !210 to execute command 210. Typing history -c clears the history, which can be handy if you’ve recently typed commands you’d rather not have discovered by others, such as commands that include passwords. In Exercise 1.1, you’ll experiment with your shell’s completion and command-editing tools. E X E R C I S E 1 .1 Editing Commands To experiment with your shell’s completion and command-editing tools, follow these steps: 1. Log in as an ordinary user . 2. Create a temporary directory by typing mkdir test . (Directory and file manipulation commands are described in more detail in Chapter 4 .) 3. Change into the test directory by typing cd test . 4. Create a few temporary files by typing touch one two three . This command creates three empty files named one, two, and three .
  • 63. Understanding Command-Line Basics  11 5. Type ls -l t, and without pressing the Enter key, press the Tab key. The system may beep at you or display two three. If it doesn’t display two three, press the Tab key again, and it should do so. This reveals that either two or three is a valid completion to your command, because these are the two files in the test directory whose file- names begin with the letter t. 6. Type h, and again without pressing the Enter key, press the Tab key. The system should complete the command (ls -l three), at which point you can press the Enter key to execute it. (You’ll see information on the file.) 7. Press the Up arrow key. You should see the ls -l three command appear on the command line. 8. Press Ctrl+A to move the cursor to the beginning of the line. 9. Press the Right arrow key once, and type es (without pressing the Enter key). The command line should now read less -l three. 10. Press the Right arrow key once, and press the Delete key three times. The command should now read less three. Press the Enter key to execute the command. (Note that you can do so even though the cursor isn’t at the end of the line.) This invokes the less pager on the three file. (The less pager is described more fully later, in “Getting Help.”) Because this file is empty, you’ll see a mostly empty screen. 11. Press the Q key to exit from the less pager. Exploring Shell Configuration Shells, like many Linux programs, are configured through files that hold configuration options in a plain-text format. The bash configuration files are actually bash shell scripts, which are described more fully in Chapter 9. For now, you should know that the ~/.bashrc and ~/.profile files are the main user configuration files for bash, and /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile are the main global configuration files. Even without knowing much about shell scripting, you can make simple changes to these files. Edit them in your favorite text editor, and change whatever needs changing. For instance, you can add directories to the $PATH environment variable, which takes a colon-delimited list of directories. E xercise  1 .1    ( c o n t i n u e d )
  • 64. 12 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Be careful when changing your bash configuration, and particularly the global bash configuration files . Save a backup of the original file before making changes, and test your changes immediately by logging in using another virtual terminal . If you spot a problem, revert to your saved copy until you can learn the cause and create a working file . Using Environment Variables Environment variables are like variables in programming languages—they hold data to be referred to by the variable name. Environment variables differ in that they’re part of the environment of a program, and other programs, such as the shell, can modify this environ- ment. Programs can rely on environment variables to set information that can apply to many different programs. For instance, suppose a computer hosts several different Usenet news readers. These programs all need to know what Usenet news server to use; if they all agree to use an environment variable, such as $NNTPSERVER, to hold this information, you can set this environment variable once as part of your shell startup script and then forget it. You needn’t set this feature individually for all the news readers installed on the system. Chapter 9 describes environment variables and their manipulation in more detail. For the moment, you should know that you can set them in bash by using an assignment (=) operator followed by the export command: $ $ export NNTPSERVER You can combine these two commands into a single form: $ export Either method sets the $NNTPSERVER environment variable to (When setting an environment variable, you omit the dollar sign, but subsequent references include a dollar sign to identify the environment variable as such.) Thereafter, programs that need this information can refer to the environment variable. In fact, you can do so from the shell yourself, using the echo command: $ echo $NNTPSERVER You can also view the entire environment by typing env. The result is likely to be several dozen lines of environment variables and their values. Chapter 9 describes what many of these variables are in more detail. To delete an environment variable, use the unset command, which takes the name of an environment variable (without the leading $ symbol) as an option. For instance, unset NNTPSERVER removes the $NNTPSERVER environment variable.
  • 65. Understanding Command-Line Basics  13 Getting Help Linux provides a text-based help system known as man. This command’s name is short for manual, and its entries (its man pages) provide succinct summaries of what a command, file, or other feature does. For instance, to learn about man itself, you can type man man. The result is a description of the man command. The man utility uses the less pager to display information. This program displays text a page at a time. Press the spacebar to move forward a page, Esc followed by V to move back a page, the arrow keys to move up or down a line at a time, the slash (/) key to search for text, and so on. (Type man less to learn all the details, or consult the upcoming section “Paging Through Files with less.”) When you’re done, press Q to exit less and the man page it’s displaying. Linux man pages are categorized into several sections, which are summarized in Table 1.1. Sometimes a single keyword has entries in multiple sections; for instance, passwd has entries under both section 1 and section 5. In most cases, man returns the entry in the lowest-numbered section; but you can force the issue by preceding the keyword by the section number. For instance, typing man 5 passwd returns information on the passwd file format rather than the passwd command. Table 1.1 ​ ​Manual Sections Section Number Description 1 Executable programs and shell commands 2 System calls provided by the kernel 3 Library calls provided by program libraries 4 Device files (usually stored in /dev) 5 File formats 6 Games 7 Miscellaneous (macro packages, conventions, and so on) 8 System administration commands (programs run mostly or exclusively by root) 9 Kernel routines Some programs have moved away from man pages to info pages. The basic purpose of info pages is the same as that for man pages, but info pages use a hypertext format so that
  • 66. 14 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools you can move from section to section of the documentation for a program. Type info info to learn more about this system. Both man pages and info pages are usually written in a terse style. They’re intended as reference tools, not tutorials; they frequently assume basic familiarity with the command, or at least with Linux generally. For more tutorial information, you must look elsewhere, such as this book or the Web. The Linux Documentation Project ( is a particularly relevant Web-based resource for learning about various Linux topics. Using Streams, Redirection, and Pipes Streams, redirection, and pipes are some of the more powerful command-line tools in Linux. Linux treats the input to and output from programs as a stream, which is a data entity that can be manipulated. Ordinarily, input comes from the keyboard and output goes to the screen (which in this context can mean a full-screen text-mode login session, an xterm or a similar window, or the screen of a remote computer via a remote login session). You can redirect these input and output streams to come from or go to other sources, though, such as files. Similarly, you can pipe the output of one program into another program. These facili- ties can be great tools to tie together multiple programs. Part of the Unix philosophy to which Linux adheres is, whenever possible, to do complex things by combining multiple simple tools . Redirection and pipes help in this task by enabling simple programs to be combined together in chains, each link feeding off the output of the preceding link . Exploring Types of Streams To begin understanding redirection and pipes, you must first understand the different types of input and output streams. Three are most important for this topic: Standard input Programs accept keyboard input via standard input, or stdin. In most cases, this is the data that comes into the computer from a keyboard. Standard output Text-mode programs send most data to their users via standard output (a.k.a. stdout), which is normally displayed on the screen, either in a full-screen text-mode session or in a GUI window such as an xterm. (Fully GUI programs such as GUI word pro- cessors don’t use standard output for their regular interactions, although they might use standard output to display messages in the xterm from which they were launched. GUI out- put isn’t handled via an output stream in the sense I’m describing here.) Standard error Linux provides a second type of output stream, known as standard error, or stderr. This output stream is intended to carry high-priority information such as error messages. Ordinarily, standard error is sent to the same output device as standard output,
  • 67. Using Streams, Redirection, and Pipes  15 so you can’t easily tell them apart. You can redirect one independently of the other, though, which can be handy. For instance, you can redirect standard error to a file while leaving standard output going to the screen so that you can interact with the program and then study the error messages later. Internally, programs treat these streams just like data files—they open them, read from or write to the files, and close them when they’re done. Put another way, ordinary files are streams from a program’s point of view. The standard input, output, and error streams just happen to be the ones used to interact with users. Redirecting Input and Output To redirect input or output, you use symbols following the command, including any options it takes. For instance, to redirect the output of the echo command, you would type something like this: $ echo $NNTPSERVER > nntpserver.txt The result is that the file nntpserver.txt contains the output of the command (in this case, the value of the $NNTPSERVER environment variable). Redirection operators exist to achieve several effects, as summarized in Table 1.2. Table 1. 2 ​ ​Common Redirection Operators Redirection Operator Effect > Creates a new file containing standard output. If the specified file exists, it’s overwritten. >> Appends standard output to the existing file. If the specified file doesn’t exist, it’s created. 2> Creates a new file containing standard error. If the specified file exists, it’s overwritten. 2>> Appends standard error to the existing file. If the specified file doesn’t exist, it’s created. &> Creates a new file containing both standard output and standard error. If the specified file exists, it’s overwritten. < Sends the contents of the specified file to be used as standard input. << Accepts text on the following lines as standard input. <> Causes the specified file to be used for both standard input and standard output.
  • 68. 16 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Most of these redirectors deal with output, both because there are two types of output (standard output and standard error) and because you must be concerned with what to do in case you specify a file that already exists. The most important input redirector is <, which takes the specified file’s contents as standard input. A common trick is to redirect standard output or standard error to /dev/null . This file is a device that’s connected to nothing; it’s used when you want to get rid of data . For instance, if the whine program is generating too many error messages, you can type whine 2> /dev/null to run it and discard its error messages . One redirection operator that requires elaboration is <<. This operator implements a here document, which takes text from the following lines as standard input. Chances are you won’t use this redirector on the command line, though; the following lines are standard input, so there’s no need to redirect them. Rather, you might use this command as part of a script in order to pass data to a command. Unlike most redirection operators, the text immediately following the << code isn’t a filename; instead, it’s a word that’s used to mark the end of input. For instance, typing someprog << EOF causes someprog to accept input until it sees a line that contains only the string EOF (without even a space following it). Some programs that take input from the command line expect you to ter- minate input by pressing Ctrl+D . This keystroke corresponds to an end-of- file marker using the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) . A final redirection tool is the tee command. This command splits standard input so that it’s displayed on standard output and on as many files as you specify. Typically, tee is used in conjunction with data pipes so that a program’s output can be both stored and viewed immediately. For instance, to view and store the output of someprog, you might type this: $ someprog | tee output.txt The vertical bar (|) is the pipe character . It implements a pipe, as described in the next section . Ordinarily, tee overwrites any files whose names you specify. If you want to append data to these files, pass the -a option to tee. Piping Data Between Programs Programs can frequently operate on other programs’ outputs. For instance, you might use a text-filtering command (such as the ones described shortly, in “Processing Text Using
  • 69. Using Streams, Redirection, and Pipes  17 Filters”) to manipulate text output by another program. You can do this with the help of redirection operators; send the first program’s standard output to a file, and then redirect the second program’s standard input to read from that file. This solution is awkward, though, and it involves the creation of a file that you might easily overlook, leading to unnecessary clutter on your system. The solution is to use data pipes (a.k.a. pipelines). A pipe redirects the first program’s standard output to the second program’s standard input and is denoted by a vertical bar (|): $ first | second For instance, suppose that first generates some system statistics, such as system uptime, CPU use, number of users logged in, and so on. This output might be lengthy, so you want to trim it a bit. You might therefore use second, which could be a script or command that echoes from its standard input only the information in which you’re interested. (The grep command, described in “Using grep,” is often used in this role.) Pipes can be used in sequences of arbitrary length: $ first | second | third | fourth | fifth | sixth [...] Generating Command Lines Sometimes you’ll find yourself constructing a series of commands that are similar to each other but not similar enough to enable you to use their normal options to substitute a single command. For instance, suppose you want to remove every file in a directory tree with a name that ends in a tilde (~). (This filename convention denotes backup files created by certain text editors.) With a large directory tree, this task can be daunting; the usual file-deletion com- mand (rm, described in more detail in Chapter 4) doesn’t provide an option to search for and delete every file in a directory tree that matches such a specific criterion. One command that can do the search part of the job, though, is find, which is also described in more detail in Chapter 4. This command displays all the files that match criteria you provide. If you could combine the output of find to create a series of command lines using rm, the task would be solved. This is precisely the purpose of the xargs command. The xargs command builds a command from its standard input. The basic syntax for this command is as follows: xargs [options] [command [initial-arguments]] The command is the command you want to execute, and initial-arguments is a list of arguments you want to pass to the command. The options are xargs options; they aren’t passed to command. When you run xargs, it runs command once for every word passed to it on standard input, adding that word to the argument list for command. If you want to pass multiple options to the command, you can protect them by enclosing the group in quota- tion marks.
  • 70. 18 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools For instance, consider the task of deleting all those backup files, denoted by tilde charac- ters. You can do this by piping the output of find to xargs, which then calls rm: $ find ./ -name “*~” | xargs rm The first part of this command (find ./ -name “*~”) finds all the files in the current directory (./) or its subdirectories with a name that ends in a tilde (*~). This list is then piped to xargs, which adds each one to its own rm command. A tool that’s similar to xargs in many ways is the backtick (`), which is a character to the left of the 1 key on most keyboards. The backtick is not the same as the single quote character (‘), which is located to the right of the semicolon (;) on most keyboards. Text within backticks is treated as a separate command whose results are substituted on the command line. For instance, to delete those backup files, you can type the following command: $ rm `find ./ -name “*~”` Processing Text Using Filters In keeping with Linux’s philosophy of providing small tools that can be tied together via pipes and redirection to accomplish more complex tasks, many simple commands to manipu- late text are available. These commands accomplish tasks of various types, such as combining files, transforming the data in files, formatting text, displaying text, and summarizing data. Many of the following descriptions include input-file specifications . In most cases, you can omit these input-file specifications, in which case the utility reads from standard input instead . File-Combining Commands The first group of text-filtering commands are those used to combine two or more files into one file. Three important commands in this category are cat, join, and paste, which join files end to end, based on fields in the file, or by merging on a line-by-line basis, respectively. Combining Files with cat The cat command’s name is short for concatenate, and this tool does just that: It links together an arbitrary number of files end to end and sends the result to standard output. By combining cat with output redirection, you can quickly combine two files into one: $ cat first.txt second.txt > combined.txt
  • 71. Processing Text Using Filters  19 Although cat is officially a tool for combining files, it’s also commonly used to display the contents of a short file. If you type only one filename as an option, cat displays that file. This is a great way to review short files; but for long files, you’re better off using a full- fledged pager command, such as more or less. You can add options to have cat perform minor modifications to the files as it com- bines them: Display line ends ​ ​If you want to see where lines end, add the -E or --show-ends option. The result is a dollar sign ($) at the end of each line. Number lines ​ ​The -n or --number option adds line numbers to the beginning of every line. The -b or --number-nonblank option is similar, but it numbers only lines that contain text. Minimize blank lines ​ ​The -s or --squeeze-blank option compresses groups of blank lines down to a single blank line. Display special characters ​ ​The -T or --show-tabs option displays tab characters as ^I. The -v or --show-nonprinting option displays most control and other special characters using carat (^) and M- notations. The tac command is similar to cat, but it reverses the order of lines in the output. Joining Files by Field with join The join command combines two files by matching the contents of specified fields within the files. Fields are typically space-separated entries on a line, although you can specify another character as the field separator with the -t char option, where char is the charac- ter you want to use. You can cause join to ignore case when performing comparisons by using the -i option. The effect of join may best be understood through a demonstration. Consider Listings 1.1 and 1.2, which contain data on telephone numbers—Listing 1.1 shows the names associated with those numbers, and Listing 1.2 shows whether the numbers are listed or unlisted. Listing 1.1: Demonstration File Containing Telephone Numbers and Names 555-2397 Beckett, Barry 555-5116 Carter, Gertrude 555-7929 Jones, Theresa 555-9871 Orwell, Samuel Listing 1.2: Demonstration File Containing Telephone Number Listing Status 555-2397 unlisted 555-5116 listed 555-7929 listed 555-9871 unlisted
  • 72. 20  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools You can display the contents of both files using join: $ join listing1.1.txt listing1.2.txt 555-2397 Beckett, Barry unlisted 555-5116 Carter, Gertrude listed 555-7929 Jones, Theresa listed 555-9871 Orwell, Samuel unlisted By default, join uses the first field as the one to match across files. Because Listings 1.1 and 1.2 both place the phone number in this field, it’s the key field in the output. You can specify another field by using the -1 or -2 option to specify the join field for the first or second file, respectively, as in join -1 3 -2 2 cameras.txt lenses.txt to join using the third field in cameras.txt and the second field in lenses.txt. The -o FORMAT option enables more complex specifications for the output file’s format; consult the man page for join for more details. The join command can be used at the core of a set of simple customized database- manipulation tools using Linux text-manipulation commands. It’s very limited by itself, though; for instance, it requires its two files to have the same ordering of lines. (You can use the sort command to ensure this is so.) Merging Lines with paste The paste command merges files line by line, separating the lines from each file with tabs, as shown in the following example, using Listings 1.1 and 1.2 again: $ paste listing1.1.txt listing1.2.txt 555-2397 Beckett, Barry 555-2397 unlisted 555-5116 Carter, Gertrude 555-5116 listed 555-7929 Jones, Theresa 555-7929 listed 555-9871 Orwell, Samuel 555-9871 unlisted You can use paste to combine data from files that aren’t keyed with fields suitable for use by join. Of course, to be meaningful, the files’ line numbers must be exactly equivalent. Alternatively, you can use paste as a quick way to create a two-column output of textual data; however, the alignment of the second column may not be exact if the first column’s line lengths aren’t exactly even, as shown in the preceding example. File-Transforming Commands Many of Linux’s text-manipulation commands are aimed at transforming the contents of files. These commands don’t actually change files’ contents, though; rather, they send the changed file to standard output. You can then pipe this output to another command or redirect it into a new file.
  • 73. Processing Text Using Filters 21 An important file-transforming command is sed . This command is very complex and is covered later in this chapter, in “Using sed .” Converting Tabs to Spaces with expand Sometimes text files contain tabs but programs that need to process the files don’t cope well with tabs; or perhaps you want to edit a text file in an editor that uses a different amount of horizontal space for the tab than the editor that created the file. In such cases, you may want to convert tabs to spaces. The expand command does this. By default, expand assumes a tab stop every eight characters. You can change this spac- ing with the -t num or --tabs=num option, where num is the tab spacing value. Displaying Files in Octal with od Some files aren’t easily displayed in ASCII; most graphics files, audio files, and so on, use non-ASCII characters that look like gibberish. Worse, these characters can do strange things to your display if you try to view such a file with cat or a similar tool. For instance, your font may change, or your console may begin beeping uncontrollably. Nonetheless, you may sometimes want to display such files, particularly if you want to investigate the structure of a data file. You may also want to look at an ASCII file in a way that eliminates certain ambi- guities, such as whether a gap between words is a tab or several spaces. In such cases, od (whose name stands for octal dump) can help. It displays a file in an unambiguous format— octal (base 8) numbers by default. For instance, consider Listing 1.2 as parsed by od: $ od listing1.2.txt 0000000 032465 026465 031462 033471 072440 066156 071551 062564 0000020 005144 032465 026465 030465 033061 066040 071551 062564 0000040 005144 032465 026465 034467 034462 066040 071551 062564 0000060 005144 032465 026465 034071 030467 072440 066156 071551 0000100 062564 005144 0000104 The first field on each line is an index into the file in octal. For instance, the second line begins at octal 20 (16 in base 10) bytes into the file. The remaining numbers on each line represent the bytes in the file. This type of output can be difficult to interpret unless you’re well versed in octal notation and perhaps in the ASCII code. Although od is nominally a tool for generating octal output, it can generate many other output formats, such as hexadecimal (base 16), decimal (base 10), and even ASCII with escaped control characters. Consult the man page for od for details on creating these variants.
  • 74. 22  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Sorting Files with sort Sometimes you’ll create an output file that you want sorted. To do so, you can use a command that’s called, appropriately enough, sort. This command can sort in several ways, including the following: Ignore case ​ ​Ordinarily, sort sorts by ASCII value, which differentiates between uppercase and lowercase letters. The -f or --ignore-case option causes sort to ignore case. Month sort ​ ​The -M or --month-sort option causes the program to sort by three-letter month abbreviation (JAN through DEC). Numeric sort ​ ​You can sort by number by using the -n or --numeric-sort option. Reverse sort order ​ ​The -r or --reverse option sorts in reverse order. Sort field ​ ​By default, sort uses the first field as its sort field. You can specify another field with the -k field or --key=field option. (The field can be two numbered fields separated by commas, to sort on multiple fields.) As an example, suppose you wanted to sort Listing 1.1 by first name. You could do so like this: $ sort -k 3 listing1.1.txt 555-2397 Beckett, Barry 555-5116 Carter, Gertrude 555-9871 Orwell, Samuel 555-7929 Jones, Theresa The sort command supports a large number of additional options, many of them quite exotic. Consult sort’s man page for details. Breaking a File into Pieces with split The split command can split a file into two or more files. Unlike most of the text-manip- ulation commands described in this chapter, this command requires you to enter an output filename—or more precisely, an output filename prefix, to which is added an alphabetic code. You must also normally specify how large you want the individual files to be: Split by bytes ​ ​The -b size or --bytes=size option breaks the input file into pieces of size bytes. This option can have the usually undesirable consequence of splitting the file mid-line. Split by bytes in line-sized chunks ​ ​You can break a file into files of no more than a speci- fied size without breaking lines across files by using the -C=size or --line-bytes=size option. (Lines will still be broken across files if the line length is greater than size.) Split by number of lines ​ ​The -l lines or --lines=lines option splits the file into chunks with no more than the specified number of lines.
  • 75. Processing Text Using Filters  23 As an example, consider breaking Listing 1.1 into two parts by number of lines: $ split -l 2 listing1.1.txt numbers The result is two files, numbersaa and numbersab, that together hold the original con- tents of listing1.1.txt. Translating Characters with tr The tr command changes individual characters from standard input. Its syntax is as follows: tr [options] SET1 [SET2] You specify the characters you want replaced in a group (SET1) and the characters with which you want them to be replaced as a second group (SET2). Each character in SET1 is replaced with the one at the equivalent position in SET2. Here’s an example using Listing 1.1: $ tr BCJ bc < listing1.1.txt 555-2397 beckett, barry 555-5116 carter, Gertrude 555-7929 cones, Theresa 555-9871 Orwell, Samuel This example translates some, but not all, of the uppercase characters to lowercase. Note that SET2 in this example was shorter than SET1. The result is that tr substitutes the last available letter from SET2 for the missing letters. In this example, the J in Jones became a c. The -t or --truncate-set1 option causes tr to truncate SET1 to the size of SET2 instead. Another tr option is -d, which causes the program to delete the characters from SET1. When using -d, you can omit SET2 entirely. The tr command also accepts a number of shortcuts, such as [:alnum:] (all num- bers and letters), [:upper:] (all uppercase letters), [:lower:] (all lowercase letters), and [:digit:] (all digits). You can specify a range of characters by separating them with dashes (-), as in A-M for characters between A and M, inclusive. Consult tr’s man page for a complete list of these shortcuts. Converting Spaces to Tabs with unexpand The unexpand command is the logical opposite of expand; it converts multiple spaces to tabs. This can help compress the size of files that contain many spaces and can be helpful if a file is to be processed by a utility that expects tabs in certain locations. Like expand, unexpand accepts the -t num or --tabs=num option, which sets the tab spacing to once every num characters. If you omit this option, unexpand assumes a tab stop every eight characters.
  • 76. 24  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Deleting Duplicate Lines with uniq The uniq command removes duplicate lines. It’s most likely to be useful if you’ve sorted a file and don’t want duplicate items. For instance, suppose you want to summarize Shakespeare’s vocabulary. You might create a file with all of the Bard’s works, one word per line. You can then sort this file using sort and pass it through uniq. Using a shorter example file containing the text to be or not to be, that is the question (one word per line), the result looks like this: $ sort shakespeare.txt | uniq be is not or question that the to Note that the words to and be, which appeared in the original file twice, appear only once in the uniq-processed version. File-Formatting Commands The next three commands—fmt, nl, and pr—reformat the text in a file. The first of these is designed to reformat text files, such as if a program’s README documentation file uses lines that are too long for your display. The nl command numbers the lines of a file, which can be helpful in referring to lines in documentation or correspondence. Finally, pr is a print- processing tool; it formats a document in pages suitable for printing. Reformatting Paragraphs with fmt Sometimes text files arrive with outrageously long line lengths, irregular line lengths, or other problems. Depending on the problem, you may be able to cope simply by using an appropriate text editor or viewer to read the file. If you want to clean up the file a bit, though, you can do so with fmt. If called with no options (other than the input filename, if you’re not having it work on standard input), the program attempts to clean up paragraphs, which it assumes are delimited by two or more blank lines or by changes in indentation. The new paragraph formatting defaults to no more than 75 characters wide. You can change this with the -width, -w width, or --width=width options, which set the line length to width characters.
  • 77. Processing Text Using Filters  25 Numbering Lines with nl As described earlier, in “Combining Files with cat,” you can number the lines of a file with that command. The cat line-numbering options are limited, though, so if you need to do complex line numbering, nl is the tool to use. In its simplest case, you can use nl alone to accomplish much the same goal as cat -b achieves: numbering all the non-blank lines in a file. You can add many options to nl to achieve various special effects: Body numbering style ​ ​You can set the numbering style for the bulk of the lines with the -b style or --body-numbering=style option, where style is a style format code, described shortly. Header and footer numbering style ​ ​If the text is formatted for printing and has head- ers or footers, you can set the style for these elements with the -h style or --header- numbering=style option for the header and -f style or --footer-numbering=style option for the footer. Page separator ​ ​Some numbering schemes reset the line numbers for each page. You can tell nl how to identify a new page with the -d=code or --section-delimiter=code option, where code is a code for the character that identifies the new page. Line-number options for new pages ​ ​Ordinarily, nl begins numbering each new page with line 1. If you pass the -p or --no-renumber option, though, it doesn’t reset the line number with a new page. Number format ​ ​You can specify the numbering format with the -n format or --number- format=format option, where format is ln (left justified, no leading zeros), rn (right justi- fied, no leading zeros), or rz (right justified with leading zeros). The body, header, and footer options enable you to specify a numbering style for each of these page elements: Number only non-blank lines ​ ​The default behavior is to number lines that aren’t empty. This corresponds to a style of t. Number all lines ​ ​If you want empty lines to be numbered, specify a style of a. Number no lines ​ ​To omit line numbers (say, for headers or footers), specify a style of n. Number lines matching a regular expression ​ ​A style of pREGEXP numbers only those lines that match the regular expression REGEXP. (Regular expressions are described later, in “Using Regular Expressions.”) As an example, suppose you’ve created a script, buggy, but you find that it’s not working as you expect. When you run it, you get error messages that refer to line numbers, so you want to create a version of the script with lines that are numbered for easy reference. You can do so by calling nl with the option to number blank lines (-b a): $ nl -b a buggy > numbered-buggy.txt
  • 78. 26 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Because the input file doesn’t have any explicit page delimiters, the output will be numbered in a single sequence; nl doesn’t try to impose its own page-length limits . The numbered-buggy.txt file created by this command isn’t useful as a script because of the line numbers that begin each line. You can, however, load it into a text editor or display it with a pager such as less to view the text and see the line numbers along with the com- mands they contain. Preparing a File for Printing with pr If you want to print a plain-text file, you may want to prepare it with headers, footers, page breaks, and so on. The pr command was designed to do this. In its most basic form, you pass the command a file: $ pr myfile.txt The result is text formatted for printing on a line printer—that is, pr assumes an 80-character line length in a monospaced font. Of course, you can also use pr in a pipe, either to accept input piped from another program or to pipe its output to another program. (The recipient program might be lpr, which is used to print files, as described in Chapter 6, “Configuring the X Window System, Localization, and Printing.”) By default, pr creates output that includes the original text with headers that include the current date and time, the original filename, and the page number. You can tweak the out- put format in a variety of ways, including the following: Generate multi-column output Passing the -numcols or --columns=numcols option creates output with numcols columns. Note that pr doesn’t reformat text; if lines are too long, they’re truncated or run over onto multiple columns. Generate double-spaced output The -d or --double-space option causes double-spaced output from a single-spaced file. Use form feeds Ordinarily, pr separates pages by using a fixed number of blank lines. This works fine if your printer uses the same number of lines that pr expects. If you have problems with this issue, you can pass the -F, -f, or --form-feed option, which causes pr to output a form-feed character between pages. This works better with some printers. Set page length The -l lines or --length=lines option sets the length of the page in lines. Set the header text The -h text or --header=text option sets the text to be displayed in the header, replacing the filename. To specify a multi-word string, enclose it in quotes, as in --header=”My File”. The -t or --omit-header option omits the header entirely. Set left margin and page width The -o chars or --indent=chars option sets the left mar- gin to chars characters. This margin size is added to the page width, which defaults to 72 characters and can be explicitly set with the -w chars or --width chars option.
  • 79. Processing Text Using Filters 27 These options are just the beginning; pr supports many more, which are described in its man page. As an example of pr in action, consider printing a double-spaced and numbered version of a configuration file (say, /etc/profile) for your reference. You can do this by piping together cat and its -n option to generate a numbered output, pr and its -d option to double-space the result, and lpr to print the file: $ cat -n /etc/profile | pr -d | lpr The result should be a printout that might be handy for taking notes on the configuration file. One caveat, though: If the file contains lines that approach or exceed 80 characters in length, the result can be single lines that spill across two lines. The result will be disrupted page boundaries. As a workaround, you can set a somewhat short page length with -l and use -f to ensure that the printer receives form feeds after each page: $ cat -n /etc/profile | pr -dfl 50 | lpr The pr command is built around assumptions about printer capabilities that were reasonable in the early 1980s . It’s still useful today, but you might prefer to look into GNU Enscript ( genscript/) . This program has many of the same features as pr, but it generates PostScript output that can take better advantage of modern printer features . File-Viewing Commands Sometimes you just want to view a file or part of a file. A few commands can help you accomplish this goal without loading the file into a full-fledged editor. As described earlier, the cat command is also handy for viewing short files . Viewing the Starts of Files with head Sometimes all you need to do is see the first few lines of a file. This may be enough to iden- tify what a mystery file is, for instance; or you may want to see the first few entries of a log file to determine when that file was started. You can accomplish this goal with the head command, which echoes the first 10 lines of one or more files to standard output. (If you specify multiple filenames, each one’s output is preceded by a header to identify it.) You can modify the amount of information displayed by head in two ways: Specify the number of bytes The -c num or --bytes=num option tells head to display num bytes from the file rather than the default 10 lines. Specify the number of lines You can change the number of lines displayed with the -n num or --lines=num option.
  • 80. 28  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Viewing the Ends of Files with tail The tail command works just like head, except that tail displays the last 10 lines of a file. (You can use the -c/—bytes and -n/—lines options to change the amount of data displayed, just as with head.) This command is useful for examining recent activity in log files or other files to which data may be appended. The tail command supports several options that aren’t present in head and that enable the program to handle additional duties, including the following: Track a file ​ ​The -f or --follow option tells tail to keep the file open and to display new lines as they’re added. This feature is helpful for tracking log files because it enables you to see changes as they’re added to the file. Stop tracking on program termination ​ ​The —pid=pid option tells tail to terminate tracking (as initiated by -f or --follow) once the process with a process ID (PID) of pid terminates. (PIDs are described in more detail in Chapter 2, “Managing Software.”) Some additional options provide more obscure capabilities. Consult tail’s man page for details. Paging Through Files with less The less command’s name is a joke; it’s a reference to the more command, which was an early file pager. The idea was to create a better version of more, so the developers called it less. The idea behind less (and more, for that matter) is to enable you to read a file a screen at a time. When you type less filename, the program displays the first few lines of filename. You can then page back and forth through the file: Pressing the spacebar moves forward through the file a screen at a time.NN Pressing Esc followed by V moves backward through the file a screen at a time.NN The Up and Down arrow keys move up or down through the file a line at a time.NN You can search the file’s contents by pressing the slash (/) key followed by the searchNN term. For instance, typing /portable finds the first occurrence of the string portable after the current position. Typing a slash followed by the Enter key moves to the next occurrence of the search term. Typing n alone repeats the search forward, while typing N alone repeats the search backward. You can search backward in the file by using the question mark (?) key rather than theNN slash key. You can move to a specific line by typingNN g followed by the line number, as in g50 to go to line 50. When you’re done, typeNN q to exit from the program. Unlike most of the programs described here, less can’t be readily used in a pipe, except as the final command in the pipe. In that role, though, less is very useful because it enables you to conveniently examine lengthy output.
  • 81. Processing Text Using Filters 29 Although less is quite common on Linux systems and is typically con- figured as the default text pager, some Unix-like systems use more in this role . Many of less’s features, such as the ability to page backward in a file, don’t work in more . One additional less feature can be handy: Typing h displays less’s internal help system. This display summarizes the commands you may use, but it’s long enough that you must use the usual less paging features to view it all! When you’re done with the help screens, type q, just as if you were exiting from viewing a help document with less. This action will return you to your original document. File-Summarizing Commands The final text-filtering commands I describe are used to summarize text in one way or another. The cut command takes segments of an input file and sends them to standard out- put, while the wc command displays some basic statistics on the file. Extracting Text with cut The cut command extracts portions of input lines and displays them on standard output. You can specify what to cut from input lines in several ways: By byte The -b list or --bytes=list option cuts the specified list of bytes from the input file. (The format of a list is described shortly.) By character The -c list or --characters=list option cuts the specified list of charac- ters from the input file. In practice, this method and the by-byte method usually produce identical results. (If the input file uses a multi-byte encoding system, though, the results won’t be identical.) By field The -f list or --fields=list option cuts the specified list of fields from the input file. By default, a field is a tab-delimited section of a line, but you can change the delimiting character with the -d char, --delim=char, or --delimiter=char option option, where char is the character you want to use to delimit fields. Ordinarily, cut echoes lines that don’t contain delimiters. Including the -s or --only-delimited option changes this behavior so that the program doesn’t echo lines that don’t contain the delimiter character. Many of these options take a list, which is a way to specify multiple bytes, characters, or fields. You make this specification by number; it can be a single number (such as 4), a closed range of numbers (such as 2-4), or an open range of numbers (such as -4 or 4-). In this final case, all bytes, characters, or fields from the beginning of the line to the specified number or from the specified number to the end of the line are included in the list. The cut command is frequently used in scripts to extract data from some other com- mand’s output. For instance, suppose you’re writing a script and the script needs to know the hardware address of your Ethernet adapter. This information can be obtained
  • 82. 30 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools from the ifconfig command (described in more detail in Chapter 8, “Configuring Basic Networking”): $ ifconfig eth0 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:76:96:A3:73 inet addr: Bcast: Mask: inet6 addr: fe80::20c:76ff:fe96:a373/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:7127424 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:5273519 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:6272843708 (5982.2 Mb) TX bytes:1082453585 (1032.3 Mb) Interrupt:10 Base address:0xde00 Unfortunately, most of this information is extraneous for the desired purpose. The hard- ware address is the 6-byte hexadecimal number following HWaddr. To extract that data, you can combine grep (described shortly, in “Using grep”) with cut in a pipe: $ ifconfig eth0 | grep HWaddr | cut -d “ “ -f 11 00:0C:76:96:A3:73 Of course, in a script you would probably assign this value to a variable or otherwise process it through additional pipes. Chapter 9 describes scripts in more detail. Obtaining a Word Count with wc The wc command produces a word count (that’s where it gets its name), as well as line and byte counts, for a file: $ wc file.txt 308 2343 15534 file.txt This file contains 308 lines (or, more precisely, 308 newline characters); 2,343 words; and 15,534 bytes. You can limit the output to the newline count, the word count, the byte count, or a character count with the --lines (-l), --words (-w), --bytes (-c), or --chars (-m) option, respectively. You can also learn the maximum line length with the --max-line-length (-L) option. For an ordinary ASCII file, the character and byte counts will be identical . These values may diverge for files that use multi-byte character encodings .
  • 83. Using Regular Expressions  31 Using Regular Expressions Many Linux programs employ regular expressions, which are tools for expressing patterns in text. Regular expressions are similar in principle to the wildcards that can be used to specify multiple filenames. At their simplest, regular expressions can be plain text without adornment. Certain characters are used to denote patterns, though. Because of their impor- tance, I describe regular expressions here. I also cover two programs that make heavy use of regular expressions: grep and sed. These programs search for text within files and per- mit editing of files from the command line, respectively. Understanding Regular Expressions Two forms of regular expression are common: basic and extended. Which form you must use depends on the program; some accept one form or the other, but others can use either type, depending on the options passed to the program. (Some programs use their own minor or major variants on either of these classes of regular expression.) The differences between basic and extended regular expressions are complex and subtle, but the fundamen- tal principles of both are similar. The simplest type of regular expression is an alphabetic string, such as Linux or HWaddr. These regular expressions match any string of the same size or longer that contains the reg- ular expression. For instance, the HWaddr regular expression matches HWaddr, This is the HWaddr, and The HWaddr is unknown. The real strength of regular expressions comes in the use of non-alphabetic characters, which activate advanced matching rules: Bracket expressions ​ ​Characters enclosed in square brackets ([]) constitute bracket expres- sions, which match any one character within the brackets. For instance, the regular expression b[aeiou]g matches the words bag, beg, big, bog, and bug. Range expressions ​ ​A range expression is a variant on a bracket expression. Instead of list- ing every character that matches, range expressions list the start and end points separated by a dash (-), as in a[2-4]z. This regular expression matches a2z, a3z, and a4z. Any single character ​ ​The dot (.) represents any single character except a newline. For instance, a.z matches a2z, abz, aQz, or any other three-character string that begins with a and ends with z. Start and end of line ​ ​The carat (^) represents the start of a line, and the dollar sign ($) denotes the end of a line. Repetition operators ​ ​A full or partial regular expression may be followed by a special symbol to denote how many times a matching item must exist. Specifically, an asterisk (*) denotes zero or more occurrences, a plus sign (+) matches one or more occurrences, and a question mark (?) specifies zero or one match. The asterisk is often combined with the dot (as in .*) to specify a match with any substring. For instance, A.*Lincoln matches any
  • 84. 32  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools string that contains A and Lincoln, in that order—Abe Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln are just two possible matches. Multiple possible strings ​ ​The vertical bar (|) separates two possible matches; for instance, car|truck matches either car or truck. Parentheses ​ ​Ordinary parentheses (()) surround subexpressions. Parentheses are often used to specify how operators are to be applied; for example, you can put parentheses around a group of words that are concatenated with the vertical bar, to ensure that the words are treated as a group, any one of which may match, without involving surrounding parts of the regular expression. Escaping ​ ​If you want to match one of the special characters, such as a dot, you must escape it—that is, precede it with a backslash (). For instance, to match a computer hostname (say,, you must escape the dots, as in The preceding descriptions apply to extended regular expressions. Some details are dif- ferent for basic regular expressions. In particular, the ?, +, |, (, and ) symbols lose their special meanings. To perform the tasks handled by these characters, some programs, such as grep, enable you to recover the functions of these characters by escaping them (say, using | instead of |). Whether you use basic or extended regular expressions depends on which form the program supports. For programs, such as grep, that support both, you can use either; which you choose is mostly a matter of personal preference. Regular expression rules can be confusing, particularly when you’re first introduced to them. Some examples of their use, in the context of the programs that use them, will help. The next couple of sections provide such examples. Using grep The grep command is extremely useful. It searches for files that contain a specified string and returns the name of the file and (if it’s a text file) a line of context for that string. The basic grep syntax is as follows: grep [options] regexp [files] The regexp is a regular expression, as just described. The grep command supports a large number of options. Some of the more common options enable you to modify the way the program searches files: Count matching lines ​ ​Instead of displaying context lines, grep displays the number of lines that match the specified pattern if you use the -c or --count option. Specify a pattern input file ​ ​The -f file or --file=file option takes pattern input from the specified file rather than from the command line. Ignore case ​ ​You can perform a case-insensitive search, rather than the default case-sensitive search, by using the -i or --ignore-case option.
  • 85. Using Regular Expressions 33 Search recursively The -r or --recursive option searches in the specified directory and all subdirectories rather than simply the specified directory. You can use rgrep rather than specify this option. Use an extended regular expression The grep command interprets regexp as a basic regu- lar expression by default. To use an extended regular expression, you can pass the -E or --extended-regexp option. Alternatively, you can call egrep rather than grep; this variant command uses extended regular expressions by default. A simple example of grep uses a regular expression with no special components: $ grep -r eth0 /etc/* This example finds all the files in /etc that contain the string eth0 (the identifier for the first Ethernet device). Because the example includes the -r option, it searches recursively, so files in subdirectories of /etc are examined as well as those in /etc itself. For each match- ing text file, the line that contains the string is printed. Some files in /etc can’t be read by ordinary users . Thus, if you type this command as a non-root user, you’ll see some error messages relating to grep’s inability to open files . Ramping up a bit, suppose you want to locate all the files in /etc that contain the string eth0 or eth1. You can enter the following command, which uses a bracket expression to specify both variant devices: $ grep eth[01] /etc/* A still more complex example searches all files in /etc that contain the hostname twain. or and, later on the same line, the number 127. This task requires using several of the regular expression features. Expressed using extended regular expression notation, the command looks like this: $ grep -E “(|*127” /etc/* This command illustrates another feature you may need to use: shell quoting. Because the shell uses certain characters, such as the vertical bar and the asterisk, for its own pur- poses, you must enclose certain regular expressions in quotes lest the shell attempt to parse the regular expression as shell commands. You can use grep in conjunction with commands that produce a lot of output in order to sift through that output for the material that’s important to you. (Several examples through- out this book use this technique.) For example, suppose you want to find the process ID (PID) of a running xterm. You can use a pipe to send the result of a ps command (described in Chapter 2) through grep: # ps ax | grep xterm
  • 86. 34 Chapter 1 N Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools The result is a list of all running processes called xterm, along with their PIDs. You can even do this in series, using grep to further restrict the output on some other criterion, which can be useful if the initial pass still produces too much output. Using sed The sed command directly modifies the contents of files, sending the changed file to stan- dard output. Its syntax can take one of two forms: sed [options] -f script-file [input-file] sed [options] script-text [input-file] In either case, input-file is the name of the file you want to modify. (Modifications are temporary unless you save them in some way, as illustrated shortly.) The script (script-text or the contents of script-file) is the set of commands you want sed to perform. When you pass a script directly on the command line, the script-text is typically enclosed in single quote marks. Table 1.3 summarizes a few sed commands that you can use in its scripts. TA B L E 1. 3 Common sed Commands Command Addresses Meaning = 0 or 1 Display the current line number . atext 0 or 1 Append text to the file . itext 0 or 1 Insert text into the file . r filename 0 or 1 Append text from filename into the file . ctext Range Replace the selected range of lines with the provided text . s/regexp/replacement Range Replace text that matches the regular expression (regexp) with replacement . w filename Range Write the current pattern space to the specified file . q 0 or 1 Immediately quit the script, but print the current pat- tern space . Q 0 or 1 Immediately quit the script . Table 1 .3 is incomplete; sed is quite complex, and this section merely intro- duces this tool .
  • 87. Using Regular Expressions 35 The Addresses column of Table 1.3 requires elaboration: sed commands operate on addresses, which are line numbers. Commands may take no addresses, in which case they operate on the entire file; one address, in which case they operate on the specified line; or two addresses (a range), in which case they operate on that range of lines, inclusive. In operation, sed looks something like this: $ sed ‘s/2009/2010/’ cal-2009.txt > cal-2010.txt This command processes the input file, cal-2009.txt, using sed’s s command to replace the first occurrence of 2009 on each line with 2010. (If a single line may have more than one instance of the search string, you must perform a global search by appending g to the com- mand string, as in s/2009/2010/g.) By default, sed sends the modified file to standard out- put, so this example uses redirection to send the output to cal-2010.txt. The idea in this example is to quickly convert a file created for the year 2009 so that it can be used in 2010. If you don’t specify an input filename, sed works from standard input, so it can accept the output of another command as its input. Although it’s conceptually simple, sed is a very complex tool; even a modest summary of its capabilities would fill a chapter. You can consult its man page for basic information; but to fully understand sed, you may want to consult a book on the subject, such as Dale Dougherty and Arnold Robbins’s sed & awk, 2nd Edition (O’Reilly, 1997). Certain sed commands, including the substitution command, are also used in Vi, which is described more fully in Chapter 5 . Doing one Thing in Many Ways As you become experienced with Linux and compare notes with other Linux administra- tors, you may find that the way you work is different from the way others work . This is because Linux often provides multiple methods to solve certain problems . For instance, ASCII text files use certain characters to encode the end of a line . Unix (and Linux) use a single line feed character (ASCII 0x0a, sometimes represented as n), whereas DOS and Windows use the combination of a carriage return (ASCII 0x0d or r) and a line feed . When moving ASCII files between systems, you may need to convert from one form to the other . How can you do this? One solution is to use a special-purpose program, such as dos2unix or unix2dos . You could type dos2unix file.txt to convert file.txt from DOS-style to Unix-style ASCII, for instance . This is usually the simplest solution, but not all systems have these utilities installed .
  • 88. 36  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Another approach is to use tr. For instance, to convert from DOS-style to Unix-style, you might type: $ tr -d r < dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt This approach won’t work when converting from Unix-style to DOS-style, though. For that, sed can be used: sed s/$/”r”/ dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt Variants on both the tr and sed commands exist. For instance, Sometimes the quotes around r may be omitted from the sed command; whether they’re required depends on your shell and its configuration. Yet another approach is to load the file into a text editor and then save it back using dif- ferent file-type settings. (Not all editors support such changes, but some do.) Many other examples exist of multiple solutions to a problem. Sometimes one solution stands out above others as being superior, but other times the differences may be subtle, or each approach may have merit in particular situations. Thus, it’s best to be at least some- what familiar with all the alternatives. I describe many such options throughout this book. Summary The command line is the key to Linux. Even if you prefer GUI tools to text-mode tools, understanding text-mode commands is necessary to fully manage Linux. This task begins with the shell, which accepts commands you type and displays the results of those commands. In addition, shells support linking programs together via pipes and redirecting programs’ input and output. These features enable you to perform complex tasks using simple tools by having each program perform its own small part of the task. This technique is frequently used with Linux text filters, which manipulate text files in various ways—sorting text by fields, merging multiple files, and so on.
  • 89. Exam Essentials  37 Exam Essentials Summarize features that Linux shells offer to speed up command entry. ​ ​The command history often enables you to retrieve an earlier command that’s similar or identical to the one you want to enter. Tab completion reduces typing effort by letting the shell finish long command names or filenames. Command-line editing lets you edit a retrieved command or change a typo before committing the command. Describe the purpose of the man command. ​ ​The man command displays the manual page for the keyword (command, filename, system call, or other feature) that you type. This documentation provides succinct summary information that’s useful as a reference to learn about exact command options or features. Explain the purpose of environment variables. ​ ​Environment variables store small pieces of data—program options, information about the computer, and so on. This information can be read by programs and used to modify program behavior in a way that’s appropriate for the current environment. Describe the difference between standard output and standard error. ​ ​Standard output carries normal program output, whereas standard error carries high-priority output, such as error messages. The two can be redirected independently of one another. Explain the purpose of pipes. ​ ​Pipes tie programs together by feeding the standard output from the first program into the second program’s standard input. They can be used to link together a series of simple programs to perform more complex tasks than any one of the programs could manage. Summarize the structure of regular expressions. ​ ​Regular expressions are strings that describe other strings. They can contain normal alphanumeric characters, which match the exact same characters, as well as several special symbols and symbol sets that match multiple dif- ferent characters. The combination is a powerful pattern-matching tool used by many Linux programs.
  • 90. 38  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Review Questions 1. You type a command into bash and pass a long filename to it, but after you enter the com- mand, you receive a File not found error message because of a typo in the filename. How might you proceed? A. Retype the command, and be sure you type the filename correctly, letter by letter. B. Retype the command, but press the Tab key after typing a few letters of the long file- name to ensure that the filename is entered correctly. C. Press the Up arrow key, and use bash’s editing features to correct the typo. D. Any of the above. 2. Which of the following commands is implemented as an internal command in bash? A. cat B. echo C. tee D. sed 3. You type echo $PROC, and the computer replies Go away. What does this mean? A. No currently running processes are associated with your shell, so you may log out without terminating them. B. The remote computer PROC isn’t accepting connections; you should contact its adminis- trator to correct the problem. C. Your computer is handling too many processes; you must kill some of them to regain control of the computer. D. You, one of your configuration files, or a program you’ve run has set the $PROC envi- ronment variable to Go away. 4. What does the pwd command accomplish? A. It prints the name of the working directory. B. It changes the current working directory. C. It prints wide displays on narrow paper. D. It parses Web page URLs for display. 5. In an xterm window launched from your window manager, you type exec gedit. What will happen when you exit from the gedit program? A. Your shell will be a root shell. B. The gedit program will terminate, but nothing else unusual will happen. C. Your X session will terminate. D. The xterm window will close.
  • 91. Review Questions  39 6. What is the surest way to run a program (say, myprog) that’s located in the current working directory? A. Type ./ followed by the program name: ./myprog. B. Type the program name alone: myprog. C. Type run followed by the program name: run myprog. D. Type /. followed by the program name: /.myprog. 7. How does man display information by default on most Linux systems? A. Using a custom X-based application B. Using the Firefox Web browser C. Using the less pager D. Using the Vi editor 8. You want to store the standard output of the ifconfig command in a text file (file.txt) for future reference, and you want to wipe out any existing data in the file. How can you do so? A. ifconfig < file.txt B. ifconfig >> file.txt C. ifconfig > file.txt D. ifconfig | file.txt 9. What is the effect of the following command? $ myprog &> input.txt A. Standard error to myprog is taken from input.txt. B. Standard input to myprog is taken from input.txt. C. Standard output and standard error from myprog are written to input.txt. D. All of the above. 10. How many commands can you pipe together at once? A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. An arbitrary number 11. You want to run an interactive script, gabby, which produces a lot of output in response to the user’s inputs. To facilitate future study of this script, you want to copy its output to a file. How might you do this? A. gabby > gabby-out.txt B. gabby | tee gabby-out.txt C. gabby < gabby-out.txt D. gabby &> gabby-out.txt
  • 92. 40  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools 12. A text-mode program, verbose, prints a lot of spurious “error” messages to standard error. How might you get rid of those messages while still interacting with the program? A. verbose | quiet B. verbose &> /dev/null C. verbose 2> /dev/null D. verbose > junk.txt 13. How do the > and >> redirection operators differ? A. The > operator creates a new file or overwrites an existing one; the >> operator creates a new file or appends to an existing one. B. The > operator creates a new file or overwrites an existing one; the >> operator appends to an existing file or issues an error message if the specified file doesn’t exist. C. The > operator redirects standard output; the >> operator redirects standard error. D. The > operator redirects standard output; the >> operator redirects standard input. 14. What program would you use to display the end of a configuration file? A. uniq B. cut C. tail D. wc 15. What is the effect of the following command? $ pr report.txt | lpr A. The file report.txt is formatted for printing and sent to the lpr program. B. The files report.txt and lpr are combined together into one file and sent to standard output. C. Tabs are converted to spaces in report.txt, and the result is saved in lpr. D. None of the above. 16. Which of the following commands will number the lines in aleph.txt? (Select all that apply.) A. fmt aleph.txt B. nl aleph.txt C. cat -b aleph.txt D. cat -n aleph.txt 17. Which of the following commands will change all occurrences of dog in the file animals.txt to mutt in the screen display? A. sed –s “dog” “mutt” animals.txt B. grep –s “dog||mutt” animals.txt C. sed ‘s/dog/mutt/g’ animals.txt D. cat animals.txt | grep –c “dog” “mutt”
  • 93. Review Questions  41 18. You’ve received an ASCII text file (longlines.txt) that uses no carriage returns within paragraphs but two carriage returns between paragraphs. The result is that your preferred text editor displays each paragraph as a very long line. How can you reformat this file so that you can more easily edit it (or a copy)? A. sed ‘s/Ctrl-M/NL/’ longlines.txt B. fmt longlines.txt > longlines2.txt C. cat longlines.txt > longlines2.txt D. pr longlines.txt > longlines2.txt 19. Which of the following commands will print lines from the file world.txt that contain matches to changes and changed? A. grep change[ds] world.txt B. sed change[d-s] world.txt C. od “change’d|s’” world.txt D. cat world.txt changes changed 20. Which of the following regular expressions will match the strings dig and dug but not dog? A. d.g B. d[iu]g C. d[i-u]g D. di*g
  • 94. 42  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools Answers to Review Questions 1. D. ​Any of these approaches will work, or at least might work. (You might err when per- forming any of them.) Option B or C is likely to be the most efficient approach; with a long filename to type, option A is likely to be tedious. 2. B. ​The echo command is implemented internally to bash, although an external version is also available on most systems. The cat, tee, and sed commands are not implemented internally to bash, although they can be called from bash as external commands. 3. D. ​The echo command echoes what follows to standard output, and $PROC is an environ- ment variable. Thus, echo $PROC displays the value of the $PROC environment variable, meaning that it must have been set to the specified value by you, one of your configuration files, or a program you’ve run. Although many environment variables are set to particular values to convey information, $PROC isn’t a standard environment variable that might be associated with information described in options A, B, or C. 4. A. ​The pwd command prints (to standard output) the name of the current working direc- tory. The remaining options are simply incorrect, although option B describes the cd com- mand and various tools can be used to reformat wide text for display or printing in fewer columns, as in option C. 5. D. ​The exec command causes the rest of the command to replace the current shell. Thus, when you exit from gedit in this scenario, the result will be the same as if you’d terminated the shell, namely, the xterm window will close. The exec command doesn’t raise the execu- tion privilege, so option A is incorrect. (The su and sudo commands can raise execution privilege, though.) Because the xterm window closes, option B is incorrect. X won’t ordi- narily terminate when a single xterm does, and definitely not if that xterm was launched from a window manager, so option C is incorrect. 6. A. ​The dot (.) character refers to the current working directory, and the slash (/) is a direc- tory separator. Thus, preceding a program name by ./ unambiguously identifies the intention to run the program that’s stored in the current directory. Option B will run the first instance of the program that’s found on the current path. Because paths often omit the current direc- tory for security reasons, this option is likely to fail. The run command isn’t a standard Linux command, so option C is unlikely to do anything, much less what the question specifies. Option D would be correct except that it reverses the order of the two characters. The effect is to attempt to run the .myprog file in the root (/) directory. This file probably doesn’t exist, and even if it did, it’s not the file the question specifies should be run. 7. C. ​By default, man uses the less pager to display information on most Linux systems. Although an X-based version of man does exist (xman), the basic man doesn’t use a custom X-based application, nor does it use Firefox or the Vi editor.
  • 95. Answers to Review Questions  43 8. C. ​The > redirection operator stores a command’s standard output in a file, overwriting the contents of any existing file by the specified name. Option A specifies the standard input redirection so that ifconfig will take the contents of file.txt as input. Option B is almost correct; the >> redirection operator redirects standard output, as requested, but it appends data to the specified file rather than overwriting it. Option D specifies a pipe; the output of ifconfig is sent through the file.txt program, if it exists. (Chances are it doesn’t, so you’d get a command not found error message.) 9. C. ​The &> redirection operator sends both standard output and standard error to the speci- fied file, as option C states. (The name of the file, input.txt, is intentionally deceptive, but the usage is still valid.) Option A mentions standard error but describes it as if it were an input stream, which it’s not; it’s an output stream. Option B mentions standard input, but the &> operator doesn’t affect standard input. 10. D. ​In principle, you can pipe together as many commands as you like. (In practice, of course, there will be limits based on input buffer size, memory, and so on, but these limits are far higher than the 2, 3, or 4 commands specified in options A, B, and C.) 11. B. ​The tee command sends its output both to standard output and to a named file. Thus, placing the tee command (with an output filename) after another command and a pipe will achieve the desired effect. Options A and D redirect gabby’s output to a file, which means you won’t be able to see the output and interact with it. Option C sends the contents of gabby-out.txt to gabby as input, which isn’t what’s desired, either. 12. C. ​The 2> redirection operator redirects standard error only, leaving standard output unaf- fected. Sending standard error to /dev/null gets rid of it. Option A pipes the standard output of verbose through the quiet program, which isn’t a standard Linux program. Option B sends both standard output and standard error to /dev/null, so you won’t be able to interact with the program, as the question specifies you must be able to do. Option D redirects standard output only to the junk.txt file, so once again, interaction will be impossible—and you’ll see the unwanted error messages on the screen. 13. A. ​Option A correctly describes the difference between these two redirection operators. Option B is almost correct, but the >> operator will create a new file if one doesn’t already exist. The >> operator does not redirect standard error (as stated in option C) or standard input (as stated in option D). 14. C. ​The tail command displays the final 10 lines of a file. (You can change the number of lines displayed with the -n option.) The uniq command removes duplicate lines from a list. The cut command echoes the specified characters or fields from an input text file. The wc command displays counts of the number of characters, words, and lines in a file. 15. A. ​The pr program takes a text file as input and adds formatting features intended for printing, such as a header and blank lines to separate pages. The command also pipes the output through lpr (which is a Linux printing command).
  • 96. 44  Chapter 1  n  Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools 16. B,C,D. ​The nl command numbers lines, so it does this task without any special options. (Its options can fine-tune the way it numbers lines, though.) The cat command can also number lines via its -b and -n options; -b numbers non-blank lines, whereas -n numbers all lines (including blank lines). The fmt command is the only one described here that will not number the lines of the input file. 17. C. ​The sed utility can be used to “stream” text and change one value to another. In this case, the s option is used to replace dog with mutt. The syntax in option A is incorrect, and choices B and D are incorrect because grep doesn’t include the functionality needed to make the changes. 18. B. ​The fmt command performs the desired task of shortening long lines by inserting carriage returns. It sends its results to standard output, so option B uses output redirection to save the results in a new file. The sed command of option A won’t accomplish anything useful; it only replaces the string Ctrl-M with the string NL. Although these strings are both sometimes used as abbreviations for carriage returns or new lines, the replacement of these literal strings isn’t what’s required. Option C creates an exact copy of the original file, with the long single-line paragraphs intact. Although option D’s pr command is a formatting tool, it won’t reformat individual paragraphs. It will also add headers that you probably don’t want. 19. A. ​The grep utility is used to find matching text within a file and print those lines. It accepts regular expressions, which means you can place in brackets the two characters that differ in the words for which you’re looking. The syntax for sed, od, and cat wouldn’t perform the specified task. 20. B. ​The bracket expression within the d[iu]g regular expression means that either i or u may be the middle character; hence, this regular expression matches both dig and dug but not dog. Option A’s dot matches any single character, so d.g matches all three words. The range expression [i-u] matches any single character between i and u, inclusive. Because o falls between these two letters, option C matches all three words. Finally, di*g matches dig, diig, diiig, or any other word that begins with d, ends with g, and contains any number of i letters in-between. Thus, option D matches dig but not dug as required .
  • 97. Chapter 2 Managing Software The following CompTIA Linux+ objectives are covered in this chapter: 1.102.3 Manage shared librariesÛÛ 1.102.4 Use Debian package managementÛÛ 1.102.5 Use RPM and Yum package managementÛÛ 1.103.5 Create, monitor, and kill processesÛÛ 1.103.6 Modify process execution prioritiesÛÛ
  • 98. A Linux system is defined largely by the collection of software it contains. The Linux kernel, the libraries used by many packages, the shells used to interpret commands, the X Window System GUI, the servers, and more all make up the system’s software environment. Many of the chap- ters of this book are devoted to configuring specific software components, but they all have something in common: tools used to install, uninstall, upgrade, and otherwise manipulate the software. Ironically, this commonality is a major source of differences between Linux systems. Two major Linux package management tools exist: RPM and Debian packages. (Several less- common package management systems also exist.) With few exceptions, each individual Linux computer uses precisely one package management system, so you’ll need to know only one to administer a single system. To be truly fluent in all things Linux, though, you should be at least somewhat familiar with both of them. Thus, this chapter describes both. This chapter also covers libraries—software components that can be used by many dif- ferent programs. Libraries help reduce the disk space and memory requirements of complex programs, but they also require some attention; if that attention isn’t given to them, they can cause problems by their absence or because of incompatibilities between their and their dependent software’s versions. Package management, and in some sense library management, relates to programs as files on your hard disk. Once run, though, programs are dynamic entities. Linux provides tools to help you manage running programs (known as processes)—you can learn what processes are running, change their priorities, and terminate processes you don’t want running. Package Concepts Before proceeding, you should understand some of the principles that underlie Linux pack- age management tools. Any computer’s software is like a house of cards: One program may rely on five other programs or libraries, each of which relies on several more, and so on. The foundation on which all these programs rely is the Linux kernel. Any of these packages can theoretically be replaced by an equivalent one; however, doing so sometimes causes problems. Worse, removing one card from the stack could cause the whole house of cards to come tumbling down. Linux package management tools are intended to minimize such problems by tracking what software is installed. The information that the system maintains helps avoid problems in several ways: Packages ​ ​The most basic information that package systems maintain is information about software packages—that is, collections of files that are installed on the computer. Packages
  • 99. Package Concepts  47 are usually distributed as single files that are similar to tarballs (archives created with the tar utility and usually compressed with gzip or bzip2) or zip files. Once installed, most packages consist of dozens or hundreds of files, and the package system tracks them all. Packages include additional information that aids in the subsequent duties of package man- agement systems. Installed file database ​ ​Package systems maintain a database of installed files. The data- base includes information about every file installed via the package system, the name of the package to which it belongs, and associated additional information. Dependencies ​ ​One of the most important types of information maintained by the pack- age system is dependency information—that is, the requirements of packages for one another. For instance, if SuperProg relies on UltraLib to do its work, the package data- base records this information. If you attempt to install SuperProg when UltraLib isn’t installed, the package system won’t let you do so. Similarly, if you try to uninstall Ultra- Lib when SuperProg is installed, the package system won’t let you. (You can override these prohibitions, as described later in “Forcing the Installation.” Doing so is usually inadvisable, though.) Checksums ​ ​The package system maintains checksums and assorted ancillary infor- mation about files. This information can be used to verify the validity of the installed software. This feature has its limits, though; it’s intended to help you spot disk errors, accidental overwriting of files, or other non-sinister problems. It’s of limited use in detecting intrusions, because an intruder could use the package system to install altered system software. Upgrades and uninstallation ​ ​By tracking files and dependencies, package systems permit easy upgrades and uninstallation: Tell the package system to upgrade or remove a package, and it will replace or remove every file in the package. Of course, this assumes that the upgrade or uninstallation doesn’t cause dependency problems; if it does, the package system will block the operation unless you override it. Binary package creation ​ ​Both the RPM and Debian package systems provide tools to help create binary packages (those that are installed directly) from source code. This feature is particularly helpful if you’re running Linux on a peculiar CPU; you can download source code and create a binary package even if the developers didn’t provide explicit support for your CPU. Creating a binary package from source has advantages over compiling software from source in more conventional ways, because you can then use the package management system to track dependencies, attend to individual files, and so on. Both the RPM and Debian package systems provide all of these basic features, although the details of their operation differ. These two package systems are incompatible with one another in the sense that their package files and their installed file databases are different; you can’t directly install an RPM package on a Debian-based system or vice versa. (Tools to convert between formats do exist, and developers are working on ways to better integrate the two package formats.)
  • 100. 48 Chapter 2 N Managing Software Most distributions install just one package system . It’s possible to install more than one, though, and some programs (such as alien) require both for full functionality . Actually using both systems to install software is inad- visable because their databases are separate . If you install a library using a Debian package and then try to install an RPM that relies on that library, RPM won’t realize that the library is already installed and will return an error . Using RPM The most popular package manager in the Linux world is the RPM Package Manager (RPM). RPM is also available on non-Linux platforms, although it sees less use outside the Linux world. The RPM system provides all the basic tools described in the preceding section, “Pack- age Concepts,” such as a package database that allows for checking conflicts and ownership of particular files. RPM Distributions and Conventions Red Hat developed RPM for its own distribution. Red Hat released the software under the General Public License (GPL), however, so others have been free to use it in their own dis- tributions—and this is precisely what has happened. Some distributions, such as Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) and Yellow Dog, are based on Red Hat, so they use RPMs as well as many other parts of the Red Hat distribution. Others, such as SUSE, borrow less from the Red Hat template, but they do use RPMs. Of course, all Linux distributions share many common components, so even those that weren’t originally based on Red Hat are very simi- lar to it in many ways other than their use of RPM packages. On the other hand, distribu- tions that were originally based on Red Hat have diverged from it over time. As a result, the group of RPM-using distributions shows substantial variability, but all of them are still Linux distributions that provide the same basic tools, such as the Linux kernel, common shells, an X server, and so on. Red Hat has splintered into three distributions: Fedora is the downloadable version favored by home users, students, and businesses on a tight budget . The Red Hat name is now reserved for the for-pay version of the distribution, known more formally as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) . CentOS is a freely redistributable version intended for enterprise users . RPM is a cross-platform tool. As noted earlier, some non-Linux Unix systems can use RPM, although most don’t use it as their primary package-distribution system. RPM supports any CPU architecture. Red Hat Linux is or has been available for at least five CPUs: x86, x86-64 (a.k.a. AMD64 and EM64T), IA-64, Alpha, and SPARC. Among the distributions
  • 101. Using RPM  49 mentioned earlier, Yellow Dog is a PowerPC distribution (it runs on Apple PowerPC-based Macs and some non-Apple systems), and SUSE is available on x86, x86-64, and PowerPC sys- tems. For the most part, source RPMs are transportable across architectures—you can use the same source RPM to build packages for x86, AMD64, PowerPC, Alpha, SPARC, or any other platform you like. Some programs are composed of architecture-independent scripts and so need no recompilation. There are also documentation and configuration packages that work on any CPU. The convention for naming RPM packages is as follows: packagename-a.b.c-x.arch.rpm Each of the filename components has a specific meaning: Package name ​ ​The first component (packagename) is the name of the package, such as samba or samba-server for the Samba file and print server. Note that the same program may be given different package names by different distribution maintainers. Version number ​ ​The second component (a.b.c) is the package version number, such as 3.0.25b. The version number doesn’t have to be three period-separated numbers, but that’s the most common form. The program author assigns the version number. Build number ​ ​The number following the version number (x) is the build number (also known as the release number). This number represents minor changes made by the package maintainer, not by the program author. These changes may represent altered startup scripts or configuration files, changed file locations, added documentation, or patches appended to the original program to fix bugs or to make the program more compatible with the target Linux distribution. Many distribution maintainers add a letter code to the build number to distinguish their packages from those of others. Note that these numbers are not compa- rable across package maintainers—George’s build number 5 of a package is not necessarily an improvement on Susan’s build number 4 of the same package. Architecture ​ ​The final component preceding the .rpm extension (arch) is a code for the package’s architecture. The i386 architecture code is common; it represents a file compiled for any x86 CPU from the 80386 onward. Some packages include optimizations for Pentiums or above (i586 or i686), and non-x86 binary packages use codes for their CPUs, such as ppc for PowerPC CPUs or x86_64 for the x86-64 platform. Scripts, documentation, and other CPU-independent packages generally use the noarch architecture code. The main exception to this rule is source RPMs, which use the src architecture code. As an example of RPM version numbering, the Mandriva 2008.0 distribution for x86-64 ships with a Samba package called samba-server-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.x86_64.rpm, indi- cating that this is build 4.5mdv2008.0 of Samba 3.0.25b, compiled with x86-64 optimiza- tions. These naming conventions are just that, though—conventions. It’s possible to rename a package however you like, and it will still install and work. The information in the filename is retained within the package. This fact can be useful if you’re ever forced to transfer RPMs using a medium that doesn’t allow for long filenames. In fact, early versions of SUSE eschewed long filenames, preferring short filenames such as samba.rpm.
  • 102. 50  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software In an ideal world, any RPM package will install and run on any RPM-based distribution that uses an appropriate CPU type. Unfortunately, compatibility issues can crop up from time to time, including the following: Distributions may use different versions of the RPM utilities. This problem can completelyNN prevent an RPM from one distribution from being used on another. An RPM package designed for one distribution may have dependencies that are unmet inNN another distribution. A package may require a newer version of a library than is present on the distribution you’re using, for instance. This problem can usually be overcome by installing or upgrading the depended-on package, but sometimes doing so causes problems because the upgrade may break other packages. By rebuilding the package you want to install from a source RPM, you can often work around these problems, but sometimes the underlying source code also needs the upgraded libraries. An RPM package may be built to depend on a package of a particular name, suchNN as samba-client depending on samba-common; but if the distribution you’re using has named the package differently, the rpm utility will object. You can override this objection by using the --nodeps switch, but sometimes the package won’t work once installed. Rebuilding from a source RPM may or may not fix this problem. Even when a dependency appears to be met, different distributions may include slightlyNN different files in their packages. For this reason, a package meant for one distribution may not run correctly when installed on another distribution. Sometimes installing an additional package will fix this problem. Some programs include distribution-specific scripts or configuration files. This problemNN is particularly acute for servers, which may include startup scripts that go in /etc/rc.d/ init.d or elsewhere. Overcoming this problem usually requires that you remove the offending script after installing the RPM and either start the server in some other way or write a new startup script, perhaps modeled after one that came with some other server for your distribution. In most cases, it’s best to use the RPMs intended for your distribution. RPM meta-pack- agers, such as the Yellow Dog Updater Modified (Yum), can simplify locating and installing packages designed for your distribution. If you’re forced to go outside of your distribution’s officially supported list of packages, mixing and matching RPMs from different distribu- tions usually works reasonably well for most programs. This is particularly true if the dis- tributions are closely related or you rebuild from a source RPM. If you have trouble with an RPM, though, you may do well to try to find an equivalent package that was built with your distribution in mind. The rpm Command Set The main RPM utility program is known as rpm. Use this program to install or upgrade a package at the shell prompt. The rpm command has the following syntax: rpm [operation][options] [package-files|package-names]
  • 103. Using RPM  51 Table 2.1 summarizes the most common rpm operations, and Table 2.2 summarizes the most important options. Be aware, however, that rpm is a complex tool, so this listing is nec- essarily incomplete. For information about operations and options more obscure than those listed in Tables 2.1 and 2.2, see the man pages for rpm. Many of rpm’s less-used features are devoted to the creation of RPM packages by software developers. Table 2 .1 ​ ​Common rpm Operations Operation Description -i Installs a package; system must not contain a package of the same name -U Installs a new package or upgrades an existing one -F or --freshen Upgrades a package only if an earlier version already exists -q Queries a package—finds if a package is installed, what files it contains, and so on -V or --verify Verifies a package—checks that its files are present and unchanged since installation -e Uninstalls a package -b Builds a binary package, given source code and configuration files; moved to the rpmbuild program with RPM version 4.2 --rebuild Builds a binary package, given a source RPM file; moved to the rpmbuild program with RPM version 4.2 --rebuilddb Rebuilds the RPM database to fix errors Table 2 . 2 ​ ​Common rpm Options Option Used with Operations Description --root dir Any Modifies the Linux system having a root directory located at dir. This option can be used to maintain one Linux installation discrete from another one (say, during OS installation or emergency maintenance). --force -i, -U, -F Forces installation of a package even when it means overwriting existing files or packages.
  • 104. 52  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software Table 2 . 2 ​ ​Common rpm Options  (continued) Option Used with Operations Description -h or --hash -i, -U, -F Displays a series of hash marks (#) to indicate the progress of the operation. -v -i, -U, -F Used in conjunction with the -h option to produce a uniform number of hash marks for each package. --nodeps -i, -U, -F, -e Specifies that no dependency checks be performed. Installs or removes the package even if it relies on a package or file that’s not present or is required by a package that’s not being uninstalled. --test -i, -U, -F Checks for dependencies, conflicts, and other problems without actually installing the package. --prefix path -i, -U, -F Sets the installation directory to path (works only for some packages). -a or --all -q, -V Queries or verifies all packages. -f file or --file file -q, -V Queries or verifies the package that owns file. -p package-file -q Queries the uninstalled RPM package-file. -i -q Displays package information, including the package maintainer, a short descrip- tion, and so on. -R or --requires -q Displays the packages and files on which this one depends. -l or --list -q Displays the files contained in the package. To use rpm, you combine one operation with one or more options. In most cases, you include one or more package names or package filenames as well. (A package filename is a complete filename, but a package name is a shortened version. For instance, a package file- name might be samba-server-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.x86_64.rpm, whereas the matching package name is samba-server.) You can issue the rpm command once for each package, or you can list multiple packages, separated by spaces, on the command line. The latter
  • 105. Using RPM 53 is often preferable when you’re installing or removing several packages, some of which depend on others in the group. Issuing separate commands in this situation requires that you install the depended-on package first or remove it last, whereas issuing a single com- mand allows you to list the packages on the command line in any order. Some operations require that you give a package filename, and others require a package name. In particular, -i, -U, -F, and the rebuild operations require package filenames; -q, -V, and -e normally take a package name, although the -p option can modify a query (-q) operation to work on a package filename. When you’re installing or upgrading a package, the -U operation is generally the most useful because it allows you to install the package without manually uninstalling the old one. This one-step operation is particularly helpful when packages contain many dependen- cies because rpm detects these and can perform the operation should the new package fulfill the dependencies provided by the old one. To use rpm to install or upgrade a package, issue a command similar to the following: # rpm -Uvh samba-server-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.x86_64.rpm You can also use rpm -ivh in place of rpm -Uvh if you don’t already have a samba- server package installed. It’s possible to distribute the same program under different names . In this situation, upgrading may fail, or it may produce a duplicate installa- tion, which can yield bizarre program-specific malfunctions . Red Hat has described a formal system for package naming to avoid such problems, but they still occur occasionally . Therefore, it’s best to upgrade a package using a subsequent release provided by the same individual or organiza- tion that provided the original . Verify that the package is installed with the rpm -qi command, which displays informa- tion such as when and on what computer the binary package was built. Listing 2.1 demon- strates this command. (rpm -qi also displays an extended plain-English summary of what the package is, which has been omitted from Listing 2.1.) Listing 2.1: RPM Query Output $ rpm -qi samba-server Name : samba-server Relocations: (not relocatable) Version : 3.0.25b Vendor: Mandriva Release : 4.5mdv2008.0 Build Date: Tue 27 May 2008➦ 08:39:24 PM EDT Install Date: Sat 31 May 2008 12:15:20 PM EDT Build Host:➦ Group : Networking/Other Source RPM:➦ samba-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.src.rpm
  • 106. 54 Chapter 2 N Managing Software Size : 13524400 License: GPL Signature : DSA/SHA1, Tue 27 May 2008 09:38:42 PM EDT,➦ Key ID 9aa8d0d022458a98 Packager : Mandriva Linux Security Team <> URL : Summary : Samba (SMB) server programs Extracting Data from RPMs Occasionally you may want to extract data from RPMs without installing the package. For instance, this can be a good way to retrieve the original source code from a source RPM for compiling the software without the help of the RPM tools or to retrieve fonts or other non- program data for use on a non-RPM system. RPM files are actually modified cpio archives. Thus, converting the files into cpio files is relatively straightforward, whereupon you can use cpio to retrieve the individual files. To do this job, you need to use the rpm2cpio program, which ships with most Linux distribu- tions. (You can use this tool even on distributions that don’t use RPM.) This program takes a single argument—the name of the RPM file—and outputs the cpio archive on standard output. So, if you want to create a cpio archive file, you must redirect the output: $ rpm2cpio samba-server-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.src.rpm➦ > samba-server-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.cpio The redirection operator (>) is described in more detail in Chapter 1, “Exploring Linux Command-Line Tools,” as is the pipe operator (|), which is mentioned shortly . You can then extract the data using cpio, which takes the -i option to extract an archive and --make-directories to create directories: $ cpio -i --make-directories < samba-server-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.cpio Alternatively, you can use a pipe to link these two commands together without creating an intermediary file: $ rpm2cpio samba-server-3.0.25b-4.5mdv2008.0.src.rpm | ➦ cpio -i --make-directories In either case, the result is an extraction of the files in the archive in the current direc- tory. In the case of binary packages, this is likely to be a series of subdirectories that mimic the layout of the Linux root directory—that is, usr, lib, etc, and so on, although precisely which directories are included depends on the package. For a source package, the result of the extraction process is likely to be a source code tarball, a .spec file (which holds infor- mation RPM uses to build the package), and perhaps some patch files.
  • 107. Using RPM 55 When you’re extracting data from an RPM file using rpm2cpio and cpio, create a holding subdirectory and then extract the data into this subdirectory . This practice will ensure that you can find all the files . If you extract files in your home directory, some of them may get lost amidst your other files . If you extract files as root in the root (/) directory, they could conceivably over- write files that you want to keep . Another option for extracting data from RPMs is to use alien, which is described later, in “Converting Between Package Formats.” This program can convert an RPM into a Debian package or a tarball. Using Yum Yum (, mentioned earlier, is one of several meta-packagers—it enables you to easily install a package and all its dependencies using a single command line. When using Yum, you don’t even need to locate and download the package files, because Yum does this for you by searching in one or more repositories (Internet sites that host RPM files for a particular distribution). Yum originated with the fairly obscure Yellow Dog Linux distribution, but it’s since been adopted by Red Hat, Fedora, and some other RPM-based distributions. Yum isn’t used by all RPM-based distributions, though; SUSE and Mandriva, to name just two, each use their own meta-packagers. Debian-based distributions generally employ the Advanced Package Tools (APT), as described later, in “Using apt-get.” Nonetheless, because of the popularity of Red Hat and Fedora, knowing Yum can be valuable. The most basic way to use Yum is with the yum command, which has the following syntax: yum [options] [command] [package...] Which options are available depend on the command you use. Table 2.3 describes com- mon yum commands. TA B L E 2 . 3 Common yum Commands Command Description install Installs one or more packages by package name . Also installs dependencies of the specified package or packages . update Updates the specified package or packages to the latest available version . If no packages are specified, yum updates every installed package . check-update Checks to see whether updates are available . If they are, yum displays their names, versions, and repository area (updates or extras, for instance) .
  • 108. 56  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software Table 2 . 3 ​ ​Common yum Commands  (continued) Command Description upgrade Works like update with the --obsoletes flag set, which handles obsolete packages in a way that’s superior when performing a distribution version upgrade. remove or erase Deletes a package from the system; similar to rpm -e, but yum also removes depended-on packages. list Displays information about a package, such as the installed version and whether an update is available. provides or whatprovides Displays information about packages that provide a speci- fied program or feature. For instance, typing yum provides samba lists all the Samba-related packages, including every available update. Note that the output can be copious. search Searches package names, summaries, packagers, and descriptions for a specified keyword. This is useful if you don’t know a package’s name but can think of a word that’s likely to appear in one of these fields but not in these fields for other packages. info Displays information about a package, similar to the rpm -qi command. clean Cleans up the Yum cache directory. Running this command from time to time is advisable, lest downloaded packages chew up too much disk space. shell Enters the Yum shell mode, in which you can enter multiple Yum commands one after another. resolvedep Displays packages matching the specified dependency. localinstall Installs the specified local RPM files, using your Yum reposi- tories to resolve dependencies. localupdate Updates the system using the specified local RPM files, using your Yum repositories to resolve dependencies. Pack- ages other than those updated by local files and their depen- dencies are not updated. deplist Displays dependencies of the specified package.
  • 109. Using RPM 57 In most cases, using Yum is easier than using RPM directly to manage packages, because Yum finds the latest available package, downloads it, and installs any required dependen- cies. Yum has its limits, though; it’s only as good as its repositories, so it can’t install soft- ware that’s not stored in those repositories. If you use Yum to automatically upgrade all packages on your system, you’re effectively giving control of your system to the distribution main- tainer . Although Red Hat or other distribution maintainers are unlikely to try to break into your computer in this way, an automatic update with minimal supervision on your part could easily break something on your system, par- ticularly if you’ve obtained packages from unusual sources in the past . If you don’t want to install the package, but merely want to obtain it, you can use yumdownloader. Type this command followed by the name of a package, and the latest version of the package will be downloaded to the current directory. This can be handy if you need to update a system that’s not connected to the Internet; you can use another system that runs the same distribution to obtain the packages and then transfer them to the target system. If you prefer to use GUI tools rather than command-line tools, you should be aware that GUI front-ends to yum exist. Examples include yumex and kyum. You can use the text-mode yum to install these front-ends, as in yum install kyum. Exercise 2.1 runs you through the process of managing packages using the rpm utility. E X E R C I S E 2 .1 Managing Packages Using RPM To manage packages using the rpm utility, follow these steps: 1. Log into the Linux system as a normal user . 2. Acquire a package to use for testing purposes . You can try using a package from your distribution that you know you haven’t installed; but if you try a random pack- age, you may find it’s already installed or has unmet dependencies . This lab uses as an example the installation of zsh-4.3.4-4mdv2008.0.x86_64.rpm, a shell that’s not installed by default on most systems, from the Mandriva 2008 .0 DVD onto a Man- driva 2008 .0 system . You must adjust the commands as necessary if you use another RPM file in your tests . 3. Launch an xterm from the desktop environment’s menu system if you used a GUI login . 4. Acquire root privileges . You can do this by typing su in an xterm, by selecting Ses- sion  New Root Console from a Konsole window, or by using sudo (if it’s config- ured) to run the commands in the following steps . 5. Type rpm -q zsh to verify that the package isn’t currently installed . The system should respond with the message package zsh is not installed .
  • 110. 58  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software E xercise 2 .1   ( c o n t i n u e d ) 6. Type rpm -qpi zsh-4.3.4-4mdv2008.0.x86_64.rpm. (You’ll need to add a com- plete path to the package file if it’s not in your current directory.) The system should respond by displaying information about the package, such as the version num- ber, the vendor, the hostname of the machine on which it was built, and a package description. 7. Type rpm -ivh zsh-4.3.4-4mdv2008.0.x86_64.rpm. The system should install the package and display a series of hash marks (#) as it does so. 8. Type rpm -q zsh. The system should respond with the complete package name, includ- ing the version and build numbers. This response verifies that the package is installed. 9. Type zsh. This launches a Z shell, which functions much like the more common bash and tcsh shells. You’re likely to see your command prompt change slightly, but you can issue most of the same commands you can use with bash or tcsh. 10. Type rpm -V zsh. The system shouldn’t produce any output—just a new command prompt. The verify (-V or --verify) command checks the package files against data stored in the database. Immediately after installation, most packages should show no deviations. (A handful of packages will be modified during installation, but zsh isn’t one of them.) 11. Type rpm -e zsh. The system shouldn’t produce any output—just a new command prompt. This command removes the package from the system. Note that you’re removing the zsh package while running the zsh program. Linux continues to run the zsh program you’re using, but you’ll be unable to launch new instances of the program. Some programs may misbehave if you do this because files will be missing after you remove the package. 12. Type exit to exit zsh and return to your normal shell. 13. Type rpm -q zsh. The system should respond with a package zsh is not installed error because you’ve just uninstalled the package. 14. Type yum install zsh. The system should check your repositories, download zsh, and install it. It will ask for confirmation before beginning the download. 15. Type rpm -q zsh. The results should be similar to those in step 8, although the ver- sion number may differ. 16. Type rpm -e zsh. This step removes zsh from the system but produces no output, just as in step 11. The final three steps will work only if your distribution uses Yum.
  • 111. Using RPM  59 RPM and Yum Configuration Files Ordinarily, you needn’t explicitly configure RPM or Yum; distributions that use RPM con- figure it in reasonable ways by default. Sometimes, though, you may want to tweak a few details, particularly if you routinely build source RPM packages and want to optimize the output for your system. You may also want to add a Yum repository for some unusual soft- ware you run. To do so, you typically edit an RPM or Yum configuration file. The main RPM configuration file is /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc. This file sets a variety of options, mostly related to the CPU optimizations used when compiling source packages. You shouldn’t edit this file, though; instead, you should create and edit /etc/rpmrc (to make global changes) or ~/.rpmrc (to make changes on a per-user basis). The main reason to create such a file is to implement architecture optimizations—for instance, to optimize your code for your CPU model by passing appropriate compiler options when you build a source RPM into a binary RPM. This is done with the optflags line: optflags: athlon -O2 -g -march=i686 This line tells RPM to pass the -O2 -g -march-i686 options to the compiler whenever building for the athlon platform. Although RPM can determine your system’s architecture, the optflags line by itself isn’t likely to be enough to set the correct flags. Most default rpmrc files include a series of buildarchtranslate lines that cause rpmbuild (or rpm for older ver- sions of RPM) to use one set of optimizations for a whole family of CPUs. For x86 systems, these lines typically look like this: buildarchtranslate: athlon: i386 buildarchtranslate: i686: i386 buildarchtranslate: i586: i386 buildarchtranslate: i486: i386 buildarchtranslate: i386: i386 These lines tell RPM to translate the athlon, i686, i586, i486, and i386 CPU codes to use the i386 optimizations. This effectively defeats the purpose of any CPU-specific opti- mizations you create on the optflags line for your architecture, but it guarantees that the RPMs you build will be maximally portable. To change matters, you must alter the line for your CPU type, as returned when you type uname -p. For instance, on an Athlon-based sys- tem, you might enter the following line: buildarchtranslate: athlon: athlon Thereafter, when you rebuild a source RPM, the system will use the appropriate Athlon optimizations. The result can be a slight performance boost on your own sys- tem, but reduced portability—depending on the precise optimizations you choose, such packages may not run on non-Athlon CPUs. (Indeed, you may not even be able to install them on non-Athlon CPUs!)
  • 112. 60 Chapter 2 N Managing Software Yum is configured via the /etc/yum.conf file, with additional configuration files in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory. The yum.conf file holds basic options, such as the directory to which Yum downloads RPMs and where Yum logs its activities. Chances are you won’t need to modify this file. The /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory, on the other hand, potentially holds several files, each of which describes a Yum repository—that is, a site that holds RPMs that may be installed via Yum. You probably shouldn’t directly edit these files; instead, if you want to add a repository, manually download the RPM that includes the repository configuration and install it using rpm. The next time you use Yum, it will access your new repository along with the old ones. Several Yum repositories exist, mostly for Red Hat and Fedora, such as the following: Livna This repository ( hosts multimedia tools, such as additional codecs and video drivers. KDE Red Hat Red Hat and Fedora favor the GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) desktop environment, although they ship with the K Desktop Environment (KDE). The repository at provides improved KDE RPMs for those who favor KDE. Fresh RPMs This repository ( provides additional RPMs, mostly focusing on multimedia applications and drivers. Many additional repositories exist. Try a Web search on terms such as yum repository, or check the Web page of any site that hosts unusual software you want to run to see whether it provides a Yum repository. If so, it should provide an RPM or other instructions on adding its site to your Yum repository list. RPM Compared to Other Package Formats RPM is a very flexible package management system. In most respects, it’s comparable to Debian’s package manager, and it offers many more features than tarballs do. When com- pared to Debian packages, the greatest strength of RPMs is probably their ubiquity. Many software packages are available in RPM form from their developers and/or from distribu- tion maintainers. Distribution packagers frequently modify the original programs in order to make them integrate more smoothly into the distribution as a whole . For instance, distribution-specific startup scripts may be added, program bina- ries may be relocated from default /usr/local subdirectories, and pro- gram source code may be patched to fix bugs or add features . Although these changes can be useful, you may not want them, particularly if you’re using a program on a distribution other than the one for which the package was intended . The fact that there are so many RPM-based distributions can be a boon. You may be able to use an RPM intended for one distribution on another, although as noted earlier, this isn’t certain. In fact, this advantage can turn into a drawback if you try to mix and match
  • 113. Using Debian Packages 61 too much—you can wind up with a mishmash of conflicting packages that can be difficult to disentangle. The RPMFind Web site,, is an extremely useful resource when you want to find an RPM of a specific program . Another site with similar characteristics is Fresh RPMs, . These sites include links to RPMs built by programs’ authors, specific distribu- tions’ RPMs, and those built by third parties . Adding such sites as Yum repositories can make it even easier to use them . Compared to tarballs, RPMs offer much more sophisticated package management tools. This can be important when you’re upgrading or removing packages and also for verifying the integrity of installed packages. On the other hand, although RPMs are common in the Linux world, they’re less common on other platforms. Therefore, you’re more likely to find tarballs of generic Unix source code, and tarballs are preferred if you’ve written a program that you intend to distribute for other platforms. Using Debian Packages In their overall features, Debian packages are similar to RPMs; but the details of operation for each differ, and Debian packages are used on different distributions than are RPMs. Because each system uses its own database format, RPMs and Debian packages aren’t inter- changeable without converting formats. Using Debian packages requires knowing how to use the dpkg, dselect, and apt-get commands. A few other commands can also be helpful. Debian Distributions and Conventions As the name implies, Debian packages originated with the Debian distribution. Since that time, the format has been adopted by several other distributions, including Libranet, Ubuntu, and Xandros. Such distributions are derived from the original Debian, which means that packages from the original Debian are likely to work well on other Debian-based systems. Although Debian doesn’t emphasize flashy GUI installation or configuration tools, its deriva- tives add GUI configuration tools to the base Debian system, which makes these distributions more appealing to Linux novices. The original Debian favors a system that’s as bug free as possible, and it tries to adhere strictly to open-source software principles rather than invest effort in GUI configuration tools. The original Debian is unusual in that it’s maintained by volunteers who are motivated by the desire to build a product they want to use rather than by a company that is motivated by profit. Like RPM, the Debian package format is neutral with respect to both OS and CPU type. Debian packages are extremely rare outside Linux, although a Debian GNU/Linux variant, Debian GNU/NetBSD (, is a Debian system built around a NetBSD kernel rather than a Linux kernel. This system is technically not Linux, although it closely resembles Debian GNU/Linux in most respects. Ports using FreeBSD and GNU HURD kernels are under development.
  • 114. 62  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software The original Debian distribution has been ported to many different CPUs, including x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC, Alpha, 680x0, MIPS, and SPARC. The original architecture was x86, and subsequent ports exist at varying levels of maturity. Derivative distributions generally work only on x86 or x86-64 systems, but this could change in the future. Debian packages follow a naming convention similar to those for RPMs; but Debian pack- ages sometimes omit codes in the filename to specify a package’s architecture, particularly on x86 packages. When these codes are present, they may differ from RPM conventions. For instance, a filename ending in i386.deb indicates an x86 binary, powerpc.deb is a PowerPC binary, and all.deb indicates a CPU-independent package, such as documentation or scripts. As with RPM files, this file-naming convention is only that—a convention. You can rename a file as you see fit, to either include or omit the processor code. There is no code for Debian source packages because, as described in the upcoming section “Debian Packages Compared to Other Package Formats,” Debian source packages consist of several separate files. The dpkg Command Set Debian packages are incompatible with RPM packages, but the basic principles of opera- tion are the same across both package types. Like RPMs, Debian packages include depen- dency information, and the Debian package utilities maintain a database of installed packages, files, and so on. You use the dpkg command to install a Debian package. This command’s syntax is similar to that of rpm: dpkg [options][action] [package-files|package-name] The action is the action to be taken; common actions are summarized in Table 2.4. The options (Table 2.5) modify the behavior of the action, much like the options to rpm. Table 2 . 4 ​ ​dpkg Primary Actions Action Description -i or --install Installs a package --configure Reconfigures an installed package: runs the post- installation script to set site-specific options -r or --remove Removes a package, but leaves configuration files intact -P or --purge Removes a package, including configuration files -p or --print-avail Displays information about an installed package -I or --info Displays information about an uninstalled package file -l pattern or --list pattern Lists all installed packages whose names match pattern
  • 115. Using Debian Packages  63 Table 2 . 4 ​ ​dpkg Primary Actions  (continued) Action Description -L or --listfiles Lists the installed files associated with a package -S pattern or --search pattern Locates the package(s) that own the file(s) specified by pattern -C or --audit Searches for partially installed packages and suggests what to do with them Table 2 . 5 ​ ​Options for Fine-Tuning dpkg Actions Option Used with Actions Description --root=dir All Modifies the Linux system using a root directory located at dir. Can be used to maintain one Linux installation discrete from another one, say during OS instal- lation or emergency maintenance. -B or --auto-deconfigure -r Disables packages that rely on one that is being removed. --force-things Assorted Forces specific actions to be taken. Consult the dpkg man page for details of things this option does. --ignore-depends=package -i, -r Ignores dependency information for the specified package. --no-act -i, -r Checks for dependencies, conflicts, and other problems without actually installing or removing the package. --recursive -i Installs all packages that match the package name wildcard in the speci- fied directory and all subdirectories. -G -i Doesn’t install the package if a newer version of the same package is already installed. -E or --skip-same-version -i Doesn’t install the package if the same version of the package is already installed.
  • 116. 64  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software As with rpm, dpkg expects a package name in some cases and a package filename in others. Specifically, --install (-i) and --info (-I) both require the package filename, but the other commands take the shorter package name. As an example, consider the following command, which installs the samba_3.0.26a- 1ubuntu2.3_amd64.deb package: # dpkg -i samba_3.0.26a-1ubuntu2.3_amd64.deb If you’re upgrading a package, you may need to remove an old package before installing the new one. To do this, use the -r option to dpkg, as in the following: # dpkg -r samba To find information about an installed package, use the -p parameter to dpkg, as shown in Listing 2.2. This listing omits an extended English description of what the package does. Listing 2.2: dpkg Package Information Query Output $ dpkg -p samba Package: samba Priority: optional Section: net Installed-Size: 9792 Maintainer: Ubuntu Core Developers <> Architecture: amd64 Version: 3.0.26a-1ubuntu2.3 Replaces: samba-common (<= 2.0.5a-2) Depends: samba-common (= 3.0.26a-1ubuntu2.3), logrotate, libacl1 (>= 2.2.11-1), libattr1 (>= 2.4.4-1), libc6 (>= 2.6-1), libcomerr2 (>= 1.33-3), libcupsys2 (>= 1.3.0), libgnutls13 (>= 1.6.3-0), libkrb53 (>= 1.6.dfsg.1), libldap2 (>= 2.1.17-1), libpam0g (>=, libpopt0 (>= 1.10), zlib1g (>= 1:, debconf (>= 0.5) | debconf-2.0, libpam-runtime (>= 0.76-13.1), libpam-modules, lsb-base (>= 3.0-6), procps, update-inetd Recommends: smbldap-tools Suggests: openbsd-inetd | inet-superserver Size: 4180134 Debian-based systems often use a pair of somewhat higher-level utilities, apt-get and dselect, to handle package installation and removal. These utilities are described in the next couple of sections. Their interfaces can be very useful when you want to install sev- eral packages, but dpkg is often more convenient when you’re manipulating just one or two packages. Because dpkg can take package filenames as input, it’s also the preferred method of installing a package that you download from an unusual source or create yourself.
  • 117. Using Debian Packages 65 Using apt-cache The APT suite of tools includes a program, apt-cache, that’s intended solely to provide information about the Debian package database (known in Debian terminology as the package cache). You may be interested in using several features of this tool: Display package information Using the showpkg subcommand, as in apt-cache showpkg samba, displays information about the package. The information displayed is different from that returned by dpkg’s informational actions. Display package statistics You can learn how many packages you’ve installed, how many dependencies are recorded, and various other statistics about the package database, by passing the stats subcommand, as in apt-cache stats. Find unmet dependencies If a program is reporting missing libraries or files, typing apt- cache unmet may help; this function of apt-cache returns information about unmet depen- dencies, which may help you track down the source of missing-file problems. Display dependencies Using the depends subcommand, as in apt-cache depends samba, shows all of the specified package’s dependencies. This information can be helpful in tracking down dependency-related problems. The rdepends subcommand finds reverse dependencies— packages that depend on the one you specify. Locate all packages The pkgnames subcommand displays the names of all the packages installed on the system. If you include a second parameter, as in apt-cache pkgnames sa, the program returns only those packages that begin with the specified string. Several more subcommands and options exist, but these are the ones you’re most likely to use. Several apt-cache subcommands are intended for package maintainers and debug- ging serious package database problems rather than day-to-day system administration. Consult the man page for apt-cache for more information. Using apt-get APT, and its apt-get utility, is Debian’s equivalent to Yum on certain RPM-based distribu- tions. This meta-packaging tool enables you to perform easy upgrades of packages, especially if you have a fast Internet connection. Debian-based systems include a file, /etc/apt/sources. list, that specifies locations from which important packages can be obtained. If you installed the OS from a CD-ROM drive, this file will initially list directories on the installation CD- ROM in which packages can be found. There are also likely to be a few lines near the top, commented out with hash marks (#), indicating directories on an FTP site or a Web site from which you can obtain updated packages. (These lines may be uncommented if you did a net- work install initially.) Although APT is most strongly associated with Debian systems, a port to RPM-based systems is also available . Check http://apt4rpm.sourceforge .net for information about this port .
  • 118. 66 Chapter 2 N Managing Software Don’t add a site to /etc/apt/sources.list unless you’re sure it can be trusted . The apt-get utility does automatic and semiautomatic upgrades, so if you add a network source to sources.list and that source contains unreliable programs or programs with security holes, your system will become vulnerable after upgrading via apt-get . The apt-get utility works by obtaining information about available packages from the sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list and then using that information to upgrade or install packages. The syntax is similar to that of dpkg: apt-get [options][command] [package-names] Table 2.6 lists the apt-get commands, and Table 2.7 lists the most commonly used options. In most cases, you won’t use any options with apt-get—just a single command and possibly one or more package names. One particularly common use of this utility is to keep your sys- tem up to date with any new packages. The following two commands will accomplish this goal if /etc/apt/sources.list includes pointers to up-to-date file archive sites: # apt-get update # apt-get dist-upgrade TA B L E 2 .6 apt-get Commands Command Description update Obtains updated information about packages available from the installation sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list . upgrade Upgrades all installed packages to the newest versions available, based on locally stored information about available packages . dselect-upgrade Performs any changes in package status (installation, removal, and so on) left undone after running dselect . dist-upgrade Similar to upgrade, but performs “smart” conflict resolution to avoid upgrading a package if doing so would break a dependency . install Installs a package by package name (not by package filename), obtaining the package from the source that contains the most up-to- date version . remove Removes a specified package by package name . source Retrieves the newest available source package file by package file- name using information about available packages and installation archives listed in /etc/apt/sources.list .
  • 119. Using Debian Packages  67 Table 2 .6 ​ ​apt-get Commands  (continued) Command Description check Checks the package database for consistency and broken package installations. clean Performs housekeeping to help clear out information about retrieved files from the Debian package database. If you don’t use dselect for package management, run this from time to time in order to save disk space. autoclean Similar to clean, but removes information only about packages that can no longer be downloaded. Table 2 .7 ​ ​Most Useful apt-get Options Option Used with Commands Description -d or --download-only upgrade, dselect-upgrade, install, source Downloads package files but doesn’t install them. -f or --fix-broken install, remove Attempts to fix a system on which dependencies are unsatisfied. -m, --ignore-missing, or --fix-missing upgrade, dselect-upgrade, install, remove, source Ignores all package files that can’t be retrieved (because of network errors, missing files, or the like). -q or --quiet All Omits some progress indi- cator information. May be doubled (for instance, -qq) to produce still less progress information. -s, --simulate, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon, or --no-act All Performs a simulation of the action without actually modifying, installing, or removing files. -y, --yes, or --assume-yes All Produces a “yes” response to any yes/no prompt in installation scripts.
  • 120. 68 Chapter 2 N Managing Software TA B L E 2 .7 Most Useful apt-get Options (continued) Option Used with Commands Description -b, --compile, or --build source Compiles a source package after retrieving it . --no-upgrade install Causes apt-get to not upgrade a package if an older version is already installed . If you use APT to automatically upgrade all packages on your system, you’re effectively giving control of your system to the distribution main- tainer . Although Debian or other distribution maintainers are unlikely to try to break into your computer in this way, an automatic update with minimal supervision on your part could easily break something on your system, particularly if you’ve obtained packages from unusual sources in the past . In Exercise 2.2, you’ll familiarize yourself with the Debian package system. E X E R C I S E 2 . 2 Managing Debian Packages To manage Debian packages, follow these steps: 1. Log into the Linux system as a normal user . 2. Acquire a package to use for testing purposes . You can try using a package from your distribution that you know you haven’t installed; but if you try a random pack- age, you may find it’s already installed or has unmet dependencies . This lab uses as an example the installation of zsh_4.3.4-24ubuntu1_amd64.deb, a shell that’s not installed by default on most systems, obtained using the -d option to apt-get on an Ubuntu 8 .04 system . You must adjust the commands as necessary if you use another package, distribution, or architecture in your tests . 3. Launch an xterm from the desktop environment’s menu system if you used a GUI login . 4. Acquire root privileges . You can do this by typing su in an xterm, by selecting Ses- sion  New Root Console from a Konsole window, or by using sudo (if it’s config- ured) to run the commands in the following steps . 5. Type dpkg -L zsh to verify that the package isn’t currently installed . This command responds with a list of files associated with the package if it’s installed or with an error that reads Package `zsh’ is not installed if it’s not .
  • 121. Using Debian Packages  69 E xercise 2 . 2   ( c o n t i n u e d ) 6. Type dpkg -I zsh_4.3.4-24ubuntu1_amd64.deb. (You’ll need to add a complete path to the package file if it’s not in your current directory.) The system should respond by displaying information about the package, such as the version number, dependencies, the name of the package maintainer, and a package description. 7. Type dpkg -i zsh_4.3.4-24ubuntu1_amd64.deb. The system should install the pack- age and display a series of lines summarizing its actions as it does so. 8. Type dpkg -p zsh. The system should respond with information about the package similar to that displayed in step 6. 9. Type zsh. This launches a Z shell, which functions much like the more common bash and tcsh shells. You’re likely to see your command prompt change slightly, but you can issue most of the same commands you can use with bash or tcsh. 10. Type dpkg -P zsh. This command removes the package from the system, including configuration files. It may produce a series of warnings about non-empty directories that it couldn’t remove. Note that you’re removing the zsh package while running the zsh program. Linux continues to run the zsh program you’re using, but you’ll be unable to launch new instances of the program. Some programs may misbehave because files will be missing after you remove the package. 11. Type exit to exit from zsh and return to your normal shell. 12. Type dpkg -L zsh. The system should respond with a Package `zsh’ is not installed error because you’ve just uninstalled it. 13. Type apt-get install zsh to install zsh using the APT system. Depending on your configuration, the system may download the package from an Internet site or ask you to insert a CD-ROM. If it asks for a CD-ROM, insert it and press the Enter key. The sys- tem should install the package. 14. Type dpkg -p zsh. The system should respond with information about the package similar to that displayed in step 6 or 8. 15. Type dpkg -P zsh. This command removes the package from the system, as described in step 10. Using dselect, aptitude, and Synaptic The dselect program is a high-level package browser. Using it, you can select packages to install on your system from the APT archives defined in /etc/apt/sources.list, review the packages that are already installed on your system, uninstall packages, and upgrade packages. Overall, dselect is a powerful tool, but it can be intimidating to the uninitiated because it presents a lot of options that aren’t obvious, using a text-mode interactive user interface.
  • 122. 70  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software Although dselect supports a few command-line options, they’re mostly obscure or minor (such as options to set the color scheme). Consult dselect’s man page for details. To use the program, type dselect. The result is the dselect main menu, as shown running in a KDE Konsole window in Figure 2.1. F i g ure 2 .1 ​ ​The dselect utility provides access to APT features using a menu system. Another text-based Debian package manager is aptitude. In interactive mode, aptitude is similar to dselect in a rough way, but aptitude adds menus accessed by pressing Ctrl+T and rearranges some features. You can also pass various commands to aptitude on the command line, as in aptitude search samba, which searches for packages related to Samba. Features accessible from the command line (or the interactive interface) include the following: Update package lists ​ ​You can update package lists from the APT repositories by typing aptitude update. Install software ​ ​The install command-line option installs a named package. This com- mand has several variant names and syntaxes that modify its action. For instance, typing aptitude install zsh installs the zsh package, but typing aptitude install zsh- and aptitude remove zsh both uninstall zsh. Upgrade software ​ ​The full-upgrade and safe-upgrade options both upgrade all installed packages. The safe-upgrade option is conservative about removing packages or installing new ones and so may fail; full-upgrade is less conservative about these actions and so is more likely to complete its tasks, but it may break software in the process. Search for packages ​ ​The search option, noted earlier, searches the database for packages matching the specified name. The result is a list of packages, one per line, with summary codes for each package’s install status, its name, and a brief description.
  • 123. Using Debian Packages  71 Clean up the database ​ ​The autoclean option removes already downloaded packages that are no longer available, and clean removes all downloaded packages. Obtain help ​ ​Typing aptitude help results in a complete list of options. Broadly speaking, aptitude combines the interactive features of dselect with the command- line options of apt-get. All three programs provide similar functionality, so you can use whichever one you prefer. A tool that’s similar to dselect and aptitude in some ways is Synaptic, but Synaptic is a fully GUI X-based program and as such is easier to use. Overall, dselect, aptitude, and Synaptic are useful tools, particularly if you need to locate software but don’t know its exact name—the ability to browse and search the available packages can be a great boon. Unfortunately, the huge package list can be intimidating. Reconfiguring Packages Debian packages often provide more extensive initial setup options than do their RPM counterparts. Frequently, the install script included in the package asks a handful of ques- tions, such as asking for the name of an outgoing mail-relay system for a mail server program. These questions help the system set up a standardized configuration that’s none- theless been customized for your system. In the course of your system administration, you may alter the configuration files for a package. If you do this and find you’ve made a mess of things, you may want to revert to the initial standard configuration. To do so, you can use the dpkg-reconfigure program, which runs the initial configuration script for the package you specify: # dpkg-reconfigure samba This command reconfigures the samba package, asking the package’s initial installation questions and restarting the Samba daemons. Once this is done, the package should be in something closer to its initial state. Debian Packages Compared to Other Package Formats The overall functionality of Debian packages is similar to that of RPMs, although there are differences. Debian source packages aren’t single files; they’re groups of files—the original source tarball, a patch file that’s used to modify the source code (including a file that con- trols the building of a Debian package), and a .dsc file that contains a digital “signature” to help verify the authenticity of the collection. The Debian package tools can combine these and compile the package to create a Debian binary package. This structure makes Debian source packages slightly less convenient to transport because you must move at least two files (the tarball and patch file; the .dsc file is optional) rather than just one. Debian source packages also support just one patch file, whereas RPM source packages may con- tain multiple patch files. Although you can certainly combine multiple patch files into one, doing so makes it less clear where a patch comes from, thus making it harder to back out of any given change.
  • 124. 72  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software These source package differences are mostly of interest to software developers. As a sys- tem administrator or end user, you need not normally be concerned with them unless you must recompile a package from a source form—and even then, the differences between the formats need not be overwhelming. The exact commands and features used by each system differ, but they accomplish similar overall goals. Because all distributions that use Debian packages are derived from Debian, they tend to be more compatible with one another (in terms of their packages) than RPM-based dis- tributions are. In particular, Debian has defined details of its system startup scripts and many other features to help Debian packages install and run on any Debian-based system. This helps Debian-based systems avoid the sorts of incompatibilities in startup scripts that can cause problems using one distribution’s RPMs on another distribution. Of course, some future distribution could violate Debian’s guidelines for these matters, so this advantage isn’t guaranteed to hold over time. As a practical matter, it can be harder to locate Debian packages than RPM packages for some exotic programs. Debian maintains a good collection at distrib/packages, and some program authors make Debian packages available as well. If you can find an RPM but not a Debian package, you may be able to convert the RPM to Debian format using a program called alien, as described shortly in “Converting Between Package Formats.” If all else fails, you can use a tarball, but you’ll lose the advantages of the Debian package database. Configuring Debian Package Tools With the exception of the APT sources list mentioned earlier, Debian package tools don’t usually require configuration. Debian installs reasonable defaults (as do its derivative distri- butions). On rare occasions, though, you may want to adjust some of these defaults. Doing so requires that you know where to look for them. The main configuration file for dpkg is /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg or ~/.dpkg.cfg. This file contains dpkg options, as summarized in Table 2.5, but without the leading dashes. For instance, to have dpkg always perform a test run rather than actually install a package, you’d create a dpkg.cfg file that contains one line: no-act For APT, the main configuration file you’re likely to modify is /etc/apt/sources.list, which is described earlier, in “Using apt-get.” Beyond this file is /etc/apt/apt.conf, which controls APT and dselect options. As with dpkg.cfg, chances are you won’t need to modify apt.conf. If you do need to make changes, the format is more complex and is modeled after those of the Internet Software Consortium’s (ISC’s) Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) servers’ configuration files. Options are grouped together by open and close curly braces ({}): APT {
  • 125. Converting Between Package Formats 73 Get { Download-Only “true”; }; }; These lines are equivalent to permanently setting the --download-only option described in Table 2.7. You can, of course, set many more options. For details, consult apt.conf’s man page. You may also want to review the sample configuration file, /usr/share/doc/apt/ examples/apt.conf. (The working /etc/apt/apt.conf file is typically extremely simple and therefore not very helpful as an example.) You should be aware that Debian’s package tools rely on various files in the /var/lib/ dpkg directory tree. These files maintain lists of available packages, lists of installed pack- ages, and so on. In other words, this directory tree is effectively the Debian installed file database. As such, you should be sure to back up this directory when you perform system backups and be careful about modifying its contents. Converting Between Package Formats Sometimes you’re presented with a package file in one format, but you want to use another format. This is particularly common when you use a Debian-based distribution and can only find tarballs or RPM files of a package. When this happens, you can keep looking for a pack- age file in the appropriate format, install the tools for the foreign format, create a package from a source tarball using the standard RPM or Debian tools, or convert between package formats with a utility like alien. This section focuses on this last option. The alien program comes with Debian and a few other distributions but may not be installed by default. If it’s not installed on your system, install it by typing apt-get install alien on a system that uses APT, or use the RPM Find or Debian package Web site to locate it. This program can convert between RPM packages, Debian packages, Stampede packages (used by Stampede Linux), and tarballs. You need to be aware of some caveats. For one thing, alien requires that you have appropriate package manager software installed—for instance, both RPM and Debian to convert between these formats. The alien utility doesn’t always convert all dependency information completely correctly. When converting from a tarball, alien copies the files directly as they had been in the tarball, so alien works only if the original tarball has files that should be installed off the root (/) directory of the system. Although alien requires both RPM and Debian package systems to be installed to convert between these formats, alien doesn’t use the data- base features of these packages unless you use the --install option . The presence of a foreign package manager isn’t a problem as long as you don’t use it to install software that might duplicate or conflict with soft- ware installed with your primary package manager .
  • 126. 74  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software The basic syntax of alien is as follows: alien [options] file[...] The most important options are --to-deb, --to-rpm, --to-slp, and --to-tgz, which convert to Debian, RPM, Stampede, and tarball format, respectively. (If you omit the destination format, alien assumes you want a Debian package.) The --install option installs the converted package and removes the converted file. Consult the alien man page for additional options. For instance, suppose you have a Debian package called someprogram-1.2.3-4_i386. deb, and you want to create an RPM from it. You can issue the following command to create an RPM called someprogram-1.2.3-5.i386.rpm: # alien --to-rpm someprogram-1.2.3-4_i386.deb If you use a Debian-based system and want to install a tarball but keep a record of the files it contains in your Debian package database, you can do so with the following command: # alien --install binary-tarball.tar.gz It’s important to remember that converting a tarball converts the files in the directory structure of the original tarball using the system’s root directory as the base. Therefore, you may need to unpack the tarball, juggle files around, and repack it to get the desired results prior to installing the tarball with alien. For instance, suppose you’ve got a binary tarball that creates a directory called program-files, with bin, man, and lib directories under this. The intent may have been to unpack the tarball in /usr or /usr/local and create links for critical files. To convert this tarball to an RPM, you can issue the following commands: # tar xvfz program.tar.gz # mv program-files usr # tar cvfz program.tgz usr # rm -r usr # alien --to-rpm program.tgz By renaming the program-files directory to usr and creating a new tarball, you’ve created a tarball that, when converted to RPM format, will have files in the locations you want—/usr/bin, /usr/man, and /usr/lib. You might need to perform more extensive modifications, depending on the contents of the original tarball. Package Dependencies and Conflicts Although package installation often proceeds smoothly, sometimes it doesn’t. The usual sources of problems relate to unsatisfied dependencies or conflicts between packages. The RPM and Debian package management systems are intended to help you locate and resolve such problems, but on occasion (particularly when mixing packages from different vendors), they can actually cause problems. In either event, it pays to recognize these errors and know how to resolve them.
  • 127. Package Dependencies and Conflicts 75 If you use a meta-packager, such as Yum or APT, for all your package man- agement, you’re much less likely to run into problems with package depen- dencies and conflicts . These problems are most likely to arise when you install lone packages, especially those from unusual sources . Real and Imagined Package Dependency Problems Package dependencies and conflicts can arise for a variety of reasons, including the following: Missing libraries or support programs One of the most common dependency problems is caused by a missing support package. For instance, all KDE programs rely on Qt, a widget set that provides assorted GUI tools. If Qt isn’t installed, you won’t be able to install any KDE packages using RPMs or Debian packages. Libraries—support code that can be used by many different programs as if it were part of the program itself—are particularly com- mon sources of problems in this respect. Incompatible libraries or support programs Even if a library or support program is installed on your system, it may be the wrong version. For instance, if a program requires Qt 3.3, the presence of Qt 2.2 won’t do much good. Fortunately, Linux library-naming conventions enable you to install multiple versions of a library in case you have programs with competing requirements. Duplicate files or features Conflicts arise when one package includes files that are already installed and that belong to another package. Occasionally, broad features can conflict as well, as in two Web server packages. Feature conflicts are usually accompanied by name conflicts. Conflicts are most common when mixing packages intended for different distri- butions, because distributions may split files across packages in different ways. Mismatched names RPM and Debian package management systems give names to their packages. These names don’t always match across distributions. For this reason, if one package checks for another package by name, the first package may not install on another distribution, even if the appropriate package is installed, because that target package has a different name. Some of these problems are very real and serious. Missing libraries, for instance, must be installed. (Sometimes, though, a missing library isn’t quite as missing as it seems, as described in the upcoming section “Forcing the Installation.”) Others, like mismatched package names, are artifacts of the packaging system. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to tell into which category a conflict fits. When using a package management system, you may be able to use the error message returned by the package system, along with your own experience with and knowledge of specific packages, to make a judgment. For instance, if RPM reports that you’re missing a slew of libraries with which you’re unfamiliar, you’ll probably have to track down at least one package—unless you know you’ve installed the libraries in some other way, in which case you may want to force the installation.
  • 128. 76 Chapter 2 N Managing Software Workarounds to Package Dependency Problems When you encounter an unmet package dependency or conflict, what can you do about it? There are several approaches to these problems. Some of these approaches work well in some situations but not others, so you should review the possibilities carefully. The options include forcing the installation, modifying your system to meet the dependency, rebuilding the prob- lem package from source code, and finding another version of the problem package. Forcing the Installation One approach is to ignore the issue. Although this sounds risky, it’s appropriate in some cases involving failed RPM or Debian dependencies. For instance, if the dependency is on a package that you installed by compiling the source code yourself, you can safely ignore the dependency. When using rpm, you can tell the program to ignore failed dependencies by using the --nodeps parameter: # rpm -i apackage.rpm --nodeps You can force installation over some other errors, such as conflicts with existing pack- ages, by using the --force parameter: # rpm -i apackage.rpm --force Do not use --nodeps or --force as a matter of course . Ignoring the depen- dency checks can lead you into trouble, so you should use these options only when you need to do so . In the case of conflicts, the error messages you get when you first try to install without --force will tell you which packages’ files you’ll be replacing, so be sure you back them up or are pre- pared to reinstall the package in case of trouble . If you’re using dpkg, you can use the --ignore-depends=package, --force-depends, and --force-conflicts parameters to overcome dependency and conflict problems in Debian- based systems. Because there’s less deviation in package names and requirements among Debian-based systems, these options are less often needed on such systems. Upgrading or Replacing the Depended-On Package Officially, the proper way to overcome a package dependency problem is to install, upgrade, or replace the depended-upon package. If a program requires, say, Qt 3.3 or greater, you should upgrade an older version (such as 3.2) to 3.3. To perform such an upgrade, you’ll need to track down and install the appropriate package. This usually isn’t too difficult if the new package you want comes from a Linux distribution, and especially if you use a meta-packager such as Yum or APT; the appropriate depended-on package should come with the same distribution. One problem with this approach is that packages intended for different distributions sometimes have differing requirements. If you run Distribution A and install a package that
  • 129. Package Dependencies and Conflicts 77 was built for Distribution B, the package will express dependencies in terms of Distribu- tion B’s files and versions. The appropriate versions may not be available in a form intended for Distribution A; and by installing Distribution B’s versions, you can sometimes cause conflicts with other Distribution A packages. Even if you install the upgraded package and it works, you may run into problems in the future when it comes time to install some other program or upgrade the distribution as a whole—the upgrade installer may not recognize Distribution B’s package or may not be able to upgrade to its own newer version. Rebuilding the Problem Package Some dependencies result from the libraries and other support utilities installed on the computer that compiled the package, not from requirements in the underlying source code. If the software is recompiled on a system that has different packages, the dependencies will change. Therefore, rebuilding a package from source code can overcome at least some dependencies. If you use an RPM-based system, the command to rebuild a package is straightforward: You call rpmbuild (or rpm with old versions of RPM) with the name of the source package and use --rebuild, as follows: # rpmbuild --rebuild packagename-version.src.rpm Of course, to do this you must have the source RPM for the package. This can usually be obtained from the same location as the binary RPM. When you execute this command, rpmbuild extracts the source code and executes whatever commands are required to build a new package—or sometimes several new packages. (One source RPM can build multiple binary RPMs.) The compilation process can take anywhere from a few seconds to sev- eral hours, depending on the size of the package and the speed of your computer. The result should be one or more new binary RPMs in /usr/src/distname/RPMS/arch, where distname is a distribution-specific name (such as redhat on Red Hat or packages on SUSE) and arch is your CPU architecture (such as i386 or i586 for x86 or ppc for PowerPC). You can move these RPMs to any convenient location and install them just as you would any others. Source packages are also available for Debian systems, but aside from sites devoted to Debian and related distributions, Debian source packages are rare . The sites that do have these packages provide them in forms that typically install easily on appropriate Debian or related systems . For this reason, it’s less likely that you’ll rebuild a Debian package from source . Locating Another Version of the Problem Package Frequently, the simplest way to fix a dependency problem or package conflict is to use a differ- ent version of the package you want to install. This could be a newer or older official version (4.2.3 rather than 4.4.7, say), or it might be the same official version but built for your distri- bution rather than for another distribution. Sites like RPM Find (
  • 130. 78 Chapter 2 N Managing Software and Debian’s package listing ( can be very useful in tracking down alternative versions of a package. Your own distribution’s Web site or FTP site can also be a good place to locate packages. If the package you’re trying to install requires newer libraries than you’ve got and you don’t want to upgrade those libraries, an older version of the package may work with your existing libraries . Before doing so, though, you should check to be sure that the newer version of the program doesn’t fix security bugs . If it does, you should find another way to install the package . The main problem with locating another version of the package is that sometimes you really need the version that’s not installing correctly. It may have features you need, or it may fix important bugs. On occasion, other versions may not be available, or you may be unable to locate another version of the package in your preferred package format. Startup Script Problems One particularly common problem when trying to install servers from one distribution in another is getting SysV startup scripts working. Although most major Linux distributions use SysV startup scripts, these scripts aren’t always transportable across distributions. Dif- ferent distributions frequently implement support routines in unique ways, so these scripts may be incompatible. The result is that the server you installed may not start up, even if the links to the startup scripts are correct. Possible workarounds include modifying the startup script that came with the server, building a new script based on another one from your dis- tribution, and starting the server through a local startup script like /etc/rc.d/rc.local or /etc/rc.d/boot.local. Chapter 5, “Booting Linux and Editing Files,” describes startup scripts in more detail. Startup script problems affect only servers and other programs that are started automatically when the computer boots; they don’t affect typical user applications or libraries . Managing Shared Libraries Most Linux software relies heavily on shared libraries. The preceding sections have described some of the problems that can arise in managing shared library packages—for example, if a library isn’t installed or is the wrong version, you may have problems installing a package. Library management goes beyond merely configuring them, though. To understand this, you must first understand a few library principles. You can then move on to setting the library path and using commands that manage libraries.
  • 131. Managing Shared Libraries 79 Library Principles The idea behind a library is to simplify programmers’ lives by providing commonly used program fragments. For instance, one of the most important libraries is the C library (libc), which provides many of the higher-level features associated with the C programming lan- guage. Another common type of library is associated with GUIs. These libraries are often called widget sets because they provide the on-screen widgets used by programs—buttons, scroll bars, menu bars, and so on. The GIMP Tool Kit (GTK+) and Qt are the most popular Linux widget sets, and both ship largely as libraries. Libraries are chosen by programmers, not by users; you usually can’t easily substitute one library for another. (The main excep- tions are minor version upgrades.) Linux uses the GNU C library (glibc) version of the C library . Package- manager dependencies and other library references are to glibc specifi- cally . As of glibc 2 .3 .4, for historical reasons the main glibc file is usually called /lib/, but this file is sometimes a symbolic link to a file of another name, such as /lib/ . In principle, the routines in a library can be linked into a program’s main file, just like all the object code files created by the compiler. This approach, however, has certain problems: The resulting program file is huge. This means it takes up a lot of disk space, and itN consumes a lot of RAM when loaded. If multiple programs use the library, as is common, the program-size issue is multipliedNN several times. The program can’t take advantage of improvements in the library without recompilingN (or at least relinking) the program. For these reasons, most programs use their libraries as shared libraries (a.k.a. dynamic libraries). In this form, the main program executable omits most of the library routines. Instead, the executable includes references to shared library files, which can then be loaded along with the main program file. This approach helps keep program file size down, enables sharing of the memory consumed by libraries across programs, and enables programs to take advantage of improvements in libraries by upgrading the library. Linux shared libraries are similar to the dynamic link libraries (DLLs) of Windows . Windows DLLs are usually identified by .DLL filename exten- sions; but in Linux, shared libraries usually have a .so or .so.version extension, where version is a version number . (.so stands for shared object .) Linux static libraries (used by linkers for inclusion in programs when dynamic libraries aren’t to be used) have .a filename extensions .
  • 132. 80 Chapter 2 N Managing Software On the downside, shared libraries can degrade program load time slightly if the library isn’t already in use by another program, and they can create software management complications: Shared library changes can be incompatible with some or all programs that use theNN library. Linux uses library numbering schemes to enable you to keep multiple versions of a library installed at once. Upgrades that shouldn’t cause problems can overwrite older versions, whereas major upgrades get installed side-by-side with their older counterparts. This approach minimizes the chance of problems, but sometimes changes that shouldn’t cause problems do cause them. Programs must be able to locate shared libraries. This task requires adjusting configu-NN ration files and environment variables. If it’s done wrong, or if a program overrides the defaults and looks in the wrong place, the result is usually that the program won’t run at all. The number of libraries for Linux has risen dramatically over time. When they’re usedNN in shared form, the result can be a tangled mess of package dependencies, particularly if you use programs that rely on many or obscure libraries. In most cases, this issue boils down to a package problem that can be handled by your package management tools. If an important shared library becomes inaccessible because it was accidentally over-NN written, due to a disk error or for any other reason, the result can be severe system problems. In a worst-case scenario, the system might not even boot. In most cases, these drawbacks are manageable and are much less important than the problems associated with using static libraries. Thus, dynamic libraries are very popular. Static libraries are sometimes used by developers who create programs using particularly odd, outdated, or otherwise exotic libraries . This enables them to distribute their binary packages without requiring users to obtain and install their oddball libraries . Likewise, static libraries are sometimes used on small emergency systems, which don’t have enough programs installed to make the advantages of shared libraries worth pursuing . Locating Library Files The major administrative challenge of handling shared libraries involves enabling programs to locate those shared libraries. Binary program files can point to libraries either by name alone (as in or by providing a complete path (as in /lib/ In the first case, you must configure a library path—a set of directories in which programs should search for libraries. This can be done both through a global configuration file and through an environment variable. If a static path to a library is wrong, you must find a way to cor- rect the problem. In all of these cases, after making a change, you may need to use a special command to get the system to recognize the change, as described later in “Library Manage- ment Commands.”
  • 133. Managing Shared Libraries 81 Setting the Path Systemwide The first way to set the library path is to edit the /etc/ file. This file consists of a series of lines, each of which lists one directory in which shared library files may be found. Typically, this file lists between half a dozen and a couple dozen directories. Some distributions have an additional type of line in this file. These lines begin with the include directive; they list files that are to be included as if they were part of the main file. For instance, Ubuntu 8.04’s begins with this line: include /etc/*.conf This line tells the system to load all the files in /etc/ whose names end in .conf as if they were part of the main /etc/ file. This mechanism enables pack- age maintainers to add their unique library directories to the search list by placing a .conf file in the appropriate directory. Some distributions, such as Gentoo, use a mechanism with a similar goal but different details. With these distributions, the env-update utility reads files in /etc/env.d to create the final form of several /etc configuration files, including /etc/ In particular, the LDPATH variables in these files are read, and their values make up the lines in Thus, to change in Gentoo or other distributions that use this mechanism, you should add or edit files in /etc/env.d and then type env-update to do the job. Generally speaking, there’s seldom a need to change the library path system-wide. Library package files usually install themselves in directories that are already on the path or add their paths automatically. The main reason to make such changes would be if you installed a library package, or a program that creates its own libraries, in an unusual location via a mechanism other than your distribution’s main package utility. For instance, you might compile a library from source code and then need to update your library path in this way. After you change your library path, you must use ldconfig to have your programs use the new path, as described later in “Library Management Commands.” In addition to the directories specified in /etc/, Linux refers to the trusted library directories, /lib and /usr/lib . These directories are always on the library path, even if they aren’t listed in . Temporarily Changing the Path Sometimes, changing the path permanently and globally is unnecessary and even inappro- priate. For instance, you might want to test the effect of a new library before using it for all your programs. To do so, you could install the shared libraries in an unusual location and then set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. This environment variable specifies additional directories the system is to search for libraries. Chapter 9, “Writing Scripts, Configuring E-Mail, and Using Databases,” describes environment variables in more detail .
  • 134. 82  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software To set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable using the bash shell, you can type a command like this: $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/testlib:/opt/newlib This line adds two directories, /usr/local/testlib and /opt/newlib, to the search path. You can specify as few or as many directories as you like, separated by colons. These directories are added to the start of the search path, which means they take precedence over other directories. This fact is handy when you’re testing replacement libraries, but it can cause problems if users manage to set this environment variable inappropriately. You can set this environment variable permanently in a user’s shell startup script files, as described in Chapter 9. Doing so means the user will always use the specified library paths in addition to the normal system paths. In principle, you could set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH globally; however, using /etc/ is the preferred method of effecting global changes to the library path. Unlike other library path changes, this one doesn’t require that you run ldconfig for it to take effect. Correcting Problems Library path problems usually manifest as a program’s inability to locate a library. If you launch the program from a shell, you’ll see an error message like this: $ gimp gimp: error while loading shared libraries: cannot➦ open shared object file: No such file or directory This message indicates that the system couldn’t find the library file. The usual cause of such problems is that the library isn’t installed, so you should look for it using commands such as find (described in Chapter 4, “Managing Files”). If the file isn’t installed, try to track down the package to which it should belong (a Web search can work wonders in this task) and install it. If, on the other hand, the library file is available, you may need to add its directory globally or to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Sometimes the library’s path is hard-coded in the program’s binary file. (You can discover this using ldd, as described shortly in “Library Management Com- mands.”) When this happens, you may need to create a symbolic link from the location of the library on your system to the location the program expects. A similar problem can occur when the program expects a library to have one name but the library has another name on your sys- tem. For instance, the program may link to, but your system has installed. Minor version-number changes like this are usually inconsequential, so creating a symbolic link will correct the problem: # ln -s You must type this command as root in the directory in which the library resides. You must then run ldconfig, as described in the next section.
  • 135. Managing Shared Libraries  83 Library Management Commands Linux provides a pair of commands that you’re likely to use for library management. The ldd program displays a program’s shared library dependencies—that is, the shared libraries that a program uses. The ldconfig program updates caches and links used by the system for locating libraries—that is, it reads /etc/ and implements any changes in that file or in the directories to which it refers. Both of these tools are invaluable in manag- ing libraries. Displaying Shared Library Dependencies If you run into programs that won’t launch because of missing libraries, the first step is to check which libraries the program file uses. You can do this with the ldd command: $ ldd /bin/ls => /lib/ (0x0000002a9566c000) => /lib/ (0x0000002a95784000) => /lib/ (0x0000002a958ea000) => /lib/ (0x0000002a959f1000) => /lib/ (0x0000002a95c17000) /lib64/ (0x0000002a95556000) => /lib/ (0x0000002a95dad000) Each line of output begins with a library name, such as or If the library name doesn’t contain a complete path, ldd attempts to find the true library and displays the complete path following the => symbol, as in /lib/ or /lib/ You needn’t be concerned about the long hexadecimal number following the complete path to the library file. The preceding example shows one library (/lib64/ that’s referred to with a complete path in the executable file. It lacks the initial directory-less library name and => symbol. The ldd command accepts a few options. The most notable of these is probably -v, which displays a long list of version information following the main entry. This information may be helpful in tracking down which version of a library a program is using, in case you have multiple versions installed. Keep in mind that libraries can themselves depend on other libraries. Thus, you can use ldd to discover what libraries are used by a library. Because of this potential for a dependency chain, it’s possible that a program will fail to run even though all its libraries are present. When using ldd to track down problems, be sure to check the needs of all the libraries of the program, and all the libraries used by the first tier of libraries, and so on, until you’ve exhausted the chain. The ldd utility can be run by ordinary users, as well as by root. You must run it as root if you can’t read the program file as an ordinary user.
  • 136. 84  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software Reloading the Library Cache Linux (or, more precisely, the and programs, which manage the loading of libraries) doesn’t read /etc/ every time a program runs. Instead, the system relies on a cached list of directories and the files they contain, stored in binary format in /etc/ This list is maintained in a format that’s much more efficient than a plain-text list of files and directories. The drawback is that you must reload that cache every time you add or remove libraries. These additions and removals include both chang- ing the contents of the library directories and adding or removing library directories. The tool to do this job is called ldconfig. Ordinarily, it’s called without any options: # ldconfig This program does, though, take options to modify its behavior: Display verbose information ​ ​Ordinarily, ldconfig doesn’t display any information as it works. The -v option causes the program to summarize the directories and files it’s regis- tering as it goes about its business. Don’t rebuild the cache ​ ​The -N option causes ldconfig to not perform its primary duty of updating the library cache. It will, though, update symbolic links to libraries, which is a secondary duty of this program. Process only specified directories ​ ​The -n option causes ldconfig to update the links contained in the directories specified on the command line. The system won’t examine the directories specified in /etc/ or the trusted directories (/lib and /usr/lib). Don’t update links ​ ​The -X option is the opposite of -N; it causes ldconfig to update the cache but not manage links. Use a new configuration file ​ ​You can change the configuration file from /etc/ by using the -f conffile option, where conffile is the file you want to use. Use a new cache file ​ ​You can change the cache file that ldconfig creates by passing the -C cachefile option, where cachefile is the file you want to use. Use a new root ​ ​The -r dir option tells ldconfig to treat dir as if it were the root (/) directory. This option is helpful when you’re recovering a badly corrupted system or install- ing a new OS. Display current information ​ ​The -p option causes ldconfig to display the current cache—all the library directories and the libraries they contain. Both RPM and Debian library packages typically run ldconfig automatically after installing or removing the package. The same thing happens as part of the installation pro- cess for many packages compiled from source. Thus, you may well be running ldconfig more than you realize in the process of software management. You may need to run the program yourself if you manually modify your library configuration in any way.
  • 137. Managing Processes  85 Managing Processes When you type a command name, that program is run, and a process is created for it. Knowing how to manage these processes is critical to using Linux. Key details in this task include identifying processes, manipulating foreground and background processes, killing processes, and adjusting process priorities. Understanding the Kernel: The First Process The Linux kernel is at the heart of every Linux system. Although you can’t manage the kernel process in quite the way you can manage other processes, short of rebooting the computer, you can learn about it. To do so, you can use the uname command, which takes several options to display information: Node name ​ ​The -n or --nodename option displays the system’s node name—that is, its network hostname. Kernel name ​ ​The -s or --kernel-name option displays the kernel name, which is normally Linux on a Linux system. Kernel version ​ ​You can find the kernel version with the -v or --kernel-version option. Ordinarily, this holds the kernel build date and time, not an actual version number. Kernel release ​ ​The actual kernel version number can be found via the -r or --kernel- release option. Machine ​ ​The -m or --machine option returns information about your machine. This is likely to be a CPU code, such as i686 or x86_64. Processor ​ ​Using the -p or --processor option may return information about your CPU, such as the manufacturer, model, and clock speed; in practice, it returns unknown on many systems. Hardware platform ​ ​Hardware platform information is theoretically returned by the -i or --hardware-platform option, but this option often returns unknown. OS name ​ ​The -o or --operating-system option returns the OS name—normally GNU/ Linux for a Linux system. Print all information ​ ​The -a or --all option returns all available information. In practice, you’re most likely to use uname -a at the command line to learn some of the basics about your kernel and system. The other options are most useful in multi-platform scripts, which can use these options to quickly obtain critical information to help them adjust their actions for the system on which they’re running. Examining Process Lists One of the most important tools in process management is ps. This program displays processes’ status (hence the name, ps). It sports many helpful options, and it’s useful in
  • 138. 86  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software monitoring what’s happening on a system. This can be particularly critical when the com- puter isn’t working as it should be—for instance, if it’s unusually slow. The ps program supports an unusual number of options, but just a few of them will take you a long way. Likewise, interpreting ps output can be tricky because so many options modify the pro- gram’s output. Some ps-like programs, most notably top, also deserve attention. Using Useful ps Options The official syntax for ps is fairly simple: ps [options] This simplicity of form hides considerable complexity because ps supports three differ- ent types of options, as well as many options within each type. The three types of options are as follows: Unix98 options ​ ​These single-character options may be grouped together and are preceded by a single dash (-). BSD options ​ ​These single-character options may be grouped together and must not be preceded by a dash. GNU long options ​ ​These multi-character options are never grouped together. They’re preceded by two dashes (--). Options that may be grouped together may be clustered without spaces between them. For instance, rather than typing ps -a -f, you can type ps -af. The reason for so much complexity is that the ps utility has historically varied a lot from one Unix OS to another. The version of ps that ships with major Linux distributions attempts to implement most features from all these different ps versions, so it supports many different personalities. In fact, you can change some of its default behaviors by setting the PS_PERSONALITY environ- ment variable to posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital, or various others. The rest of this section describes the default ps behavior on most Linux systems. Some of the more useful ps features include the following: Display help ​ ​The --help option presents a summary of some of the more common ps options. Display all processes ​ ​By default, ps displays only processes that were run from its own terminal (xterm, text-mode login, or remote login). The -A and -e options cause it to dis- play all the processes on the system, and x displays all processes owned by the user who gives the command. The x option also increases the amount of information that’s displayed about each process. Display one user’s processes ​ ​You can display processes owned by a given user with the -u user, U user, and --User user options. The user variable may be a username or a user ID. Display extra information ​ ​The -f, -l, j, l, u, and v options all expand the information provided in the ps output. Most ps output formats include one line per process, but ps can display enough information that it’s impossible to fit it all on one 80-character line. There- fore, these options provide various mixes of information.
  • 139. Managing Processes  87 Display process hierarchy ​ ​The -H, -f, and --forest options group processes and use indentation to show the hierarchy of relationships between processes. These options are useful if you’re trying to trace the parentage of a process. Display wide output ​ ​The ps command output can be more than 80 columns wide. Normally, ps truncates its output so that it will fit on your screen or xterm. The -w and w options tell ps not to do this, which can be useful if you direct the output to a file, as in ps w > ps.txt. You can then examine the output file in a text editor that supports wide lines. You can combine these ps options in many ways to produce the output you want. You’ll probably need to experiment to learn which options produce the desired results because each option modifies the output in some way. Even those that would seem to influence just the selection of processes to list sometimes modify the information that’s provided about each process. Interpreting ps Output Listings 2.3 and 2.4 show a couple of examples of ps in action. Listing 2.3 shows ps -u rodsmith --forest, and Listing 2.4 shows ps u U rodsmith. Listing 2.4: Output of ps -u rodsmith --forest $ ps -u rodsmith --forest PID TTY TIME CMD 2451 pts/3 00:00:00 bash 2551 pts/3 00:00:00 ps 2496 ? 00:00:00 kvt 2498 pts/1 00:00:00 bash 2505 pts/1 00:00:00 _ nedit 2506 ? 00:00:00 _ csh 2544 ? 00:00:00 _ xeyes 19221 ? 00:00:01 dfm Listing 2.5: Output of ps u U rodsmith $ ps u U rodsmith USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND rodsmith 19221 0.0 1.5 4484 1984 ? S May07 0:01 dfm rodsmith 2451 0.0 0.8 1856 1048 pts/3 S 16:13 0:00 -bash rodsmith 2496 0.2 3.2 6232 4124 ? S 16:17 0:00 /opt/kd rodsmith 2498 0.0 0.8 1860 1044 pts/1 S 16:17 0:00 bash rodsmith 2505 0.1 2.6 4784 3332 pts/1 S 16:17 0:00 nedit rodsmith 2506 0.0 0.7 2124 1012 ? S 16:17 0:00 /bin/cs rodsmith 2544 0.0 1.0 2576 1360 ? S 16:17 0:00 xeyes rodsmith 2556 0.0 0.7 2588 916 pts/3 R 16:18 0:00 ps u U
  • 140. 88  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software The output produced by ps normally begins with a heading line, which displays the meaning of each column. Important information that may be displayed (and labeled) includes the following: Username ​ ​This is the name of the user who runs the programs. Listings 1.4 and 1.5 restricted this output to one user to limit the size of the listings. Process ID ​ ​The process ID (PID) is a number that’s associated with the process. This item is particularly important because you need it to modify or kill the process, as described later in this chapter. Parent process ID ​ ​The parent process ID (PPID) identifies the process’s parent. (Neither Listing 2.4 nor Listing 2.5 shows the PPID.) TTY ​ ​The teletype (TTY) is a code used to identify a terminal. As illustrated by Listings 1.4 and 1.5, not all processes have TTY numbers—X programs and daemons, for instance, don’t. Text-mode programs do have these numbers, which point to a console, xterm, or remote login session. CPU time ​ ​The TIME and %CPU headings are two measures of CPU time used. The first indicates the total amount of CPU time consumed, and the second represents the percent- age of CPU time the process is using when ps executes. Both can help you spot runaway processes—those that are consuming too much CPU time. Unfortunately, what constitutes “too much” varies from one program to another, so it’s impossible to give a simple rule to help you spot a runaway process. CPU priority ​ ​As described shortly, in “Managing Process Priorities,” it’s possible to give different processes different priorities for CPU time. The NI column, if present (it’s not in the preceding examples) lists these priority codes. The default value is 0. Positive values rep- resent reduced priority, whereas negative values represent increased priority. Memory use ​ ​Various headings indicate memory use—for instance, RSS is resident set size (the memory used by the program and its data) and %MEM is the percentage of memory the program is using. Some output formats also include a SHARE column, which is memory that’s shared with other processes (such as shared libraries). As with CPU-use measures, these columns can help point you to the sources of difficulties; but because legitimate memory needs of programs vary so much, it’s impossible to give a simple criterion for when a problem exists. Command ​ ​The final column in most listings is the command used to launch the process. This is truncated in Listing 2.5 because this format lists the complete command, but so much other information appears that the complete command won’t usually fit on one line. (This is where the wide-column options can come in handy.) As you can see, a lot of information can be gleaned from a ps listing—or perhaps that should be the plural listings, because no single format includes all of the available informa- tion. For the most part, the PID, username, and command are the most important pieces of information. In some cases, though, you may need specific other components. If your sys- tem’s memory or CPU use has skyrocketed, for instance, you’ll want to pay attention to the memory or CPU use column.
  • 141. Managing Processes 89 It’s often necessary to find specific processes . You might want to find the PID associated with a particular command in order to kill it, for instance . This information can be gleaned by piping the ps output through grep, as in ps ax | grep bash to find all the instances of bash . Although you may need a wide screen or xterm to view the output, you may find ps -A --forest to be a helpful command in learning about your system. Processes that aren’t linked to others were either started directly by init or have had their parents killed, and so they have been “adopted” by init. (Chapter 5 describes init and the boot procedure in more detail.) Most of these processes are fairly important—they’re servers, login tools, and so on. Processes that hang off several others in this tree view, such as xeyes and nedit in Listing 2.4, are mostly user programs launched from shells. top: A Dynamic ps Variant If you want to know how much CPU time various processes are consuming relative to one another, or if you want to quickly discover which processes are consuming the most CPU time, a tool called top is the one for the job. The top tool is a text-mode program, but of course it can be run in an xterm or similar window, as shown in Figure 2.2; there are also GUI variants, like kpm and gnome-system-monitor. By default, top sorts its entries by CPU use, and it updates its display every few seconds. This makes it a very good tool for spotting runaway processes on an otherwise lightly loaded system—those processes almost always appear in the first position or two, and they consume an inordinate amount of CPU time. Looking at Figure 2.2, you might think that FahCore_65.exe is such a process, but in fact, it’s legitimately consuming a lot of CPU time. You’ll need to be familiar with the purposes and normal habits of programs running on your system in order to make such determina- tions; the legitimate needs of different programs vary so much that it’s impossible to give a simple rule for judging when a process is consuming too much CPU time. F I g U R E 2 . 2 The top command shows system summary information and information about the most CPU-intensive processes on a computer .
  • 142. 90  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software Like many Linux commands, top accepts several options. The most useful are listed here: -d delay ​ ​This option specifies the delay between updates, which is normally 5 seconds. -p pid ​ ​If you want to monitor specific processes, you can list them using this option. You’ll need the PIDs, which you can obtain with ps, as described earlier. You can specify up to 20 PIDs by using this option multiple times, once for each PID. -n iter ​ ​You can tell top to display a certain number of updates (iter) and then quit. (Normally, top continues updating until you terminate the program.) -b ​ ​This option specifies batch mode, in which top doesn’t use the normal screen-update commands. You might use this to log CPU use of targeted programs to a file, for instance. You can do more with top than watch it update its display. When it’s running, you can enter any of several single-letter commands, some of which prompt you for additional information. These commands include the following: h and ? ​ ​These keystrokes display help information k ​ ​You can kill a process with this command. The top program will ask for a PID number, and if it’s able to kill the process, it will do so. (The upcoming section “Killing Processes” describes other ways to kill processes.) q ​ ​This option quits from top. r ​ ​You can change a process’s priority with this command. You’ll have to enter the PID number and a new priority value—a positive value will decrease its priority, and a negative value will increase its priority, assuming it has the default 0 priority to begin with. Only root may increase a process’s priority. The renice command (described shortly, in “Man- aging Process Priorities”) is another way to accomplish this task. s ​ ​This command changes the display’s update rate, which you’ll be asked to enter (in seconds). P ​ ​This command sets the display to sort by CPU usage, which is the default. M ​ ​You can change the display to sort by memory usage with this command. More commands are available in top (both command-line options and interactive com- mands) than can be summarized here; consult top’s man page for more information. One of the pieces of information provided by top is the load average, which is a measure of the demand for CPU time by applications. In Figure 2.2, you can see three load-average esti- mates on the top line; these correspond to the current load average and two previous measures. A system on which no programs are demanding CPU time has a load average of 0. A system with one program running CPU-intensive tasks has a load average of 1. Higher load averages reflect programs competing for available CPU time. You can also find the current load aver- age via the uptime command, which displays the load average along with information on how long the computer has been running. The load average can be useful in detecting runaway pro- cesses. For instance, if a system normally has a load average of 0.5 but it suddenly gets stuck at a load average of 2.5, a couple of CPU-hogging processes may have hung—that is, become unresponsive. Hung processes sometimes needlessly consume a lot of CPU time. You can use top to locate these processes and, if necessary, kill them.
  • 143. Managing Processes  91 jobs: Processes Associated with Your Session The jobs command displays minimal information about the processes associated with the current session. In practice, jobs is usually of limited value, but it does have a few uses. One of these is to provide job ID numbers. These numbers are conceptually similar to PID numbers, but they’re not the same. Jobs are numbered starting from 1 for each session, and in most cases, a single shell has only a few associated jobs. The job ID numbers are used by a handful of utilities in place of PIDs, so you may need this information. A second use of jobs is to ensure that all your programs have terminated prior to log- ging out. Under some circumstances, logging out of a remote login session can cause the client program to freeze up if you’ve left programs running. A quick check with jobs will inform you of any forgotten processes and enable you to shut them down. Understanding Foreground and Background Processes One of the most basic process-management tasks is to control whether a process is running in the foreground or the background—that is, whether it’s monopolizing the use of the ter- minal from which it was launched. Normally, when you launch a program, it takes over the terminal, preventing you from doing other work in that terminal. (Some programs, though, release the terminal. This is most common for servers and some GUI programs.) If a program is running but you decide you want to use that terminal for something else, pressing Ctrl+Z normally pauses the program and gives you control of the terminal. (An important point is that this procedure suspends the program, so if it’s performing real work, that work stops!) This can be handy if, say, you’re running a text editor in a text- mode login, and you want to check a filename so you can mention it in the file you’re edit- ing. You press Ctrl+Z and type ls to get the file listing. To get back to the text editor, you then type fg, which restores the text editor to the foreground of your terminal. If you’ve suspended several processes, you add a job number, as in fg 2 to restore job 2. You can obtain a list of jobs associated with a terminal by typing jobs, which displays the jobs and their job numbers. A variant on fg is bg. Whereas fg restores a job to the foreground, bg restores a job to run- ning status, but in the background. You can use this command if the process you’re running is performing a CPU-intensive task that requires no human interaction but you want to use the terminal in the meantime. Another use of bg is in a GUI environment—after launching a GUI program from an xterm or similar window, that shell is tied up servicing the GUI pro- gram, which probably doesn’t really need the shell. Pressing Ctrl+Z in the xterm window will enable you to type shell commands again, but the GUI program will be frozen. To unfreeze the GUI program, type bg in the shell, which enables the GUI program to run in the back- ground while the shell continues to process your commands. As an alternative to launching a program, using Ctrl+Z, and typing bg to run a program in the background, you can append an ampersand (&) to the command when launching the pro- gram. For instance, rather than edit a file with the NEdit GUI editor by typing nedit myfile. txt, you can type nedit myfile.txt &. This command launches the nedit program in the background from the start, leaving you able to control your xterm window for other tasks.
  • 144. 92  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software Managing Process Priorities Sometimes, you may want to prioritize your programs’ CPU use. For instance, you may be running a program that’s very CPU-intensive but that will take a long time to finish its work, and you don’t want that program to interfere with others that are of a more interac- tive nature. Alternatively, on a heavily loaded computer, you may have a job that’s more important than others that are running, so you may want to give it a priority boost. In either case, the usual method of accomplishing this goal is through the nice and renice commands. You can use nice to launch a program with a specified priority or use renice to alter the priority of a running program. You can assign a priority to nice in any of three ways: by specifying the priority pre- ceded by a dash (this works well for positive priorities but makes them look like negative priorities), by specifying the priority after a -n parameter, or by specifying the priority after an --adjustment= parameter. In all cases, these parameters are followed by the name of the program you want to run: nice [argument] [command [command-arguments]] For instance, the following three commands are all equivalent: $ nice -12 number-crunch data.txt $ nice -n 12 number-crunch data.txt $ nice --adjustment=12 number-crunch data.txt All three of these commands run the number-crunch program at priority 12 and pass it the data.txt file. If you omit the adjustment value, nice uses 10 as a default. The range of possible values is –20 to 19, with negative values having the highest priority. Only root may launch a program with increased priority (that is, give a negative priority value), but any user may use nice to launch a program with low priority. The default priority for a program run without nice is 0. If you’ve found that a running process is consuming too much CPU time or is being swamped by other programs and so should be given more CPU time, you can use the renice program to alter its priority without disrupting the program’s operation. The syn- tax for renice is as follows: renice priority [[-p] pids] [[-g] pgrps] [[-u] users] You must specify the priority, which takes the same values this variable takes with nice. In addition, you must specify one or more PIDs (pids), one or more group IDs (pgrps), or one or more usernames (users). In the latter two cases, renice changes the priority of all programs that match the specified criterion—but only root may use renice in this way. Also, only root may increase a process’s priority. If you give a numeric value without a -p, -g, or -u option, renice assumes the value is a PID. You may mix and match these methods of specification. For instance, you might enter the following command: # renice 7 16580 -u pdavison tbaker This command sets the priority to 7 for PID 16580 and for all processes owned by pdavison and tbaker.
  • 145. Managing Processes 93 Killing Processes Sometimes, reducing a process’s priority isn’t a strong enough action. A program may have become totally unresponsive, or you may want to terminate a process that shouldn’t be run- ning. In these cases, the kill command is the tool to use. This program sends a signal (a method that Linux uses to communicate with processes) to a process. The signal is usually sent by the kernel, the user, or the program itself to terminate the process. Linux supports many numbered signals, each of which is associated with a specific name. You can see them all by typing kill -l. If you don’t use -l, the syntax for kill is as follows: kill -s signal pid Although Linux includes a kill program, many shells, including bash and csh, include built-in kill equivalents that work in much the same way as the external program . If you want to be sure you’re using the external pro- gram, type its complete path, as in /bin/kill . The -s signal parameter sends the specified signal to the process. You can specify the signal using either a number (such as 9) or a name (such as SIGKILL). The signals you’re most likely to use are 1 (SIGHUP, which terminates interactive programs and causes many daemons to reread their configuration files), 9 (SIGKILL, which causes the process to exit without performing routine shutdown tasks), and 15 (SIGTERM, which causes the process to exit but allows it to close open files and so on). If you don’t specify a signal, the default is 15 (SIGTERM). You can also use the shortened form -signal. If you do this and use a signal name, you should omit the SIG portion of the name—for instance, use KILL rather than SIGKILL. The pid option is, of course, the PID for the process you want to kill. You can obtain this number from ps or top. The kill program will kill only those processes owned by the user who runs kill . The exception is if that user is root; the superuser may kill any user’s processes . Running Programs Persistently Signals can be passed to programs by the kernel even if you don’t use the kill command . For instance, when you log out of a session, the programs you started from that session are sent the SIGHUP signal, which causes them to terminate . If you want to run a program that will continue running even when you log out, you can launch it with the nohup program: $ nohup program options This command causes the program to ignore the SIGHUP signal . It can be handy if you want to launch certain small servers that may legitimately be run as ordinary users .
  • 146. 94 Chapter 2 N Managing Software A variant on kill is killall, which has the following form: killall [options] [--] name [...] This command kills a process based on its name rather than its PID number. For instance, killall vi kills all the running processes called vi. You may specify a signal in the shortened form (-signal) or by preceding the signal number with -s or --signal. As with kill, the default is 15 (SIGTERM). One potentially important option to killall is -i, which causes it to ask for confirmation before sending the signal to each process. You might use it like this: $ killall -i vi Kill vi(13211) ? (y/n) y Kill vi(13217) ? (y/n) n In this example, two instances of the Vi editor were running, but only one should have been killed. As a general rule, if you run killall as root, you should use the -i parameter; if you don’t, it’s all too likely that you’ll kill processes that you shouldn’t, particularly if the computer is being used by many people at once. Some versions of Unix provide a killall command that works very differ- ently from Linux’s killall . This alternate killall kills all the processes started by the user who runs the command . This is a potentially much more destructive command, so if you ever find yourself on a non-Linux system, do not use killall until you’ve discovered what that system’s killall does (say, by reading the killall man page) . Summary Linux provides numerous tools to help you manage software. Most distributions are built around the RPM or Debian package systems, both of which enable installation, upgrade, and removal of software using a centralized package database to avoid conflicts and other problems that are common when no central package database exists. You can perform basic operations on individual files or, with the help of extra tools such as Yum and APT, keep your system synchronized with the outside world, automatically or semi-automatically updating all your software to the latest versions. No matter how you install your software, you may need to manage shared libraries. These software components are necessary building blocks of large modern programs, and in the best of all possible worlds they operate entirely transparently. Sometimes, though, shared libraries need to be upgraded or the system configuration changed so that programs
  • 147. Exam Essentials  95 can find the libraries. When this happens, knowing about critical configuration files and commands can help you work around any difficulties. Beyond managing packages and libraries, Linux software management involves manipulat- ing processes. Knowing how to manipulate foreground and background processes, adjust pro- cess priorities, and kill stray processes can help you keep your Linux system working well. Exam Essentials Identify critical features of RPM and Debian package formats. ​ ​RPM and Debian pack- ages store all files for a given package in a single file that also includes information about what other packages the software depends on. These systems maintain a database of installed packages and their associated files and dependencies. Describe the tools used for managing RPMs. ​ ​The rpm program is the main tool for install- ing, upgrading, and uninstalling RPMs. This program accepts operations and options that tell it precisely what to do. The Yum utility, and particularly its yum command, enables installation of a package and all its dependencies via the Internet, rather than from local package files. Describe the tools used for managing Debian packages. ​ ​The dpkg program installs or uninstalls a single package or a group of packages you specify. The apt-get utility retrieves programs from installation media or from the Internet for installation and can automati- cally upgrade your entire system. The dselect program serves as a menu-driven interface to apt-get, enabling you to select programs you want to install from a text-mode menu. Summarize tools for extracting files and converting between package formats. ​ ​The rpm2cpio program can convert an RPM file to a cpio archive, enabling users of non-RPM systems to access files in an RPM. The alien utility can convert in any direction between Debian packages, RPMs, Stampede packages, and tarballs. This enables the use of pack- ages intended for one system on another. Summarize the reasons for using shared libraries. ​ ​Shared libraries keep disk space and memory requirements manageable by placing code that’s needed by many programs in separate files from the programs that use it, enabling one copy to be used multiple times. More generally, libraries enable programmers to use basic “building blocks” that others have written without having to constantly reinvent code. Describe methods available to change the library path. ​ ​The library path can be changed system-wide by editing the /etc/ file and then typing ldconfig. For temporary or per-user changes, directories may be added to the path by placing them in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.
  • 148. 96  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software Explain the difference between foreground and background processes. ​ ​Foreground pro- cesses have control of the current terminal or text-mode window (such as an xterm). Back- ground processes don’t have exclusive control of a terminal or text-mode window but are still running. Describe how to limit the CPU time used by a process. ​ ​You can launch a program with nice or use renice to alter its priority in obtaining CPU time. If a process is truly out of control, you can terminate it with the kill command.
  • 149. Review Questions  97 Review Questions 1. Which of the following is not an advantage of a source package over a binary package? A. A single source package can be used on multiple CPU architectures. B. By recompiling a source package, you can sometimes work around library incompatibilities. C. You can modify the code in a source package, altering the behavior of a program. D. Source packages can be installed more quickly than binary packages can. 2. Which is true of using both RPM and Debian package management systems on one computer? A. It’s generally inadvisable because the two systems don’t share installed-file database information. B. It’s impossible because their installed-file databases conflict with one another. C. It causes no problems if you install important libraries once in each format. D. It’s a common practice on Red Hat and Debian systems. 3. Which of the following statements is true about binary RPM packages that are built for a particular distribution? A. They can often be used on another RPM-based distribution for the same CPU architec- ture, but this isn’t guaranteed. B. They may be used in another RPM-based distribution only when you set the --convert-distrib parameter to rpm. C. They may be used in another RPM-based distribution only after you convert the package with alien. D. They can be recompiled for an RPM-based distribution running on another type of CPU. 4. An administrator types the following command on an RPM-based Linux distribution: # rpm -ivh megaprog.rpm What is the effect of this command? A. The megaprog package, if it’s installed, is uninstalled from the computer. B. The megaprog.rpm package, if it exists, is valid, and isn’t already installed, is installed on the system. C. The megaprog.rpm source RPM package is compiled into a binary RPM for the computer. D. Nothing; megaprog.rpm isn’t a valid RPM filename, so rpm will refuse to operate on this file.
  • 150. 98  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software 5. Which of the following commands will extract the contents of the myfonts.rpm file into the current directory? A. rpm2cpio myfonts.rpm | cpio -i --make-directories B. rpm2cpio myfonts.rpm > make-directories C. rpm -e myfonts.rpm D. alien --to-extract myfonts.rpm 6. To use dpkg to remove a package called theprogram, including its configuration files, which of the following commands would you issue? A. dpkg -P theprogram B. dpkg -p theprogram C. dpkg -r theprogram D. dpkg -r theprogram-1.2.3-4.deb 7. Which of the following describes a difference between apt-get and dpkg? A. apt-get provides a GUI interface to Debian package management; dpkg doesn’t. B. apt-get can install tarballs in addition to Debian packages; dpkg can’t. C. apt-get can automatically retrieve and update programs from Internet sites; dpkg can’t. D. apt-get is provided only with the original Debian distribution, but dpkg comes with Debian and its derivatives. 8. What command would you type to obtain a list of all installed packages on a Debian system? A. apt-cache pkgnames B. apt-cache showpkg C. dpkg -r allpkgs D. dpkg -i 9. As root, you type apt-get update on a Debian system. What should be the effect of this command? A. None; update is an invalid option to apt-get. B. The APT utilities deliver information about the latest updates you’ve made to the APT Internet repositories, enabling you to share your changes with others. C. The APT utilities download all available upgrades for your installed programs and install them on your system. D. The APT utilities retrieve information about the latest packages available so that you may install them with subsequent apt-get commands. 10. Which of the following commands would you type to update the unzip program on a Fedora system to the latest version? (Select all that apply.) A. yum update unzip B. yum upgrade unzip C. yum -u unzip D. yum -U unzip
  • 151. Review Questions  99 11. How should you configure a system that uses Yum to access an additional Yum software repository? A. Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to include the repository site’s URL, as detailed on the repository’s Web site. B. Download a package from the repository site and install it with RPM, or place a con- figuration file from the repository site in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory. C. Use the add-repository subcommand to yum or the Add Repository option in the File menu in yumex, passing it the URL of the repository. D. Edit the /etc/yum.conf file, locate the [repos] section, and add the URL to the repository after the existing repository URLs. 12. What is the preferred method of adding a directory to the library path for all users? A. Modify the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable in a global shell script. B. Add the directory to the /etc/ file, and then type ldconfig. C. Type ldconfig /new/dir, where /new/dir is the directory you want to add. D. Create a symbolic link from that directory to one that’s already on the library path. 13. You prefer the look of GTK+ widgets to Qt widgets, so you want to substitute the GTK+ libraries for the Qt libraries on your system. How would you do this? A. You must type ldconfig --makesubs=qt,gtk. This command substitutes the GTK+ libraries for the Qt libraries at load time. B. You must uninstall the Qt library packages and re-install the GTK+ packages with the --substitute=qt option to rpm or the --replace=qt option to dpkg. C. You must note the filenames of the Qt libraries, uninstall the packages, and create symbolic links from the Qt libraries to the GTK+ libraries. D. You can’t easily do this; libraries can’t be arbitrarily exchanged for one another. You would need to rewrite all the Qt-using programs to use GTK+. 14. A user types kill -9 11287 at a bash prompt. What is the probable intent, assuming the user typed the correct command? A. To cut off a network connection using TCP port 11287 B. To display the number of processes that have been killed with signal 11287 in the last nine days C. To cause a server with process ID 11287 to reload its configuration file D. To terminate a misbehaving or hung program with process ID 11287 15. What programs might you use to learn what your system’s load average is? (Select all that apply.) A. ld B. load C. top D. uptime
  • 152. 100  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software 16. Which of the following commands creates a display of processes, showing the parent/child relationships through links between their names? A. ps --forest B. ps aux C. ps -e D. All of the above 17. You use top to examine the CPU time being consumed by various processes on your sys- tem. You discover that one process, dfcomp, is consuming more than 90 percent of your system’s CPU time. What can you conclude? A. Very little; dfcomp could be legitimately consuming that much CPU time or it could be an unauthorized or malfunctioning program. B. No program should consume 90 percent of available CPU time; dfcomp is clearly mal- functioning and should be terminated. C. This is normal; dfcomp is the kernel’s main scheduling process, and it consumes any unused CPU time. D. This behavior is normal if your CPU is less powerful than a 2.5GHz EM64T Pentium; but on newer systems, no program should consume 90 percent of CPU time. 18. You type jobs at a bash command prompt and receive a new command prompt with no intervening output. What can you conclude? A. The total CPU time used by your processes is negligible (below 0.1). B. No processes are running under your username except the shell you’re using. C. The jobs shell is installed and working correctly on the system. D. No background processes are running that were launched from the shell you’re using. 19. Which two of the following commands are equivalent to one another? (Select two.) A. nice --value 10 crunch B. nice -n -10 crunch C. nice -10 crunch D. nice crunch 20. Which of the following are restrictions on ordinary users’ abilities to run renice? (Select all that apply.) A. Users may not modify the priorities of processes that are already running. B. Users may not modify the priorities of other users’ processes. C. Users may not decrease the priority (that is, increase the priority value) of their own processes. D. Users may not increase the priority (that is, decrease the priority value) of their own processes.
  • 153. Answers to Review Questions  101 Answers to Review Questions 1. D. Because they must be compiled prior to installation, source packages require more time to install than binary packages do, contrary to option D’s assertion. The other options all describe advantages of source packages over binary packages. 2. A. Package management systems don’t share information, but neither do their databases actively conflict. Installing the same libraries using both systems would almost guarantee that the files served by both systems would conflict with one another. Actively using both RPM and Debian packages isn’t common on any distribution, although it’s possible with all of them. 3. A. RPMs are usually portable across distributions, but occasionally they contain incompat- ibilities. There is no --convert-distrib parameter to rpm, nor is alien used to convert from RPM format to RPM format. Binary packages can’t be rebuilt for another CPU archi- tecture, but source packages may be rebuilt for any supported architecture provided the source code doesn’t rely on any CPU-specific features. 4. B. The -i operation installs software, so option B is correct. (The -v and -h options cause a status display of the progress of the operation, which wasn’t mentioned in the option.) Uninstallation is performed by the -e operation, and rebuilding source RPMs is done by the --rebuild operation (to either rpm or rpmbuild, depending on the RPM version). Although the filename megaprog.rpm is missing several conventional RPM filename components, the rpm utility doesn’t use the filename as a package validity check, so option D is incorrect. 5. A. The rpm2cpio program extracts data from an RPM file and converts it into a cpio archive that’s sent to standard output. Piping the results through cpio and using the -i and --make-directories options, as in option A, will extract those files to the current direc- tory. Option B creates a cpio file called make-directories that contains the files from the RPM package. Option C will uninstall the package called myfonts.rpm (but not the myfonts package). The alien utility has no --to-extract target, so option D is invalid. 6. A. An uppercase -P invokes the purge operation, which completely removes a package and its configuration files. The lowercase -p causes dpkg to print information about the pack- age’s contents. The -r parameter removes a package but leaves configuration files behind. The final variant (option D) also specifies a complete filename, which isn’t used for removing a package—you should specify only the shorter package name. 7. C. You can specify Debian package archive sites in /etc/apt/sources.list, and then you can type apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to quickly update a Debian system to the latest packages. GUI package management tools for Debian and related distribu- tions exist, but they aren’t apt-get. The alien program can convert an RPM file and install the converted package on a Debian system; dpkg and apt-get both come with all Debian-based distributions.
  • 154. 102  Chapter 2  n  Managing Software 8. A. The apt-cache subcommand pkgnames displays the names of all installed packages or, if a further string is used, of all installed packages whose names begin with that string, making option A correct. The showpkg subcommand to apt-cache displays information about a named package; when used without a package name, as in option B, it displays no data. The dpkg -r action removes a package, so option C would remove the package called allpkgs if it were installed. The dpkg -i action installs a package, so option D is incor- rect—and that option doesn’t list a package name, which the -i action requires. 9. D. The update option to apt-get causes retrieval of new information, as described in option D. This option is perfectly valid, contrary to option A’s assertion. The apt-get pro- gram doesn’t permit you to upload information to the Internet repositories, so option B is incorrect. Option C describes the effect of the upgrade or dist-upgrade options, not the update option. 10. A, B. The yum utility’s update and upgrade options are nearly identical in effect, and either can be used to upgrade an individual package, such as unzip. The primary command options to yum don’t use dashes, so -u and -U are both incorrect. 11. B. Yum uses files in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory to locate its repositories, so you can add to the repository list by adding files to this subdirectory, as option B specifies, typically either by installing an RPM or by adding a file manually. Option A describes a method of adding a repository to a computer that uses APT, not Yum. Option C’s add-repository subcommand is fictitious. Although the /etc/yum.conf file described in option D is real, it doesn’t store repository data. 12. B. The /etc/ file holds the global library path, so editing it is the preferred approach. You must then type ldconfig to have the system update its library path cache. Although you can add a directory to the library path by altering the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable globally, this approach isn’t the preferred one. Option C simply won’t work. Option D also won’t work, although linking individual library files would work. This method isn’t the preferred one for adding a whole directory, though. 13. D. Libraries are selected by programmers, not by users or system administrators. If you don’t like the widgets provided by one library, you have few options. (Many widget sets do provide a great deal of configurability, though, so you may be able to work around the problem in other ways.) Options A and B describe fictitious options to ldconfig, rpm, and dpkg. Option C wouldn’t work; Qt-using programs would crash when they found GTK+ libraries in place of the Qt libraries they were expecting. 14. D. The kill program accepts various signals in numeric or named form (9 in this example) along with a process ID number (11287 in this example). Signal 9 corresponds to SIGKILL, which is an extreme way to kill processes that have run out of control. Although you might use kill to kill network processes, you can’t pass kill a TCP port number and expect it to work. The program also won’t display information about the number of processes that have been killed. To do as option C suggests, you’d need to tell kill to pass SIGHUP (signal 1), so the command would be kill -1 11287.
  • 155. Answers to Review Questions  103 15. C, D. The top utility displays a dynamic list of processes ordered according to their CPU use along with additional system information, including load averages. If you want only the load average at a specific moment, uptime may be better because it presents less extraneous information—it shows the current time, the time since the system was booted, the number of active users, and the load averages. The ld command has nothing to do with displaying load averages (it’s a programming tool that links together program modules into an execut- able program). There is no standard Linux program called load. 16. A. The --forest option to ps shows parent/child relationships by creating visual links between process names in the ps output. (Listing 2.4 shows this effect.) Options B and C are both valid ps commands, but neither creates the specified effect. 17. A. CPU-intensive programs routinely consume 90 percent or more of available CPU time, but not all systems run such programs. Furthermore, some types of program bugs can cre- ate such CPU loads. Thus, you must investigate the matter more. What is dfcomp? Is it designed as a CPU-intensive program? Is it consuming this much CPU time consistently, or was this a brief burst of activity? 18. D. The jobs command summarizes processes that were launched from your current shell. When no such processes are running, jobs returns nothing, so option D is correct. The jobs command doesn’t check or summarize CPU load, so option A is incorrect. The jobs command also doesn’t check for processes run from shells other than the current one, so option B is incorrect (processes running under your username could have been launched from another shell or from a GUI environment). There is no standard jobs shell in Linux, so option C is incorrect. 19. C, D. The nice command launches a program (crunch in this example) with increased or decreased priority. The default priority when none is specified is 10, and the nice -10 crunch command also sets the priority to 10, so options C and D are equivalent. Option A isn’t a valid nice command because nice has no --value option. Option B is a valid nice command, but it sets the priority to –10 rather than 10. 20. B, D. Linux insulates users’ actions from one another, and this rule applies to renice; only root may modify the priority of other users’ processes. Similarly, only root may increase the priority of a process, in order to prevent users from setting their processes to maximum priority, thus stealing CPU time from others. Option A correctly describes nice, but not renice; the whole point of renice is to be able to change the priorities of existing pro- cesses. Option C also describes an action that renice permits.
  • 156. Chapter 3 Configuring Hardware The following CompTIA Linux+ objectives are covered in this chapter: 1.101.1 Determine and configure hardware settingsÛÛ 1.102.1 Design hard disk layoutÛÛ 1.104.1 Create partitions and filesystemsÛÛ 1.104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystemsÛÛ 1.104.3 Control mounting and unmounting of filesystemsÛÛ
  • 157. All OSs run atop hardware, and this hardware influences how the OSs run. Most obviously, hardware can be fast or slow, reli- able or unreliable. Somewhat more subtly, OSs provide various means of configuring and accessing the hardware—partitioning hard disks and reading data from Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices, for instance. You must understand at least the basics of how Linux interacts with its hardware environment in order to effectively administer a Linux system, so this chapter presents this information. This chapter begins with a look at the BIOS, which is the lowest-level software that runs on a computer. The BIOS starts the boot process and configures certain hardware devices. This chapter then moves on to expansion cards and USB devices. This chapter concludes with an examination of disk hardware and the filesystems it contains—disk interface standards, disk partitioning, how to track disk usage, how to tune filesystems for optimal performance, how to check filesystems’ internal consistency, and how to repair simple filesystem defects. Assuming a filesystem is in good shape, you must be able to mount it to be able to use it, so that topic is also covered here. (One disk topic, boot managers, is covered in Chapter 5, “Booting Linux and Editing Files.”) Configuring the BIOS and Core Hardware All computers ship with a set of core hardware—most obviously, a central processing unit (CPU), which does the bulk of the computational work, and random access memory (RAM), which holds data. Many additional basic features help glue everything together, and some of these can be configured both inside and outside of Linux. At the heart of much of this hardware is the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), which provides configuration tools and initiates the OS booting process. You can use the BIOS to enable and disable key hardware components, but once Linux is booted, you may need to manage this hardware using Linux utilities. Key components managed by the BIOS (and, once it’s booted, Linux) include interrupts, I/O addresses, DMA addresses, the real-time clock, and Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) hard disk interfaces.
  • 158. Configuring the BIOS and Core Hardware 107 Understanding the Role of the BIOS The BIOS is the firmware that initiates the process of booting an operating system on a computer. It resides on the motherboard in ROM, typically in an electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a.k.a. flash memory. When you turn on a computer, the BIOS performs a power-on self-test (POST), initializes hardware to a known operational state, loads the boot loader from the boot device (typically the first hard disk), and passes control to the boot loader, which in turn loads the OS. Historically, a further purpose of the BIOS was to provide fundamental input/output (I/O) services to the operating system and application programs, insulating them from hardware changes. Although the Linux kernel uses the BIOS to collect information about the hardware, once Linux is running, it doesn’t use BIOS services for I/O. Having said that, Linux system administrators require a basic understanding of the BIOS because of the key role it plays in configuring hardware and in booting. The BIOS as described here is used on most x86 and x86-64 computers; however, some computers use radically different software in place of the PC BIOS . Apple computers, for instance, use either OpenFirmware (for PowerPC systems) or the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI; for Intel-based Macs) . EFI has been used on some other computers, too, and is an option on some non-Apple x86 and x86-64 systems . Although OpenFirmware, EFI, and other firmware programs differ from the traditional (some now say “legacy”) x86 BIOS, these systems all perform similar tasks . If you must administer a non-BIOS system, you should take some time to research the details of how its low-level firmware operates; however, this won’t greatly affect how Linux treats the hardware at the level of day-to-day system administration . Although BIOS implementations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, most provide an interactive facility to configure them. Typically, you enter this setup tool by pressing the Delete, F1, or F2 key early in the boot sequence. (Consult your motherboard manual or look for on-screen prompts for details.) Figure 3.1 shows a typical BIOS setup main screen. You can use the arrow keys, the Enter key, and so on to move around the BIOS options and adjust them. Computers usually come delivered with reasonable BIOS defaults, but you may need to adjust them if you add new hardware or if a standard piece of hardware is causing problems. One key ability of the BIOS is enabling or disabling on-board hardware. Modern moth- erboards provide a wide range of hardware devices, including floppy disk controllers, hard disk controllers, RS-232 serial ports, parallel ports, USB ports, Ethernet ports, audio hard- ware, and even video hardware. Usually, having this hardware available is beneficial, but sometimes it’s not. The hardware may be inadequate, so you’ll want to replace it with a more capable plug-in card; or you may not need it. In such cases, you can disable the device in the BIOS. Doing so keeps the device from consuming the hardware resources that are
  • 159. 108  Chapter 3  n  Configuring Hardware described shortly, reducing the odds of an unused device interfering with the hardware you do use. F i g ure 3 .1 ​ ​The BIOS setup screen provides features related to low-level hardware configuration. Precisely how to disable hardware in the BIOS varies from one computer to another. You should peruse the available menus to find mention of the hardware you want to dis- able. Menus entitled Integrated Peripherals or Advanced are particularly likely to hold these features. Once you’ve spotted the options, follow the on-screen prompts for hints at how to proceed; for instance, Figure 3.1 shows an Item Specific Help area on the right side of the screen. Information about keys to press to perform various actions appears here. Once you’re finished, follow the on-screen menus and prompts to save your changes and exit. When you do so, the computer will reboot. Once Linux boots, it uses its own drivers to access the computer’s hardware. Understanding the hardware resources that Linux uses will help you determine when you may want to shut down, boot into the BIOS, and disable particular hardware devices at such a low level. Booting Without a Keyboard Most PCs have keyboards attached to them; however, many Linux computers function as servers, which don’t require keyboards for day-to-day operation. In such cases, you may want to detach the keyboard to reduce clutter and eliminate the risk of accidental key- presses causing problems.
  • 160. Configuring the BIOS and Core Hardware  109 Unfortunately, many computers complain and refuse to boot if you unplug the keyboard and attempt to boot the computer. To disable this warning, look for a BIOS option called Halt On or something similar. This option tells the BIOS under what circumstances it should refuse to boot. You should find an option to disable the keyboard check. Once you select this option, you should be able to shut down, detach the keyboard, and boot nor- mally. Of course, you’ll need to be able to access the computer via a network connection or in some other way to administer it, so be sure this is configured before you remove the keyboard! IRQs An interrupt request (IRQ), or interrupt, is a signal sent to the CPU instructing it to suspend its current activity and to handle some external event such as keyboard input. On the x86 platform, IRQs are numbered from 0 to 15. More modern computers, including x86-64 systems, provide more than these 16 interrupts. Some interrupts are reserved for specific purposes, such as the keyboard and the real-time clock; others have common uses (and are sometimes overused) but may be reassigned; and some are left available for extra devices that may be added to the system. Table 3.1 lists the IRQs and their common purposes in the x86 system. (On x86-64 systems, IRQs are typically assigned as in Table 3.1, but addi- tional hardware may be assigned to higher IRQs.) Table 3 .1 ​ ​IRQs and Their Common Uses IRQ Typical Use Notes 0 System timer Reserved for internal use. 1 Keyboard Reserved for keyboard use only. 2 Cascade for IRQs 8–15 The original x86 IRQ-handling circuit can manage just 8 IRQs; 2 are tied together to handle 16 IRQs, but IRQ 2 must be used to handle IRQs 8–15. 3 Second RS-232 serial port (COM2: in ­Windows) May also be shared by a fourth RS-232 serial port. 4 First RS-232 serial port (COM1: in ­Windows) May also be shared by a third RS-232 serial port. 5 Sound card or second parallel port (LPT2: in Windows)
  • 161. 110 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware IRQ Typical Use Notes 6 Floppy disk controller Reserved for the first floppy disk controller . 7 First parallel port (LPT1: in Windows) 8 Real-time clock Reserved for system clock use only . 9 Open interrupt 10 Open interrupt 11 Open interrupt 12 PS/2 mouse 13 Math coprocessor Reserved for internal use . 14 Primary ATA controller The controller for ATA devices such as hard drives; typically /dev/hda and /dev/hdb under Linux . 15 Secondary ATA controller The controller for more ATA devices; typically /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd under Linux . The original Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus design makes sharing an inter- rupt between two devices tricky. Ideally, every ISA device should have its own IRQ. The more recent Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus makes sharing interrupts a bit easier, so PCI devices frequently end up sharing an IRQ. The ISA bus has become rare on computers made since 2001 or so, but it’s common on older computers. Even some com- puters that lack physical ISA slots may use ISA internally to manage some devices, such as RS-232 serial ports and parallel ports. IRQ 5 is a common source of interrupt conflicts because it’s the default value for sound cards as well as for second parallel ports . Once a Linux system is running, you can explore what IRQs are being used for various purposes by examining the contents of the /proc/interrupts file. A common way to do this is with the use of the cat command: $ cat /proc/interrupts CPU0 0: 42 IO-APIC-edge timer TA B L E 3 .1 IRQs and Their Common Uses (continued)
  • 162. Configuring the BIOS and Core Hardware 111 1: 444882 IO-APIC-edge i8042 4: 12 IO-APIC-edge 6: 69 IO-APIC-edge floppy 8: 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc 9: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi 14: 3010291 IO-APIC-edge ide0 15: 11156960 IO-APIC-edge ide1 16: 125264892 IO-APIC-fasteoi eth0 17: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi cx88[0], cx88[0] 20: 3598946 IO-APIC-fasteoi sata_via 21: 4566307 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2, ehci_hcd:usb3 22: 430444 IO-APIC-fasteoi VIA8237 NMI: 0 Non-maskable interrupts LOC: 168759611 Local timer interrupts TRM: 0 Thermal event interrupts THR: 0 Threshold APIC interrupts SPU: 0 Spurious interrupts ERR: 0 The /proc filesystem is a virtual filesystem—it doesn’t refer to actual files on a hard disk, but to kernel data that’s convenient to represent using a file- system . The files in /proc provide information about the hardware, running processes, and so on . Many Linux utilities use /proc behind the scenes; or you can directly access these files using utilities like cat, which copies the data to the screen when given just one argument . This output shows the names of the drivers that are using each IRQ. Some of these driver names are easy to interpret, such as floppy. Others are more puzzling, such as cx88 (it’s a driver for a video capture card). If the purpose of a driver isn’t obvious, try doing a Web search on it; chances are you’ll find a relevant hit fairly easily. Note that the preceding output shows interrupts numbered up to 22; this system supports more than the 16 base x86 interrupts. The /proc/interrupts file lists IRQs that are in use by Linux, but Linux doesn’t begin using an IRQ until the relevant driver is loaded . This may not happen until you try to use the hardware . Thus, the /proc/interrupts list may not show all the interrupts that are configured on your system . For instance, the preceding example shows nothing for IRQ 7, which is reserved for the parallel port, because the port hadn’t been used prior to viewing the file . If the parallel port were used and /proc/interrupts viewed again, an entry for IRQ 7 and the parport0 driver would appear .
  • 163. 112 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware If your system suffers from IRQ conflicts, you must reconfigure one or more devices to use different IRQs. This topic is described shortly, in “Configuring Expansion Cards.” I/O Addresses I/O addresses (also referred to as I/O ports) are unique locations in memory that are reserved for communications between the CPU and specific physical hardware devices. Like IRQs, I/O addresses are commonly associated with specific devices and should not ordinarily be shared. Table 3.2 lists some Linux device filenames along with the equivalent names in Windows, as well as the common IRQ and I/O address settings. TA B L E 3 . 2 Common Linux Devices Linux Device Windows Name Typical IRQ I/O Address /dev/ttyS0 COM1 4 0x03f8 /dev/ttyS1 COM2 3 0x02f8 /dev/ttyS2 COM3 4 0x03e8 /dev/ttyS3 COM4 3 0x02e8 /dev/lp0 LPT1 7 0x0378-0x037f /dev/lp1 LPT2 5 0x0278-0x027f /dev/fd0 A: 6 0x03f0-0x03f7 /dev/fd1 B: 6 0x0370-0x0377 Although the use is deprecated, older systems sometimes use /dev/cuax (where x is a number from 0 and up) to indicate an RS-232 serial device . Thus, /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/cua0 refer to the same physical device . Once a Linux system is running, you can explore what I/O addresses are being used by examining the contents of the /proc/ioports file. A common way to do this is with the cat command: $ cat /proc/ioports 0000-001f : dma1 0020-0021 : pic1
  • 164. Configuring the BIOS and Core Hardware  113 0040-0043 : timer0 0050-0053 : timer1 0060-006f : keyboard 0070-0077 : rtc 0080-008f : dma page reg 00a0-00a1 : pic2 00c0-00df : dma2 00f0-00ff : fpu This example truncates the output, which goes on for quite a way on the test system. As with IRQs, if your system suffers from I/O port conflicts, you must reconfigure one or more devices, as described in “Configuring Expansion Cards.” In practice, such conflicts are rarer than IRQ conflicts. DMA Addresses Direct memory addressing (DMA) is an alternative method of communication to I/O ports. Rather than have the CPU mediate the transfer of data between a device and mem- ory, DMA permits the device to transfer data directly, without the CPU’s attention. The result can be lower CPU requirements for I/O activity, which can improve overall system performance. To support DMA, the x86 architecture implements several DMA channels, each of which can be used by a particular device. To learn what DMA channels are in use on your system, examine the /proc/dma file: $ cat /proc/dma 2: floppy 4: cascade This output indicates that DMA channels 2 and 4 are in use. As with IRQs and I/O ports, DMA addresses should not normally be shared. In practice, DMA address conflicts are rarer than IRQ conflicts, so chances are you won’t run into problems. If you do, consult the upcoming section “Configuring Expansion Cards.” Boot Disks and Geometry Settings Most BIOSs allow you to choose the order of the devices from which to boot, falling back to the second entry if the first fails, the third entry if the second fails, and so on. In the past, a common order was the first floppy (known as A: in DOS and Windows), followed by the CD-ROM, followed by the first hard disk. With this configuration, the system attempts to boot from each device in turn until one works. If all the devices fail to boot, the BIOS dis- plays an error message. Today, floppies are rare, but a similar boot order involving a USB flash drive might be used.
  • 165. 114  Chapter 3  n  Configuring Hardware Although boot sequences involving removable disks are common, they have their prob- lems. Specifically, if somebody accidentally leaves a floppy disk in the drive, this can pre- vent the system from booting. Worse, some (mostly old) viruses are transmitted by floppy disks’ boot sectors, so this method can result in viral infection. Using removable disks as the default boot media also opens the door to intruders who have physical access to the computer; they need only reboot with a bootable removable disk or CD-ROM to gain complete control of your system. For these reasons, it’s better to make the first hard disk the only boot device. (You must change this configuration when installing Linux or using an emergency boot disk for maintenance.) Most modern BIOSs make temporary changes easier by providing a special key to allow a one-time change to the boot sequence. On most other computers, to change the boot sequence, you must locate the appropriate BIOS option, change it, and reboot the computer. It’s usually located in an Advanced menu, so look there. Another disk option is the one for detecting disk devices. Figure 3.1 shows three disk devices: the A: floppy disk (/dev/fd0 under Linux), a 1048MB primary master hard disk, and a CD-ROM drive as the secondary master. In most cases, the BIOS detects and config- ures hard disks and CD-ROM drives correctly. You may need to tell it what sort of floppy disk you’ve got, though. Also, in rare circumstances, you must tell the BIOS about the hard disk’s cylinder/head/sector (CHS) geometry. The CHS geometry is a holdover from the early days of the x86 architecture. Figure 3.2 shows the traditional hard disk layout, which consists of a fixed number of read/write heads that can move across the disk surfaces (or platters). As the disk spins, each head marks out a circular track on its platter; these tracks collectively make up a cylinder. Each track is bro- ken down into a series of sectors. Thus, any sector on a hard disk can be uniquely identified by three numbers: a cylinder number, a head number, and a sector number. The x86 BIOS was designed to use this three-number CHS identification code. One consequence of this configuration is that the BIOS must know how many cylinders, heads, and sectors the disk has. Modern hard disks relay this information to the BIOS automatically; but for compat- ibility with the earliest hard disks, BIOSs still enable you to set these values manually. F i g ure 3 . 2 ​ ​Hard disks are built from platters, each of which is broken into tracks, which are broken into sectors. Pivoting arms with read/write heads Track Sector Platters
  • 166. Configuring the BIOS and Core Hardware 115 The BIOS will detect only certain types of disks . Of particular importance, SCSI disks and (on some computers) serial ATA (SATA) disks won’t appear in the main BIOS disk-detection screen . These disks are handled by supplemen- tary BIOSs associated with the controllers for these devices . Some BIOSs do provide explicit options to add SCSI devices into the boot sequence, so you can give priority to either ATA or SCSI devices . For those without these options, SCSI disks generally take second seat to ATA disks . CHS geometry, unfortunately, has its problems. For one thing, all but the earliest hard disks use variable numbers of sectors per cylinder—modern disks squeeze more sectors onto outer tracks than inner ones, fitting more data on each disk. Thus, the CHS geometry presented to the BIOS by the hard disk is a convenient lie. Worse, because of limits on the numbers in the BIOS and in the ATA hard disk interface, plain CHS geometry tops out at 504MB, which is puny by today’s standards. Various patches, such as CHS geometry translation, can be used to expand the limit to about 8GB. Today, though, the preference is to use logical block addressing (LBA) mode. (Some sources use the expansion linear block addressing for this acronym.) In this mode, a single unique number is assigned to each sec- tor on the disk, and the disk’s firmware is smart enough to read from the correct head and cylinder when given this sector number. Modern BIOSs typically provide an option to use LBA mode, CHS translation mode, or possibly some other modes with large disks. In most cases, LBA mode is the best choice. If you must retrieve data from very old disks, though, you may need to change this option. Because of variability in how different BIOSs handle CHS translation, moving disks between computers can result in problems because of mis- matched CHS geometries claimed in disk structures and by the BIOS . Linux is usually smart enough to work around such problems, but you may see some odd error messages in disk utilities like fdisk . If you see messages about inconsistent CHS geometries, proceed with caution when using low-level disk utilities lest you create an inconsistent partition table that could cause problems, particularly in OSs that are less robust than Linux on this score . Coldplug and Hotplug Devices Whenever you deal with hardware, you should keep in mind a distinction between two device types: coldplug and hotplug. These device types differ depending on whether they can be physically attached and detached when the computer is turned on (that is, “hot”), versus only when it’s turned off (“cold”).
  • 167. 116 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Coldplug devices are designed to be physically connected and disconnected only when the computer is turned off . Attempting to attach or detach such devices when the computer is running can damage the device or the com- puter, so do not attempt to do so . Traditionally, components that are internal to the computer, such as the CPU, memory, PCI cards, and hard disks, have been coldplug devices. A hotplug variant of PCI, however, has been developed and is used on some systems—mainly on servers and other systems that can’t afford the downtime required to install or remove a device. Hot-plug SATA devices are also available. Modern external devices, such as Ethernet, USB, and IEEE-1394 devices, are hotplug; you can attach and detach such devices as you see fit. These devices rely on specialized Linux software to detect the changes to the system as they’re attached and detached. Several utilities help in managing hotplug devices: Sysfs The sysfs virtual filesystem, mounted at /sys, exports information about devices so that user space utilities can access the information. A user space program is one that runs as an ordinary program, whether it runs as an ordinary user or as root . This contrasts with kernel space code, which runs as part of the kernel . Typically, only the kernel (and hence ker- nel space code) can communicate directly with hardware . User space pro- grams are the ultimate users of hardware, though . Traditionally, the /dev filesystem has provided the main means of interface between user space programs and hardware; however, the tools described here help expand on this access, particularly in ways that are useful for hotplug devices . HAL Daemon The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) Daemon, or hald, is a user space program that runs at all times (that is, as a daemon) that provides other user space pro- grams with information about available hardware. D-Bus The Desktop Bus (D-Bus) provides a further abstraction of hardware information access. Like hald, D-Bus runs as a daemon. D-Bus enables processes to communicate with each other as well as to register to be notified of events, both by other processes and by hardware (such as the availability of a new USB device). udev Traditionally, Linux has created device nodes as conventional files in the /dev direc- tory tree. The existence of hotplug devices and various other issues, however, have motivated the creation of udev: a virtual filesystem, mounted at /dev, which creates dynamic device files as drivers are loaded and unloaded. You can configure udev through files in /etc/udev, but the standard configuration is usually sufficient for common hardware. These tools all help programs work seamlessly in a world of hotplug devices by enabling the programs to learn about hardware, including receiving notification when the hardware configuration changes.
  • 168. Configuring Expansion Cards 117 Older external devices, such as parallel and RS-232 ports, are officially coldplug in nature. In practice, many people treat these devices as if they were hotplug, and they can usually get away with it; but there is a risk of damage, so it’s safest to power down a computer before connecting or disconnecting such a device. When RS-232 or parallel port devices are hotplugged, they typically aren’t registered by tools such as udev and hald. Only the ports to which these devices connect are handled by the OS; it’s up to user space programs, such as terminal programs or the printing system, to know how to communicate with the external devices. Configuring Expansion Cards Many hardware devices require configuration—you must set the IRQ, I/O port, and DMA addresses used by the device. (Not all devices use all three resources.) Through the mid- 1990s, this process involved tedious changes to jumpers on the hardware. Today, though, you can configure most options through software. Even devices that are built into the motherboard are configured through the same means used to configure PCI cards . Configuring PCI Cards The PCI bus, which is the standard expansion bus for most internal devices, was designed with Plug-and-Play (PnP)-style configuration in mind; thus, automatic configuration of PCI devices is the rule rather than the exception. For the most part, PCI devices configure them- selves automatically, and there’s no need to make any changes. You can, though, tweak how PCI devices are detected in several ways: The Linux kernel has an option that affects how it detects PCI devices: Bus OptionsNN  PCI Access Mode. This option has four values: BIOS, which uses the BIOS to do the job; MMConfig, which uses a protocol of that name to detect PCI devices; Direct, which uses a Linux-specific direct-detection system; and Any, which tries MMConfig followed by Direct followed by BIOS detection. In most cases, Any is the most appro- priate option; however, if your devices aren’t being detected correctly or are being assigned resources that are causing conflicts, you may want to try experimenting with this option. Most BIOSs have PCI options that change the way PCI resources are allocated. Adjust-NN ing these options may help if you run into strange hardware problems with PCI devices. These options affect only the BIOS detection system, though, and so may work only if you select BIOS as the PCI-detection method in the kernel.
  • 169. 118  Chapter 3  n  Configuring Hardware Some Linux drivers support options that cause them to configure the relevant hardwareNN to use particular resources. You should consult the drivers’ documentation files for details of the options they support. You must then pass these options to the kernel using a boot loader (as described in Chapter 5) or as kernel module options. You can use theNN setpci utility to directly query and adjust PCI devices’ configurations. This tool is most likely to be useful if you know enough about the hardware to fine-tune its low-level configuration; it’s not often used to tweak the hardware’s basic IRQ, I/O port, or DMA options. In addition to the configuration options, you may want to check how PCI devices are currently configured. The lspci command is used for this purpose; it displays all informa- tion about the PCI busses on your system and all devices connected to those busses. This command takes several options that fine-tune its behavior. The most common of these are listed in Table 3.3. Table 3 . 3 ​ ​Options for lspci Option Effect -v Increases verbosity of output. This option may be doubled (-vv) or tripled (-vvv) to produce yet more output. -n Displays information in numeric codes rather than translating the codes to manu- facturer and device names. -nn Displays both the manufacturer and device names and their associated numeric codes. -x Displays the PCI configuration space for each device as a hexadecimal dump. This is an extremely advanced option. Tripling (-xxx) or quadrupling (-xxxx) this option displays information about more devices -b Shows IRQ numbers and other data as seen by devices rather than as seen by the kernel. -t Displays a tree view depicting the relation- ship between devices. -s [[[[domain]:]bus]:][slot][.[func]] Displays only devices that match the listed specification. This can be used to trim the results of the output.
  • 170. Configuring Expansion Cards  119 Option Effect -d [vendor]:[device] Shows data on the specified device. -i file Uses the specified file to map vendor and device IDs to names. (The default is /usr/ share/misc/pci.ids.) -m Dumps data in a machine-readable form, intended for use by scripts. A single -m uses a backward-compatible format, whereas doubling (-mm) uses a newer format. -D Displays PCI domain numbers. These num- bers normally aren’t displayed. -M Performs a scan in bus-mapping mode, which can reveal devices hidden behind a misconfigured PCI bridge. This is an advanced option that can be used only by root. —version Displays version information. Learning about Kernel Modules Hardware in Linux is handled by kernel drivers, many of which come in the form of kernel modules. These are stand-alone driver files, typically stored in the /lib/modules directory tree, that can be loaded to provide access to hardware and unloaded to disable such access. Typically, Linux loads the modules it needs when it boots, but you may need to load addi- tional modules yourself. You can learn about the modules that are currently loaded on your system by using lsmod, which takes no options and produces output like this: $ lsmod Module Size Used by isofs 35820 0 zlib_inflate 21888 1 isofs floppy 65200 0 nls_iso8859_1 5568 1 nls_cp437 7296 1 vfat 15680 1 Table 3 . 3     Options for lspci (continued)
  • 171. 120 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware fat 49536 1 vfat sr_mod 19236 0 ide_cd 42848 0 cdrom 39080 2 sr_mod,ide_cd This output has been edited for brevity . Although outputs this short are possible with certain configurations, they’re rare . The most important column in this output is the first one, labeled Module; this column specifies the names of all the modules that are currently loaded. You can learn more about these modules with modinfo, as described shortly, but sometimes their purpose is fairly obvious. For instance, the floppy module provides access to the floppy disk drive. The Used by column of the lsmod output describes what’s using the module. All the entries have a number, which indicates the number of other modules or processes that are using the module. For instance, in the preceding example, the isofs module (used to access CD-ROM filesystems) isn’t currently in use, as revealed by its 0 value; but the vfat module (used to read VFAT hard disk partitions and floppies) is being used, as shown by its value of 1. If one of the modules is being used by another module, the using module’s name appears in the Used by column. For instance, the isofs module relies on the zlib_inflate module, so the latter module’s Used by column includes the isofs module name. This information can be useful when you’re managing modules. For instance, if your system produced the preceding output, you couldn’t directly remove the zlib_inflate module because it’s being used by the isofs module; but you could remove the isofs module, and after doing so you could remove the zlib_inflate module. (Both modules would need to be added back to read most CD-ROMs, though.) The lsmod command displays information only about kernel modules, not about drivers that are compiled directly into the Linux kernel . For this rea- son, a module may need to be loaded on one system but not on another to use the same hardware because the second system may compile the rel- evant driver directly into the kernel . Loading Kernel Modules Linux enables you to load kernel modules with two programs: insmod and modprobe. The insmod program inserts a single module into the kernel. This process requires you to have already loaded any modules on which the module you’re loading relies. The modprobe pro- gram, by contrast, automatically loads any depended-on modules and so is generally the preferred way to do the job.
  • 172. Configuring Expansion Cards 121 In practice, you may not need to use insmod or modprobe to load modules because Linux can load them automatically . This ability relies on the ker- nel’s module auto-loader feature, which must be compiled into the kernel, and on various configuration files, which are also required for modprobe and some other tools . Using insmod and modprobe can be useful for test- ing new modules or for working around problems with the auto-loader, though . In practice, insmod is a fairly straightforward program to use; you type its name fol- lowed by the module filename: # insmod /lib/modules/2.6.26/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko This command loads the floppy.ko module, which you must specify by filename. Modules have module names, too, which are usually the same as the filename but without the exten- sion, as in floppy for the floppy.ko file. Unfortunately, insmod requires the full module name. You can pass additional module options to the module by adding them to the command line. Module options are highly module-specific, so you must consult the documentation for the module to learn what to pass. Examples include options to tell an RS-232 serial port driver what interrupt to use to access the hardware or to tell a video card framebuffer driver what screen resolution to use. Some modules depend on other modules. In these cases, if you attempt to load a module that depends on others and those other modules aren’t loaded, insmod will fail. When this happens, you must either track down and manually load the depended-on modules or use modprobe. In the simplest case, you can use modprobe much as you use insmod, by passing it a module name: # modprobe floppy As with insmod, you can add kernel options to the end of the command line. Unlike insmod, you specify a module by its module name rather than its module filename when you use modprobe. Generally speaking, this helps make modprobe easier to use, as does the fact that modprobe automatically loads dependencies. This greater convenience means that modprobe relies on configuration files. It also means that you can use options (placed between the command name and the module name) to modify modprobe’s behavior: Be verbose The -v or --verbose option tells modprobe to display extra information about its operations. Typically, this includes a summary of every insmod operation it performs. Change configuration files The modprobe program uses a configuration file called /etc/ modprobe.conf. You can change the file by passing a new file with the -C filename option, as in modprobe -C /etc/mymodprobe.conf floppy.
  • 173. 122 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Perform a dry run The -n or --dry-run option causes modprobe to perform checks and all other operations except the actual module insertions. You might use this option in con- junction with -v to see what modprobe would do without loading the module. This may be helpful in debugging, particularly if inserting the module is having some detrimental effect, such as disabling disk access. Remove modules The -r or --remove option reverses modprobe’s usual effect; it causes the program to remove the specified module and any on which it depends. (Depended-on modules are not removed if they’re in use.) Force loading The -f or --force option tells modprobe to force the module loading even if the kernel version doesn’t match what the module expects. This action is potentially dangerous, but it’s occasionally required when using third-party binary-only modules. Show dependencies The --show-depends option shows all the modules on which the spec- ified module depends. This option doesn’t install any of the modules; it’s purely informative in nature. Show available modules The -l or --list option displays a list of available options whose names match the wildcard you specify. For instance, typing modprobe -l v* displays all modules whose names begin with v. If you provide no wildcard, modprobe displays all avail- able modules. Like --show-depends, this option doesn’t cause any modules to be loaded. This list of options is incomplete . The others are relatively obscure, so you’re not likely to need them often . Consult the modprobe man page for more information . Removing Kernel Modules In most cases, you can leave modules loaded indefinitely; the only harm that a module does when it’s loaded but not used is to consume a small amount of memory. (The lsmod program shows how much memory each module consumes.) Sometimes, though, you may want to remove a loaded module. Reasons include reclaiming that tiny amount of memory, unloading an old module so you can load an updated replacement module, and removing a module that you suspect is unreliable. The work of unloading a kernel module is done by the rmmod command, which is some- thing of the opposite of insmod. The rmmod command takes a module name as an option, though, rather than a module filename: # rmmod floppy
  • 174. Configuring USB Devices  123 This example command unloads the floppy module. You can modify the behavior of rmmod in various ways: Be verbose ​ ​Passing the -v or --verbose option causes rmmod to display some extra infor- mation about what it’s doing. This may be helpful if you’re troubleshooting a problem. Force removal ​ ​The -f or --force option forces module removal even if the module is marked as being in use. Naturally, this is a very dangerous option, but it’s sometimes help- ful if a module is misbehaving in some way that’s even more dangerous. This option has no effect unless the CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD kernel option is enabled. Wait until unused ​ ​The -w or --wait option causes rmmod to wait for the module to become unused, rather than return an error message, if the module is in use. Once the module is no longer being used (say, after a floppy disk is unmounted if you try to remove the floppy module), rmmod unloads the module and returns. Until then, rmmod doesn’t return, making it look like it’s not doing anything. A few more rmmod options exist; consult the rmmod man page for details. Like insmod, rmmod operates on a single module. If you try to unload a module that’s depended on by other modules or is in use, rmmod will return an error message. (The -w option modifies this behavior, as just described.) If the module is depended on by other modules, those modules are listed, so you can decide whether to unload them. If you want to unload an entire module stack—that is, a module and all those upon which it depends— you can use the modprobe command and its -r option, as described earlier in “Loading Kernel Modules.” Configuring USB Devices Modern computers invariably ship with USB ports, and USB is now an extremely popular (perhaps the most popular) external interface form. This fact means you must understand something about USB, including USB itself, Linux’s USB drivers, and Linux’s USB manage- ment tools. USB Basics USB is a protocol and hardware port for transferring data to and from devices. It allows for many more (and varied) devices per interface port than either ATA or SCSI and gives better speed than RS-232 serial and parallel ports. The USB 1.0 and 1.1 specifications allow for up to 127 devices and 12Mbps of data transfer. USB 2.0 allows for much higher transfer rates—480Mbps, to be precise. USB 3.0, introduced in 2010, supports a theoretical maxi- mum speed of 4.8 Gbps, although 3.2 Gbps is a more likely top speed in practice. USB 3.0 devices require a new physical connector.
  • 175. 124 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Data transfer speeds may be expressed in bits per second (bps) or multiples thereof, such as megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbps); or in bytes per second (B/s) or multiples thereof, such as megabytes per second (MB/s) . In most cases, there are 8 bits per byte, so multiplying or dividing by eight may be necessary if you’re trying to compare speeds of devices that use different measures . USB is the preferred interface method for many external devices, including printers, scanners, mice, digital cameras, and music players. USB keyboards, Ethernet adapters, modems, speakers, hard drives, and other devices are also available, although USB has yet to dominate these areas as it has some others. Most computers ship with four to eight USB ports. (A few years ago, two USB ports were more common.) Each port can handle one device by itself, but you can use a USB hub to connect several devices to each port. Thus, you can theoretically connect huge numbers of USB devices to a computer. In practice, you may run into speed problems, particularly if you’re using USB 1.x for devices that tend to transfer a lot of data, such as scanners, printers, or hard drives. If you’ve got an older computer that only supports USB 1 .x, and you want to connect a high-speed USB 2 .0 or 3 .0 device, buy a separate USB 2 .0 or 3 .0 board . You can use this board for the faster device and either disable the onboard USB 1 .x ports or use them for slower devices . Linux USB Drivers Several different USB controllers are available, with names such as UHCI, OHCI, EHCI, and R8A66597. Modern Linux distributions ship with the drivers for the common USB controllers enabled, so your USB port should be activated automatically when you boot the computer. The UHCI and OHCI controllers handle USB 1.x devices, but most other con- trollers can handle USB 2.0 devices. You need a 2.6.31 or later kernel to use USB 3.0 hard- ware. Note that these controllers merely provide a means to access the actual USB devices (mice, printers, and so on). Chances are you’ll be most interested in the tools and utilities that enable you to use these devices. You can learn a great deal about your devices by using the lsusb utility. A simple use of this program with no options reveals basic information about your USB devices: $ lsusb Bus 003 Device 008: ID 0686:400e Minolta Co., Ltd Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c401 Logitech, Inc. TrackMan Marble Wheel Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
  • 176. Configuring USB Devices  125 In this example, three USB busses are detected (001, 002, and 003). The first bus has no devices attached, but the second and third each have one device—a Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel trackball and a Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 scanner, respectively. (The scanner’s name isn’t fully identified by this output, except insofar as the ID number encodes this information.) You can gather additional information by using various options to lsusb: Be verbose ​ ​The -v option produces extended information about each product. Restrict bus and device number ​ ​Using the -s [[bus]:][devnum] option restricts output to the specified bus and device number. Restrict vendor and product ​ ​You can limit output to a particular vendor and product by using the -d [vendor]:[product] option. The vendor and product are the codes just after ID on each line of the basic lsusb output. Display device by filename ​ ​Using -D filename displays information about the device that’s accessible via filename, which should be a file in the /proc/bus/usb directory tree. This directory provides a low-level interface to USB devices, as described shortly. Tree view ​ ​The -t option displays the device list as a tree, so that you can more easily see what devices are connected to specific controllers. Version ​ ​The -V or --version option displays the version of the lsusb utility and exits. Early Linux USB implementations required a separate driver for every USB device. Many of these drivers remain in the kernel, and some software relies on them. For instance, USB disk storage devices use USB storage drivers that interface with Linux’s SCSI support, mak- ing USB hard disks, removable disks, and so on look like SCSI devices. Linux is migrating toward a model in which a USB filesystem provides access to USB devices. This filesystem appears as part of the /proc virtual filesystem. In particular, USB device infor- mation is accessible from /proc/bus/usb. Subdirectories of /proc/bus/usb are given num- bered names based on the USB controllers installed on the computer, as in /proc/bus/usb/001 for the first USB controller. Software can access files in these directories to control USB devices rather than use device files in /dev as with most hardware devices. USB Manager Applications USB can be challenging for OSs because it was designed as a hot-pluggable technology. The Linux kernel wasn’t originally designed with this sort of activity in mind, so the ker- nel relies on external utilities to help manage matters. Two tools in particular are used for managing USB devices: usbmgr and hotplug. The usbmgr package (located at is a program that runs in the background to detect changes on the USB bus. When it detects changes, it loads or unloads the kernel modules that are required to handle the devices. For instance, if you plug in a USB Zip drive, usbmgr will load the necessary USB and SCSI disk modules. This package uses configuration files in /etc/usbmgr to handle specific devices and /etc/ usbmgr/usbmgr.conf to control the overall configuration.
  • 177. 126  Chapter 3  n  Configuring Hardware With the shift from in-kernel device-specific USB drivers to the USB device filesystem (/proc/bus/usb), usbmgr has been declining in importance. In fact, it may not be installed on your system. Instead, most distributions rely on the Hotplug package (http://linux-hotplug, which relies on kernel support added with the 2.4.x kernel series. This system uses files stored in /etc/hotplug to control the configuration of specific USB devices. In particular, /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap contains a database of USB device IDs and pointers to scripts in /etc/hotplug/usb that are run when devices are plugged in or unplugged. These scripts might change permissions on USB device files so that ordinary users can access USB hardware, run commands to detect new USB disk devices, or other- wise prepare the system for a new (or newly removed) USB device. Configuring Hard Disks Hard disks are among the most important components in your system. Three different hard disk interfaces are common on modern computers: Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA), a.k.a. ATA; Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA); and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI). In addition, external USB and IEEE-1394 drives are available, as well as external variants of SATA and SCSI drives. Each has its own method of low-level configuration. Configuring PATA Disks PATA disks once ruled the roost in the x86 PC world, but today they’re fast giving way to SATA disks. Thus, you’re most likely to encounter PATA disks on slightly older comput- ers—say, from 2005 or earlier. PATA disks are still readily available, though, and PATA is still used even in some new computers, particularly for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives. As the full name implies, PATA disks use a parallel interface, meaning that several bits of data are transferred over the cable at once. Thus, PATA cables are wide, supporting a total of either 40 or 80 lines, depending on the variety of PATA. You can connect up to two devices to each PATA connector on a motherboard or plug-in PATA controller, meaning that PATA cables typically have three connectors—one for the motherboard and two for disks. PATA disks must be configured as masters or as slaves. This can be done via jumpers on the disks themselves. Typically, the master device sits at the end of the cable and the slave device resides on the middle connector. All modern PATA disks also support an option called cable select. When set to this option, the drive attempts to configure itself automatically based on its position on the PATA cable. Thus, your easiest configuration is usually to set all PATA devices to use the cable-select option; you can then attach them to whatever posi- tion is convenient, and the drives should configure themselves. For best performance, disks should be placed on separate controllers rather than config- ured as master and slave on a single controller, because each PATA controller has a limited
  • 178. Configuring Hard Disks  127 throughput that may be exceeded by two drives. Until recently, most motherboards have included at least two controllers, so putting each drive on its own controller isn’t a problem until you install more than two drives in a single computer. All but the most ancient BIOSs auto-detect PATA devices and provide information about their capacities and model numbers in the BIOS setup utilities. Until recently, most moth- erboards would boot PATA drives in preference to other drives, although BIOSs have also often provided options to change this preference in favor of SCSI drives. Thus, in a mixed- drive setup, you may have to place your boot loader on a PATA drive. In Linux, PATA disks have traditionally been identified as /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, and so on, with /dev/hda being the master drive on the first controller, /dev/hdb being the slave drive on the first controller, and so on. Thus, gaps can occur in the numbering scheme—if you’ve got master disks on the first and second controllers but no slave disks, your system will contain /dev/hda and /dev/hdc, but no /dev/hdb. Partitions are identified by numbers after the main device name, as in /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, and so on. The naming rules for disks also apply to optical media, except that these media aren’t typically partitioned. Most Linux distributions also create a link to your optical drive under the name /dev/cdrom or /dev/dvd. Removable PATA disks, such as Zip disks, are given identifiers as if they were fixed PATA disks, optionally including partition identifiers. Recently, Linux drivers have appeared that treat PATA disks as if they were SCSI disks. Thus, you may find that your device filenames follow the SCSI rules rather than the PATA rules even if you have PATA disks. Configuring SATA Disks SATA is a newer interface than PATA, but SATA is rapidly displacing PATA as the interface of choice. New motherboards typically host four or more SATA interfaces, often at the expense of PATA interfaces. SATA disks connect to their motherboards or controllers on a one-to-one basis—unlike PATA, you can’t connect more than one disk to a single cable. This fact simplifies configu- ration; there typically aren’t jumpers to set, and you needn’t be concerned with the position of the disk on the cable. As the word serial in the expansion of SATA implies, SATA is a serial bus—only one bit of data can be transferred at a time. SATA transfers more bits per unit time on its data line, though, so SATA is faster than PATA (187–750 MB/s for SATA vs. 16–133 MB/s for PATA; but these are theoretical maximums that are unlikely to be achieved in real-world situations). Because of SATA’s serial nature, SATA cables are much thinner than PATA cables. Modern BIOSs detect SATA disks and provide information about them just as they do for PATA disks. The BIOS may provide boot order options, too. Older BIOSs are likely to be more limited. This is particularly true if your motherboard doesn’t provide SATA sup- port but you use a separate SATA controller card. You may be able to boot from an SATA disk in such cases if your controller card supports this option, or you may need to use a PATA boot disk.
  • 179. 128 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Most Linux SATA drivers treat SATA disks as if they were SCSI disks, so you should read the next section, “Configuring SCSI Disks,” for information about device naming. Some older drivers treat SATA disks like PATA disks, so you may need to use PATA names. Configuring SCSI Disks There are many types of SCSI definitions, which use a variety of different cables and oper- ate at various speeds. SCSI is traditionally a parallel bus, like PATA, although the latest variant, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), is a serial bus like SATA. SCSI has traditionally been considered a superior bus to PATA; however, the cost difference has risen dramatically over the past decade, so few people today use SCSI. You may find it on older systems or on very high-end systems. SCSI supports up to 8 or 16 devices per bus, depending on the variety. One of these devices is the SCSI host adapter, which either is built into the motherboard or comes as a plug-in card. In practice, the number of devices you can attach to a SCSI bus is more limited because of cable-length limits, which vary from one SCSI variety to another. Each device has its own ID number, typically assigned via a jumper on the device. You must ensure that each device’s ID is unique. Consult its documentation to learn how to set the ID. SCSI hard disks aren’t detected by the standard x86 BIOS. You can still boot from a SCSI hard disk if your SCSI host adapter has its own BIOS that supports booting. Most high-end SCSI host adapters have this support, but low-end SCSI host adapters don’t have BIOSs. If you use such a host adapter, you can still attach SCSI hard disks to the adapter, and Linux can use them, but you’ll need to boot from a PATA or SATA hard disk. SCSI IDs aren’t used to identify the corresponding device file on a Linux system. Hard drives follow the naming system /dev/sdx (where x is a letter from a up), SCSI tapes are named /dev/stx and /dev/nstx (where x is a number from 0 up), and SCSI CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs are named /dev/scdx or /dev/srx (where x is a number from 0 up). SCSI device numbering (or lettering) is usually assigned in increasing order based on the SCSI ID. If you have one hard disk with a SCSI ID of 2 and another hard disk with a SCSI ID of 4, they will be assigned to /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, respectively. The real danger is if you add a third SCSI drive and give it an ID of 0, 1, or 3. This new disk will become /dev/ sda (for an ID of 0 or 1) or /dev/sdb (for ID 3), bumping up one or both of the existing disks’ Linux device identifiers. For this reason, it’s usually best to give hard disks the lowest possible SCSI IDs so that you can add future disks using higher IDs. The mapping of Linux device identifiers to SCSI devices depends in part on the design of the SCSI host adapter . Some host adapters result in assignment starting from SCSI ID 7 and working down to 0 rather than the reverse, with Wide SCSI device numbering continuing on from there to IDs 14 through 8 .
  • 180. Configuring Hard Disks 129 Another complication is when you have multiple SCSI host adapters. In this case, Linux assigns device filenames to all of the disks on the first adapter followed by all those on the second adapter. Depending on where the drivers for the SCSI host adapters are found (com- piled directly into the kernel or loaded as modules) and how they’re loaded (for modular drivers), you may not be able to control which adapter takes precedence. Remember that some non-SCSI devices, such as USB disk devices and SATA disks, are mapped onto the Linux SCSI subsystem . This can cause a true SCSI hard disk to be assigned a higher value than you’d expect if you use such “pseudo-SCSI” devices . The SCSI bus is logically one-dimensional—that is, every device on the bus falls along a single line. This bus must not fork or branch in any way. Each end of the SCSI bus must be terminated. This refers to the presence of a special resistor pack that prevents signals from bouncing back and forth along the SCSI chain. Consult your SCSI host adapter and SCSI devices’ manuals to learn how to terminate them. Remember that both ends of the SCSI chain must be terminated, but devices mid-chain must not be terminated. The SCSI host adapter qualifies as a device, so if it’s at the end of the chain, it must be terminated. Modern SCSI devices usually include a jumper or other setting to enable or disable ter- mination. Older internal devices use comb-shaped resister packs that you insert or remove to terminate the device, and older external devices use external terminators that attach to one of the device’s two SCSI connectors. (A few external SCSI devices are permanently ter- minated and have just one SCSI connector.) Incorrect termination often results in bizarre SCSI problems, such as an inability to detect SCSI devices, poor performance, or unreliable operation. Similar symptoms can result from the use of poor-quality SCSI cables or cables that are too long. Configuring External Disks External disks come in several varieties, the most common of which are USB, IEEE-1394, and SCSI. SCSI has long supported external disks directly, and many SCSI host adapters have both internal and external connectors. You configure external SCSI disks just like internal disks, although the physical details of setting the SCSI ID number and termination may differ; consult your devices’ manuals for details. Linux treats external USB and IEEE-1394 disks just like SCSI devices, from a software point of view. Typically, you can plug the device in, see a /dev/sdx device node appear, and use it as you would a SCSI disk. This is the case for both true external hard disks and media such as solid state USB pen drives.
  • 181. 130 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware External drives are easily removed, and this can be a great convenience; however, you should never unplug an external drive until you’ve unmounted the disk in Linux using the umount command, as described in Chapter 5 . Failure to unmount a disk is likely to result in damage to the filesystem, including lost files . In addition, although USB and IEEE-1394 busses are hot- pluggable, most SCSI busses aren’t, so connecting or disconnecting a SCSI device while the computer is running is dangerous . (Inserting or ejecting a removable SCSI disk, such as a Zip disk, is safe, however .) Designing a Hard Disk Layout Whether your system uses PATA, SATA, or SCSI disks, you must design a disk layout for Linux. If you’re using a system with Linux preinstalled, you may not need to deal with this task immediately; however, sooner or later you’ll have to install Linux on a new computer or one with an existing OS or upgrade your hard disk. The next few pages describe the x86 partitioning schemes, Linux mount points, and common choices for a Linux partitioning scheme. The upcoming section “Creating Partitions and Filesystems” covers the mechanics of creating partitions. Why Partition? The first issue with partitioning is the question of why you should do it. The answer is that partitioning provides a variety of advantages, including the following: Multi-OS support Partitioning enables you to keep the data for different OSs separate. In fact, many OSs can’t easily co-exist on the same partition because they don’t support each other’s primary filesystems. This feature is obviously important only if you want the com- puter to boot multiple OSs. It can also be handy to help maintain an emergency system—you can install a single OS twice, using the second installation as an emergency maintenance tool for the first in case problems develop. Filesystem choice By partitioning your disk, you can use different filesystems—data struc- tures designed to hold all the files on a partition—on each partition. Perhaps one filesystem is faster than another and so is important for time-critical or frequently accessed files, but another may provide accounting or backup features you want to use for users’ data files. Disk space management By partitioning your disk, you can lock certain sets of files into a fixed space. For instance, if you restrict users to storing files on one or two partitions, they can fill those partitions without causing problems on other partitions, such as system parti- tions. This feature can help keep your system from crashing if space runs out. On the other hand, if you get the partition sizes wrong, it can cause lesser problems much sooner than would be the case if you’d used fewer partitions.
  • 182. Designing a Hard Disk Layout 131 Disk error protection Disks sometimes develop problems. These problems can be the result of bad hardware or of errors that creep into the filesystems. In either case, splitting a disk into partitions provides some protection against such problems. If data structures on one partition become corrupted, these errors affect only the files on that disk. This separa- tion can therefore protect data on other partitions and simplify data recovery. Security You can use different security-related mount options on different partitions. For instance, you might mount a partition that holds critical system files read-only, preventing users from writing to that partition. Linux’s file security options should provide similar protection, but taking advantage of Linux filesystem mount options provides redundancy that can be helpful in case of an error in setting up file or directory permissions. Backup Some backup tools work best on whole partitions. By keeping partitions small, you may be able to back up more easily than you could if your partitions were large. In practice, most Linux computers use several partitions, although precisely how the system is partitioned varies from one system to another. (The upcoming section “Common Partitions and Filesystem Layouts” describes some possibilities.) Understanding Partitioning Systems Partitions are defined by data structures that are written to specified parts of the hard disk. Several competing systems for defining these partitions exist. On x86 and x86-64 hard- ware, the most common method up until 2010 had been the Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning system, so called because it stores its data in the first sector of the disk, which is also known as the MBR. The MBR system, however, is limited to partitions and parti- tion placement of 2 terabytes (TB), at least when using the nearly universal sector size of 512 bytes. The successor to MBR is the GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning system, which has much higher limits and certain other advantages. The tools and methods for manipulating MBR and GPT disks differ from each other, although there’s substantial overlap. Still more partitioning systems exist, and you may run into them from time to time . For instance, Macintoshes that use PowerPC CPUs generally employ the Apple Partition Map (APM), and many Unix variants employ Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) disk labels . You’re most likely to encounter MBR and GPT disks, so those are the partitioning systems cov- ered in this book . Details for other systems differ, but the basic principles are the same . MBR Partitions The original x86 partitioning scheme allowed for only four partitions. As hard disks increased in size and the need for more partitions became apparent, the original scheme
  • 183. 132 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware was extended in a way that retained backward compatibility. The new scheme uses three partition types: Primary partitionsNN , which are the same as the original partition types Extended partitionsNN , which are a special type of primary partition that serves as a placeholder for the next type Logical partitionsNN , which reside within an extended partition Figure 3.3 illustrates how these partition types relate. Because logical partitions reside within a single extended partition, all logical partitions must be contiguous. F I g U R E 3 . 3 The MBR partitioning system uses up to four primary partitions, one of which can be a placeholder extended partition that contains logical partitions . Third primary partition First primary partition Second primary partition/extended partition First logical partition Second logical partition For any one disk, you’re limited to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition. Many OSs, such as DOS, Windows, and FreeBSD, must boot from primary partitions, and because of this, most hard disks include at least one primary partition. Linux, however, is not so limited, so you could boot Linux from a disk that con- tains no primary partitions, although in practice few people do this. The primary partitions have numbers in the range of 1–4, whereas logical partitions are numbered 5 and up. Gaps can appear in the numbering of MBR primary partitions; how- ever, such gaps cannot exist in the numbering of logical partitions. That is, you can have a disk with partitions numbered 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 but not 1, 3, 5, and 7—if partition 7 exists, there must be a 5 and a 6. In addition to holding the partition table, the MBR data structure also holds the pri- mary boot loader—the first disk-loaded code that the CPU executes when the computer boots. Thus, the MBR is extremely important and sensitive. Because the MBR exists only in the first sector of the disk, it’s vulnerable to damage; accidental erasure will make your disk unusable unless you have a backup. You can back up your MBR partitions by typing sfdisk -d /dev/sda > sda-backup.txt (or similar commands to specify another disk device or backup file) . You can then copy the backup file (~/sda-backup.txt in this example) to a removable disk or another computer for safekeeping . You can restore the backup by typing sfdisk -f /dev/sda < sda-backup.txt. Be sure you’re using the correct backup file, though; a mistake can generate incorrect or even impossible partition definitions!
  • 184. Designing a Hard Disk Layout  133 MBR partitions are given type codes, which are one-byte (two-digit hexadecimal) numbers, to help identify their purpose. Common type codes you may run into include 0x0c (FAT), 0x05 (an old type of extended partition), 0x07 (NTFS), 0x0f (a newer type of extended partition), 0x82 (Linux swap), and 0x83 (Linux filesystem). Although the MBR data structure has survived for a quarter century, its days are num- bered because it’s not easily extensible beyond 2TB disks. Thus, a new system is needed. GPT Partitions GPT is part of Intel’s EFI specification, which is intended as a replacement for the BIOS that most x86 and x86-64 computers use. GPT can be used on computers that don’t use EFI, though, and GPT is the preferred partitioning system for disks bigger than 2TB. GPT employs three data structures, two of which have backups: Protective MBR ​ ​An MBR exists on a GPT-partitioned disk, with the purpose of deterring creation of ordinary MBR partitions. The protective MBR, as it’s called, defines a single partition with a type code of 0xEE (EFI GPT). This partition spans the size of the disk or 2TB, whichever is smaller, thus signaling that the disk is a GPT disk and (it is hoped) mini- mizing accidental damage should a GPT-unaware utility be used to access the disk. The protective MBR may also hold a boot loader in its code area. Header ​ ​The header defines various GPT metadata, such as the size of the partition table, the locations of the partition tables, and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checksums to help system software detect data corruption. Partition table ​ ​The partition table defines actual partitions. On most disks, the partition table can define up to 128 partitions. GPT does away with the primary/extended/logical distinction of MBR, which simplifies certain disk administration tasks. In Linux, GPT par- titions are numbered starting with 1, and they need not be consecutive, so you could have partitions numbered 2, 5, 23, and 120. (Some disk utilities will automatically change such a sequence to 1, 2, 3, and 4, however.) The GPT header and partition table are duplicated: one copy appears at the start of the disk, and the other copy appears at the end of the disk. This redundancy, along with the CRCs in the header, simplifies some types of data recovery. GPT’s main drawback is that support for it is relatively immature. The fdisk utility (described shortly in “Partitioning a Disk”) doesn’t work with GPT disks. Some versions of the GRUB boot loader also don’t support it. GPT support must also be enabled in your ker- nel. (Most distributions do so by default.) The situation is worse in some OSs—particularly older ones. Nonetheless, you should be at least somewhat familiar with GPT because of MBR’s inability to handle disks larger than 2TB. Like MBR, GPT supports partition type codes; however, GPT type codes are 16-byte GUID values. Disk partitioning tools typically translate these codes into short descriptions, such as “Linux swap.” Confusingly, a single code is used for both Windows and Linux file- system data.
  • 185. 134  Chapter 3  n  Configuring Hardware An Alternative to Partitions: LVM An alternative to partitions for some functions is logical volume management (LVM). To use LVM, you set aside one or more partitions and assign them partition type codes of 0x8e. You then use a series of utilities, such as pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate, and lvscan, to man- age the partitions (known as physical volumes in this scheme), to merge them into volume groups, and to create and manage logical volumes within the volume groups. Ultimately, you then access the logical volumes using names you assigned to them in the /dev/mapper directory, such as /dev/mapper/myvol-home. LVM sounds complicated, and it is. Why would you want to use it? The biggest advan- tage to LVM is that it enables you to easily resize your logical volumes without worrying about the positions or sizes of surrounding partitions. In a sense, the logical volumes are like files in a regular filesystem; the filesystem (or volume group, in the case of LVM) man- ages the allocation of space when you resize files (or logical volumes). This can be a great boon if you’re not sure of the optimum starting sizes of your partitions. You can also easily add disk space, in the form of a new physical disk, to expand the size of an existing volume group. On the down side, LVM adds complexity, and not all Linux distributions support it out of the box. LVM can complicate disaster recovery, and if your LVM configuration spans multiple disks, a failure of one disk will put all files in your volume group at risk. It’s easiest to configure a system with at least one filesystem (dedicated to /boot, or perhaps the root filesystem containing /boot) in its own conventional partition, reserving LVM for /home, /usr, and other filesystems. Despite these drawbacks, and the fact that LVM isn’t included in the Linux+ objectives, you might consider investigating LVM further in some situations. It’s most likely to be use- ful if you want to create a system with many specialized filesystems and you want to retain the option of resizing those filesystems in the future. A second situation where LVM is handy is if you need to create very large filesystems that are too large for a single physical disk to handle. Mount Points Once a disk is partitioned, an OS must have some way to access the data on the parti- tions. In DOS and Windows, this is done by assigning a drive letter, such as C: or D:, to each partition. (DOS and Windows use partition type codes to decide which partitions get drive letters and which to ignore.) Linux, though, doesn’t use drive letters; instead, Linux uses a unified directory tree. Each partition is mounted at a mount point in that tree. A mount point is a directory that’s used as a way to access the filesystem on the partition, and mounting the filesystem is the process of linking the filesystem to the mount point. For instance, suppose that a Linux system has three partitions: the root (/) partition, /home, and /usr. The root partition holds the basic system files, and all other partitions are accessed via directories on that filesystem. If /home contains users’ home directories, such as sally and sam, those directories will be accessible as /home/sally and /home/sam once
  • 186. Designing a Hard Disk Layout  135 this partition is mounted at /home. If this partition were unmounted and remounted at /users, the same directories would become accessible as /users/sally and /users/sam. Partitions can be mounted just about anywhere in the Linux directory tree, including on directories on the root partition as well as directories on mounted partitions. For instance, if /home is a separate partition, you can have a /home/morehomes directory that serves as a mount point for another partition. The upcoming section “Mounting and Unmounting Filesystems” describes the commands and configuration files that are used for mounting partitions. For now, you should only be concerned with what constitutes a good filesystem layout (that is, what directories you should split off into their own partitions) and how to create these partitions. Common Partitions and Filesystem Layouts So, what directories are commonly split off into separate partitions? Table 3.4 summarizes some popular choices. Note that typical sizes for many of these partitions vary greatly depending on how the system is used. Therefore, it’s impossible to make recommendations on partition size that will be universally acceptable. Table 3 . 4 ​ ​Common Partitions and Their Uses Partition (Mount Point) Typical Size Use Swap (not mounted) 1–2 times sys- tem RAM size Serves as an adjunct to system RAM; is slow, but enables the computer to run more or larger programs. /home 200MB– 1000GB (or more) Holds users’ data files. Isolating it on a separate parti- tion preserves user data during a system upgrade. Size depends on the number of users and their data storage needs. /boot 20–200MB Holds critical boot files. Creating it as a separate partition lets you circumvent limitations of older BIOSs and boot loaders on hard disks over 8GB. /usr 500MB–10GB Holds most Linux program and data files; this is sometimes the largest partition, although /home is larger on systems with many users or if users store large data files. /usr/local 100MB–3GB Holds Linux program and data files that are unique to this installation, particularly those that you compile yourself. /opt 100MB–5GB Holds Linux program and data files that are associated with third-party packages, especially commercial ones.
  • 187. 136 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Partition (Mount Point) Typical Size Use /var 100MB– 500GB Holds miscellaneous files associated with the day-to-day functioning of a computer . These files are often transient in nature . Most often split off as a separate partition when the system functions as a server that uses the /var direc- tory for server-related files like mail queues . /tmp 100MB–20GB Holds temporary files created by ordinary users . /mnt N/A Not a separate partition; rather, it or its subdirectories are used as mount points for removable media like floppies or CD-ROMs . /media N/A Holds subdirectories that may be used as mount points for removable media, much like /mnt or its subdirectories . Some directories—/etc, /bin, /sbin, /lib, and /dev—should never be placed on sepa- rate partitions. These directories host critical system configuration files or files without which a Linux system can’t function. For instance, /etc contains /etc/fstab, the file that specifies what partitions correspond to what directories, and /bin contains the mount util- ity that’s used to mount partitions on directories. The 2 .4 .x and later kernels include support for a dedicated /dev filesys- tem, which obviates the need for files in a disk-based /dev directory; so, in some sense, /dev can reside on a separate filesystem, although not a separate partition . The udev utility controls the /dev filesystem in recent versions of Linux . Creating Partitions and Filesystems If you’re installing Linux on a computer, chances are it will present you with a tool to help guide you through the partitioning process. These installation tools will create the parti- tions you tell them to create or create partitions sized as the distribution’s maintainers believe appropriate. If you need to partition a new disk you’re adding, though, or if you want to create partitions using standard Linux tools rather than rely on your distribution’s installa- tion tools, you must know something about the Linux programs that accomplish this task. TA B L E 3 . 4 Common Partitions and Their Uses (continued)
  • 188. Creating Partitions and Filesystems  137 Partitioning involves two tasks: creating the partitions and preparing the partitions to be used. In Linux, these two tasks are usually accomplished using separate tools, although some tools can handle both tasks simultaneously. When to Create Multiple Partitions One problem with splitting off lots of separate partitions, particularly for new administra- tors, is that it can be difficult to settle on appropriate partition sizes. As noted in Table 3.4, the appropriate size of various partitions can vary substantially from one system to another. For instance, a workstation is likely to need a fairly small /var partition (say, 100MB), but a mail or news server may need a /var partition that’s gigabytes in size. Guessing wrong isn’t fatal, but it is annoying. You’ll need to resize your partitions (which is tedious and dangerous) or set up symbolic links between partitions so that subdirecto- ries on one partition can be stored on other partitions. LVM can simplify such after-the- fact changes, but as noted earlier, LVM adds its own complexity. For this reason, I generally recommend that new Linux administrators try simple partition layouts first. The root (/) partition is required, and swap is a very good idea. Beyond this, /boot can be helpful on hard disks of more than 8GB with older distributions or BIOSs but is seldom needed with computers or distributions sold since 2000. An appropriate size for /home is often relatively easy for new administrators to guess, so splitting it off generally makes sense. Beyond this, I recommend that new administrators proceed with caution. As you gain more experience with Linux, you may want to break off other directories into their own partitions on subsequent installations or when upgrading disk hardware. You can use the du command to learn how much space is used by files within any given directory. Partitioning a Disk The traditional Linux tool for disk partitioning is called fdisk. This tool’s name is short for fixed disk, and the name is the same as a DOS and Windows tool that accomplishes the same task. (When I mean to refer to the DOS/Windows tool, I capitalize its name, as in FDISK. The Linux tool’s name is always entirely lowercase.) Both DOS’s FDISK and Linux’s fdisk are text-mode tools to accomplish similar goals, but the two are very different in operational details. Although fdisk is the traditional tool, several others exist. One of these is GNU Parted, which can both partition a disk and prepare the partitions for use in a single operation. GNU Parted can also resize several partition types without losing data. Although this oper- ation is risky, dynamic partition resizing can save a lot of time and effort.
  • 189. 138 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware The fdisk program operates on MBR disks, while GNU Parted works on MBR disks, GPT disks, and some other disk types . If you prefer fdisk to GNU Parted but must use GPT, you can use GPT fdisk (http://www; this package’s gdisk program works much like fdisk but on GPT disks . Using fdisk To use Linux’s fdisk, type the command name followed by the name of the disk device you want to partition, as in fdisk /dev/hda to partition the primary master PATA disk. The result is an fdisk prompt. On most modern disks, you’ll also see a note telling you that the number of cylinders is greater than 1024: # fdisk /dev/hda The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 7297. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): At the Command (m for help): prompt, you can type commands to accomplish various goals: Display the current partition table You may want to begin by displaying the current parti- tion table. To do so, type p. If you only want to display the current partition table, you can type fdisk -l /dev/hda (or whatever the device identifier is) at a command prompt rather than enter fdisk’s interactive mode. This command displays the partition table and then exits. Create a partition To create a partition, type n. The result is a series of prompts asking for information about the partition—whether it should be a primary, extended, or logical partition; the partition’s starting cylinder; the partition’s ending cylinder or size; and so on. The details of what you’re asked depend in part on what’s already defined. For instance, fdisk won’t ask you if you want to create an extended partition if one already exists. One fdisk feature you may find odd is that it measures partition start and end points in cylin- ders, not megabytes. This is a holdover from the CHS measurements used by the x86 parti- tion table. In most cases it’s not a problem; you can pick the default start point and then specify the partition size in megabytes or gigabytes, and fdisk will compute the correct end cylinder.
  • 190. Creating Partitions and Filesystems  139 Delete a partition ​ ​To delete a partition, type d. If more than one partition exists, the pro- gram will ask for the partition number, which you must enter. Change a partition’s type ​ ​When you create a partition, fdisk assigns it a type code of 0x83, which corresponds to a Linux filesystem. If you want to create a Linux swap parti- tion or a partition for another OS, you can type t to change a partition type code. The pro- gram then prompts you for a partition number and a type code. List partition types ​ ​Several dozen partition type codes exist, so it’s easy to forget what they are. Type l (that’s a lowercase L) at the main fdisk prompt to see a list of the most common ones. You can also get this list by typing L when you’re prompted for the partition type when you change a partition’s type code. Mark a partition bootable ​ ​Some OSs, such as DOS and Windows, rely on their partitions having special bootable flags in order to boot. You can set this flag by typing a, whereupon fdisk asks for the partition number. Get help ​ ​Type m or ? to see a summary of the main fdisk commands. Exit ​ ​Linux’s fdisk supports two exit modes. First, you can type q to exit the program without saving any changes; anything you do with the program is lost. This option is par- ticularly helpful if you’ve made a mistake. Second, typing w writes your changes to the disk and exits the program. As an example, consider deleting a primary, an extended, and a logical partition on a Zip disk and creating a single new one in their place: # fdisk /dev/sda Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 100 MB, 100663296 bytes 4 heads, 48 sectors/track, 1024 cylinders Units = cylinders of 192 * 512 = 98304 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 510 48936 83 Linux /dev/sda2 511 1024 49344 5 Extended /dev/sda5 511 1024 49320 83 Linux Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-5): 5 Command (m for help): d
  • 191. 140  Chapter 3  n  Configuring Hardware Partition number (1-5): 2 Command (m for help): d Selected partition 1 Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 4 First cylinder (1-1024, default 1): 1 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1024, default 1024): 1024 Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Syncing disks. This process begins with a p command to verify that the program is operating on the correct disk. With this information in hand, the three existing partitions are deleted. Note that the first two deletions ask for a partition number, but the third doesn’t, because only one partition is left. Once this is done, n is used to create a new primary partition. This example creates a partition numbered 4 because this is the standard for Zip disks. Once the task is complete, the w command is used to write the changes to disk and exit the pro- gram. The result of this sequence is a Zip disk with a single primary partition (/dev/sda4) marked as holding a Linux filesystem. Using GNU Parted GNU Parted ( is a cross-platform partitioning tool—you can use it with MBR, GPT, APM, BSD disk labels, and other disk types. It also supports more features than fdisk and is easier to use in some ways. For instance, it mea- sures disk space in megabytes rather than cylinders. GNU Parted also supports dynamic partition resizing for several filesystem types, which can be a great convenience. On the other hand, GNU Parted uses its own way of referring to partitions, which can be confus- ing. It’s also more finicky about mismatched CHS geometries than is fdisk. Although GNU Parted isn’t covered on the Linux+ exam, knowing a bit about it can be handy. You start GNU Parted much as you start fdisk, by typing its name followed by the device you want to modify, as in parted /dev/hda to partition /dev/hda. The result is some brief introductory text followed by a (parted) prompt at which you type commands. Type ? to see a list of commands, which are multi-character commands similar to Linux
  • 192. Creating Partitions and Filesystems 141 shell commands. For instance, print displays the current partition table, mkpart creates (makes) a partition, rm removes a partition, move moves a partition, and resize changes a partition’s size. Some of the more advanced options work on only some filesystem types, such as Linux’s native ext2fs and ext3fs and the DOS/Windows standby of FAT. (The next section describes filesystem types in more detail.) Resizing or moving a filesystem can be dangerous . If the resizing code con- tains a bug or if there’s a power failure during the operation, data can be lost . Thus, I strongly recommend you back up any important data before resizing or moving a partition . Also, resizing or moving your boot partition can render the system unbootable until you re-install your boot loader . Preparing a Partition for Use Once a partition is created, you must prepare it for use. This process is often called “mak- ing a filesystem” or “formatting a partition.” It involves writing low-level data structures to disk. Linux can then read and modify these data structures to access and store files in the partition. You should know something about the common Linux filesystems and know how to use filesystem-creation tools to create them. The word formatting is somewhat ambiguous . It can refer to either low- level formatting, which creates a structure of sectors and tracks on the disk media, or high-level formatting, which creates a filesystem . Hard disks are low-level formatted at the factory and should never need to be low-level formatted again . Floppy disks, though, can be both low- and high-level formatted . The tools described here can high-level format a floppy disk as well as a hard disk . To low-level format a floppy disk, you must use the fdformat command, as in fdformat /dev/fd0 . This command cannot be used on a hard disk . Common Filesystem Types Linux supports quite a few different filesystems, both Linux native and those intended for other OSs. Some of the latter barely work under Linux, and even when they do work reli- ably, they usually don’t support all the features that Linux expects in its native filesystems. Thus, when preparing a Linux system, you’ll use one or more of its native filesystems for most or all partitions: Ext2fs The Second Extended File System (ext2fs or ext2) is the traditional Linux native filesystem. It was created for Linux and was the dominant Linux filesystem throughout the late 1990s. Ext2fs has a reputation as a reliable filesystem. It has since been eclipsed by other filesystems, but it still has its uses. In particular, ext2fs can be a good choice for
  • 193. 142 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware a small /boot partition, if you choose to use one, and for small (sub-gigabyte) removable disks. On such small partitions, the size of the journal used by more advanced filesys- tems can be a real problem, so the non-journaling ext2fs is a better choice. (Journaling is described in more detail shortly.) The ext2 filesystem type code is ext2. Ext3fs The Third Extended File System (ext3fs or ext3) is basically ext2fs with a journal added. The result is a filesystem that’s as reliable as ext2fs but that recovers from power outages and system crashes much more quickly. The ext3 filesystem type code is ext3. Ext4fs The Fourth Extended File System (ext4fs or ext4) is the next-generation version of this filesystem family. It adds the ability to work with very large disks (those over 32 tera- bytes) or very large files (those over 2 terabytes), as well as extensions intended to improve performance. Its filesystem type code is ext4. ReiserFS This filesystem was designed from scratch as a journaling filesystem for Linux and is a popular choice in this role. It’s particularly good at handling filesystems with large numbers of small files (say, smaller than about 32KB) because ReiserFS uses various tricks to squeeze the ends of files into each other’s unused spaces. This small savings can add up to a large percentage of file sizes when files are small. You can use reiserfs as the type code for this filesystem. As of Linux kernel version 2 .6 .34, ReiserFS version 3 .x is current . A from- scratch rewrite of ReiserFS, known as Reiser4, is being developed but has not yet been integrated into the mainstream kernel . JFS IBM developed the Journaled File System (JFS) for its AIX OS and later re-implemented it on OS/2. The OS/2 version was subsequently donated to Linux. JFS is a technically sophis- ticated journaling filesystem that may be of particular interest if you’re familiar with AIX or OS/2 or want an advanced filesystem to use on a dual-boot system with one of these OSs. As you might expect, this filesystem’s type code is jfs. XFS Silicon Graphics (SGI) created its Extents File System (XFS) for its IRIX OS and, like IBM, later donated the code to Linux. Like JFS, XFS is a very technically sophisticated filesystem. XFS has gained a reputation for robustness, speed, and flexibility on IRIX, but some of the XFS features that make it so flexible on IRIX aren’t supported well under Linux. Use xfs as the type code for this filesystem. Btrfs This filesystem (pronounced “butter eff ess” or “bee tree eff ess”) is an advanced filesystem with features inspired by those of Sun’s Zettabyte File System (ZFS). Like ext4fs, JFS, and XFS, Btrfs is a fast performer and is able to handle very large disks and files. As of the 2.6.34 kernel, Btrfs is considered experimental; however, its advanced features make it a likely successor to the current popular filesystems. In practice, most administrators choose ext3fs, ext4fs, or ReiserFS as their primary filesystems; however, JFS and XFS also work well, and some administrators prefer them, particularly on large disks that store large files. (Ext4fs also handles large files, but it’s
  • 194. Creating Partitions and Filesystems 143 newer and therefore less trusted than JFS and XFS.) Hard data on the merits and problems with each filesystem are difficult to come by, and even when they do exist, they’re suspect because filesystem performance interacts with so many other factors. For instance, as just noted, ReiserFS can cram more small files into a small space than can other filesystems, but this advantage isn’t very important if you’ll be storing mostly larger files. If you’re using a non-x86 or non-x86-64 platform, be sure to check filesys- tem development on that platform . A filesystem may be speedy and reli- able on one CPU but sluggish and unreliable on another . In addition to these Linux-native filesystems, you may need to deal with some others from time to time, including the following: FAT The File Allocation Table (FAT) filesystem is old and primitive—but ubiquitous. It’s the only hard disk filesystem supported by DOS and Windows 9x/Me. For this reason, every major OS understands FAT, making it an excellent filesystem for exchanging data on removable disks. Two major orthogonal variants of FAT exist: It varies in the size of the FAT data structure after which the filesystem is named (12-, 16-, or 32-bit pointers), and it has variants that support long filenames. Linux automatically detects the FAT size, so you shouldn’t need to worry about this. To use the original FAT filenames, which are limited to eight characters with an optional three-character extension (the so-called 8.3 filenames), use the Linux filesystem type code of msdos. To use Windows-style long filenames, use the filesystem type code of vfat. A Linux-only long filename system, known as umsdos, sup- ports additional Linux features—enough that you can install Linux on a FAT partition, although this practice isn’t recommended except for certain types of emergency disks or to try Linux on a Windows system. NTFS The New Technology File System (NTFS) is the preferred filesystem for Windows NT/200x/XP/Vista/7. Unfortunately, Linux’s NTFS support is rather rudimentary. As of the 2.6.x kernel series, Linux can reliably read NTFS and can overwrite existing files, but the Linux kernel can’t write new files to an NTFS partition. If you must have good NTFS read/write support for a dual-boot system, look into NTFS-3G ( . This is a read/write NTFS driver that resides in user space rather than in kernel space . It’s used as the default NTFS driver by some Linux distributions . HFS and HFS+ Apple has long used the Hierarchical File System (HFS) with its Mac OS, and Linux provides full read/write HFS support. This support isn’t as reliable as Linux’s read/write FAT support, though, so you may want to use FAT when exchanging files with Mac users. Apple has extended HFS to better support large hard disks and many Unix-like features with its HFS+ (a.k.a. Extended HFS). Linux 2.6.x adds limited HFS+ support; but write support works only with the HFS+ journal disabled.
  • 195. 144 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware ISO-9660 The standard filesystem for CD-ROMs has long been ISO-9660. This filesys- tem comes in several levels. Level 1 is similar to the original FAT in that it supports only 8.3 filenames. Levels 2 and 3 add support for longer 32-character filenames. Linux sup- ports ISO-9660 using its iso9660 filesystem type code. Linux’s ISO-9660 support also works with the Rock Ridge extensions, which are a series of extensions to ISO-9660 to enable it to support Unix-style long filenames, permissions, symbolic links, and so on. If a disc includes Rock Ridge extensions, Linux will automatically detect and use them. Joliet This filesystem is used much like Rock Ridge, as an extension to ISO-9660. Joliet was created by Microsoft for use by Windows, so it emphasizes Windows filesystem features rather than Unix/Linux filesystem features. Linux supports Joliet as part of its iso9660 driver; if a disc contains Joliet but not Rock Ridge, Linux uses the Joliet filesystem. UDF The Universal Disc Format (UDF) is the next-generation filesystem for optical discs. It’s commonly used on DVD-ROMs and recordable optical discs. Linux supports it, but read/write UDF support is still in its infancy. As a practical matter, if you’re preparing a hard disk for use with Linux, you should probably use Linux filesystems only. If you’re preparing a disk that will be used for a dual- boot configuration, you may want to set aside some partitions for other filesystem types. For removable disks, you’ll have to be the judge of what’s most appropriate. You might use ext2fs for a Linux-only removable disk, FAT for a cross-platform disk, or ISO-9660 (per- haps with Rock Ridge and Joliet) for a CD-R or recordable DVD. ISO-9660 and other optical disc filesystems are created with special tools intended for this purpose . Specifically, mkisofs creates an ISO-9660 file- system (optionally with Rock Ridge, Joliet, HFS, and UDF components added), while cdrecord writes this image to a blank CD-R . The growisofs program combines both functions, but works only on recordable DVD media . Creating a Filesystem Most filesystems, including all Linux-native filesystems, have Linux tools that can create the filesystem on a partition. Typically, these tools have filenames of the form mkfs.fstype, where fstype is the filesystem type code. These tools can also be called from a front-end tool called mkfs; you pass the filesystem type code to mkfs using its -t option: # mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hda6 For ext2 and ext3 filesystems, the mke2fs program is often used instead of mkfs . The mke2fs program is just another name for mkfs.ext2 .
  • 196. Creating Partitions and Filesystems 145 This command creates an ext3 filesystem on /dev/hda6. Depending on the filesystem, the speed of the disk, and the size of the partition, this process can take anywhere from a fraction of a second to a few seconds. Most filesystem-build tools support additional options, some of which can greatly increase the time required to build a filesystem. In par- ticular, the -c option is supported by several filesystems. This option causes the tool to per- form a bad-block check—every sector in the partition is checked to be sure it can reliably hold data. If it can’t, the sector is marked as bad and isn’t used. If you perform a bad-block check and find that some sectors are bad, chances are the entire hard disk doesn’t have long to live . Sometimes this sort of problem can result from other issues, though, such as bad cables or SCSI termination problems . Of the common Linux filesystems, ext2fs, ext3fs, and ext4fs provide the most options in their mkfs tools. (In fact, these tools are one and the same; the program simply creates a filesystem with the appropriate features for the name that’s used to call it.) You can type man mkfs.ext2 to learn about these options, most of which deal with obscure and unim- portant features. One obscure option that does deserve mention is -m percent, which sets the reserved-space percentage. The idea is that you don’t want the disk to completely fill up with user files; if the disk starts getting close to full, Linux should report that the disk is full before it really is, at least for ordinary users. This gives the root user the ability to log in and create new files, if necessary, to help recover the system. The ext2fs/ext3fs/ext4fs reserved-space percentage defaults to 5 percent, which translates to quite a lot of space on large disks. You may want to reduce this value (say, by passing -m 2 to reduce it to 2 percent) on your root (/) filesystem and perhaps even lower (1 percent or 0 percent) on some, such as /home. Setting -m 0 also makes sense on removable disks, which aren’t likely to be critical for system recovery and may be a bit cramped to begin with. In addition to providing filesystem-creation tools for Linux-native filesystems, Linux distributions usually provide such tools for various non-Linux filesystems. The most impor- tant of these may be for FAT. The main tool for this task is called mkdosfs, but it’s often linked to the mkfs.msdos and mkfs.vfat names, as well. This program can automatically adjust the size of the FAT data structure to 12 or 16 bits depending on the device size. You can override this option with the -F fat-size option, where fat-size is the FAT size in bits—12, 16, or 32. In fact, this option is required if you want to create a FAT-32 partition, which is a practical necessity for any partition over 2GB in size and is usually desirable for partitions over 512MB in size. No special options are required to create a FAT filesystem that can handle Windows-style (VFAT) long filenames; these are created by the OS. In Exercise 3.1, you’ll practice creating filesystems using mkfs and related utilities.
  • 197. 146  Chapter 3  n  Configuring Hardware E xercise  3 .1 Creating Filesystems Try creating some filesystems on a spare partition or a removable disk. Even a floppy disk will do, although you won’t be able to create journaling filesystems on a floppy disk. The following steps assume you’re using a Zip disk, /dev/sda4; change the device specifica- tion as necessary. Be sure to use an empty partition! Accidentally entering the wrong device filename could wipe out your entire system! This exercise uses a few commands that are described in more detail later in this chapter. To create some filesystems, follow these steps: 1. Log in as root. 2. Use fdisk to verify the partitions on your target disk by typing fdisk -l /dev/sda. You should see a list of partitions, including the one you’ll use for your tests. 3. Verify that your test partition is not currently mounted. Type df to see the currently mounted partitions and verify that /dev/sda4 is not among them. 4. Type mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sda4. You should see several lines of status information appear. 5. Type mount /dev/sda4 /mnt to mount the new filesystem to /mnt. (You may use another mount point, if you like.) 6. Type df /mnt to see basic accounting information for the filesystem. On a 100MB Zip disk, you should see that 95,171 blocks are present, 13 blocks are used, and 90,244 blocks are available. The difference between the present and available blocks is caused by the 5 percent reserved space. 7. Type umount /mnt to unmount the filesystem. 8. Type mkfs -t ext2 -m 0 to create a new ext2 filesystem on the device, but without any reserved space. 9. Repeat steps 5–7. Note that the available space has increased (to 95,158 blocks on a Zip disk). The available space plus the used space should now equal the total blocks. 10. Repeat steps 4–7, but use a filesystem type code of ext3 to create a journaling file- system. (This won’t be possible if you use a floppy disk.) Note how much space is consumed by the journal. 11. Repeat steps 4–7, but use another filesystem, such as JFS or ReiserFS. Note how the filesystem-creation tools differ in the information they present and in their stated amounts of available space. Be aware that, because of differences in how filesystems store files and allocate space, a greater amount of available space when a filesystem is created may not translate into a greater capacity to store files.
  • 198. Maintaining Filesystem Health 147 Creating Swap Space Some partitions don’t hold files. Most notably, Linux can use a swap partition, which is a partition that Linux treats as an extension of memory. (Linux can also use a swap file, which is a file that works in the same way. Both are examples of swap space.) Linux uses the MBR partition type code of 0x82 to identify swap space, but as with other partitions, this code is mostly a convenience to keep other OSs from trying to access Linux swap parti- tions; Linux uses /etc/fstab to define which partitions to use as swap space, as described in Chapter 4, “Managing Files.” Solaris for x86 also uses an MBR partition type code of 0x82, but in Solaris, this code refers to a Solaris partition . If you dual-boot between Solaris and Linux, this double meaning of the 0x82 partition type code can cause confusion . This is particularly true when installing the OSs . You may need to use Linux’s fdisk to temporarily change the partition type codes to keep Linux from trying to use a Solaris partition as swap space or to keep Solaris from trying to interpret Linux swap space as a data partition . Although swap space doesn’t hold a filesystem per se and isn’t mounted in the way that filesystem partitions are mounted, swap space does require preparation similar to that for creation of a filesystem. This task is accomplished with the mkswap command, which you can generally use by passing it nothing but the device identifier: # mkswap /dev/hda7 This example turns /dev/hda7 into swap space. To use the swap space, you must activate it with the swapon command: # swapon /dev/hda7 To permanently activate swap space, you must create an entry for it in /etc/fstab, as described in Chapter 4. Maintaining Filesystem Health Filesystems can become “sick” in a variety of ways. They can become overloaded with too much data, they can be tuned inappropriately for your system, or they can become corrupted because of buggy drivers, buggy utilities, or hardware errors. Fortunately, Linux provides a variety of utilities that can help you keep an eye on the status of your filesystems, tune their performance, and fix them.
  • 199. 148 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Many of Linux’s filesystem maintenance tools should be run when the file- system is not mounted . Changes made by maintenance utilities while the filesystem is mounted can confuse the kernel’s filesystem drivers, resulting in data corruption . In the following pages, I mention when utilities can and can’t be used with mounted filesystems . Tuning Filesystems Filesystems are basically just big data structures—they’re a means of storing data on disk in an indexed method that makes it easy to locate the data at a later time. Like all data struc- tures, filesystems include design compromises. For instance, a design feature may enable you to store more small files on disk but might chew up disk space, thus reducing the total capacity available for storage of larger files. In many cases, you have no choice concern- ing these compromises, but some filesystems include tools that enable you to set filesystem options that affect performance. This is particularly true of ext2fs and the related ext3fs and ext4fs. Three tools are particularly important for tuning these filesystems: dumpe2fs, tune2fs, and debugfs. The first of these tools provides information about the filesystem, and the other two enable you to change tuning options. Obtaining Filesystem Information You can learn a lot about your ext2 or ext3 filesystem with the dumpe2fs command. This command’s syntax is fairly straightforward: dumpe2fs [options] device The device is the filesystem device file, such as /dev/hda2 or /dev/sdb7. This command accepts several options, most of which are rather obscure. The most important option is probably -h, which causes the utility to omit information about group descriptors. (This information is helpful in very advanced filesystem debugging but not for basic filesystem tuning.) For information about additional options, consult the man page for dumpe2fs. Unless you’re a filesystem expert and need to debug a corrupted filesystem, you’re most likely to want to use dumpe2fs with the -h option. The result is about three dozen lines of output, each specifying a particular filesystem option, like these: Last mounted on: <not available> Filesystem features: has_journal filetype sparse_super Filesystem state: clean Inode count: 657312 Block count: 1313305 Last checked: Thu Jul 3 12:32:23 2008 Check interval: 15552000 (6 months)
  • 200. Maintaining Filesystem Health  149 Some of these options’ meanings are fairly self-explanatory; for instance, the filesystem was last checked (with fsck, described in “Checking Filesystems”) on July 3. Other options aren’t so obvious; for instance, the Inode count line may be puzzling. (It’s a count of the number of inodes supported by the filesystem. Each inode contains information for one file, so the number of inodes effectively limits the number of files you can store.) The next two sections describe some of the options you may want to change. For now, you should know that you can retrieve information about how your filesystems are cur- rently configured using dumpe2fs. You can then use this information when modifying the configuration; if your current settings seem reasonable, you can leave them alone, but if they seem ill adapted to your configuration, you can change them. Unlike many low-level disk utilities, you can safely run dumpe2fs on a filesystem that’s currently mounted. This can be handy when you’re studying your configuration to decide what to modify. Most other filesystems lack an equivalent to dumpe2fs, but XFS provides something with at least some surface similarities: xfs_info. To invoke it, pass the command the name of the partition that holds the filesystem you want to check: # xfs_info /dev/sda7 meta-data=/dev/sda7 isize=256 agcount=88, agsize=1032192 blks = sectsz=512 attr=0 data = bsize=4096 blocks=89915392, imaxpct=25 = sunit=0 swidth=0 blks, unwritten=1 naming =version 2 bsize=4096 log =internal bsize=4096 blocks=8064, version=1 = sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks realtime =none extsz=65536 blocks=0, rtextents=0 Instead of the partition name, you can pass the mount point, such as /home or /usr/ local. Unlike most filesystem tools, xfs_info requires that the filesystem be mounted. The information returned by xfs_info is fairly technical, mostly related to block sizes, sector sizes, and so on. Another XFS tool is xfs_metadump. This program copies the filesystem’s metadata (file- names, file sizes, and so on) to a file. For instance, xfs_metadump /dev/sda7 ~/dump-file copies the metadata to ~/dump-file. This command doesn’t copy actual file contents and so isn’t useful as a backup tool. Instead, it’s intended as a debugging tool; if the filesystem is behaving strangely, you can use this command and send the resulting file to XFS developers for study. Adjusting Tunable Filesystem Parameters The tune2fs program enables you to change many of the filesystem parameters that are reported by dumpe2fs. This program’s syntax is fairly simple, but it hides a great deal of complexity: tune2fs [options] device
  • 201. 150 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware The complexity arises because of the large number of options that the program accepts. Each feature that tune2fs enables you to adjust requires its own option: Adjust the maximum mount count Ext2fs and ext3fs require a periodic disk check with fsck. This check is designed to prevent errors from creeping onto the disk undetected. You can adjust the maximum number of times the disk may be mounted without a check with the -c mounts option, where mounts is the number of mounts. You can trick the system into thinking the filesystem has been mounted a certain number of times with the -C mounts option; this sets the mount counter to mounts. Adjust the time between checks Periodic disk checks are required based on time as well as the number of mounts. You can set the time between checks with the -i interval option, where interval is the maximum time between checks. Normally, interval is a number with the character d, w, or m appended, to specify days, weeks, or months, respectively. Add a journal The -j option adds a journal to the filesystem, effectively converting an ext2 filesystem into an ext3 filesystem. Journal management is described in more detail shortly, in “Maintaining a Journal.” Set the reserved blocks The -m percent option sets the percentage of disk space that’s reserved for use by root. The default value is 5, but this is excessive on multi-gigabyte hard disks, so you may want to reduce it. You may want to set it to 0 on removable disks intended to store user files. You can also set the reserved space in blocks, rather than as a percentage of disk space, with the -r blocks option. The options described here are the ones that are most likely to be useful. Several other options are available; consult tune2fs’s man page for details. As with most low-level disk utilities, you shouldn’t use tune2fs to adjust a mounted filesystem. If you want to adjust a key mounted filesystem, such as your root (/) filesystem, you may need to boot up an emergency disk system, such as the CD-ROM-based Knoppix ( Many distributions’ install discs can be used in this capacity, as well. If you use XFS, the xfs_admin command is the rough equivalent of tune2fs. Some options you may want to adjust include the following: Use version 2 journal format The -j option enables version 2 log (journal) format, which can improve performance in some situations. Obtain the filesystem label and UUID You can use the -l and -u options to obtain the filesystem’s label (name) and universally unique identifier (UUID), respectively. The name is seldom used in Linux but can be used in some cases. The UUID is a long code that is increasingly used by distributions to specify a filesystem to be mounted, as described later, in “Permanently Mounting Filesystems.” The blkid command can display the UUID of any partition’s filesystem, not just an XFS partition .
  • 202. Maintaining Filesystem Health  151 Set the filesystem label and UUID ​ ​You can change the filesystem’s label or UUID by using the -L label or -U uuid option, respectively. The label is at most 12 characters in length. You’ll normally use the -U option to set the UUID to a known value (such as the UUID the partition used prior to it being reformatted); or you can use generate as the uuid value to have xfs_admin create a new UUID. You should not set the UUID to a value that’s in use on another partition! In use, xfs_admin might look something like this: # xfs_admin -L av_data /dev/sda7 writing all SBs new label = “av_data” This example sets the name of the filesystem on /dev/sda7 to av_data. As with tune2fs, xfs_admin should only be used on unmounted filesystems. Interactively Debugging a Filesystem In addition to reviewing and changing filesystem flags with dumpe2fs and tune2fs, you can interactively modify a filesystem’s features using debugfs. This program provides the abili- ties of dumpe2fs, tune2fs, and many of Linux’s normal file-manipulation tools all rolled into one. To use the program, type its name followed by the device filename corresponding to the filesystem you want to manipulate. You’ll then see the debugfs prompt: # debugfs /dev/hda11 debugfs: You can type commands at this prompt to achieve specific goals: Display filesystem superblock information ​ ​The show_super_stats or stats command produces superblock information, similar to what dumpe2fs displays. Display inode information ​ ​You can display the inode data on a file or directory by typing stat filename, where filename is the name of the file. Undelete a file ​ ​You can use debugfs to undelete a file by typing undelete inode name, where inode is the inode number of the deleted file and name is the filename you want to give to it. (You can use undel in place of undelete if you like.) This facility is of limited utility because you must know the inode number associated with the deleted file. You can obtain a list of deleted inodes by typing lsdel or list_deleted_inodes, but the list may not provide enough clues to let you zero in on the file you want to recover. Extract a file ​ ​You can extract a file from the filesystem by typing write internal-file external-file, where internal-file is the name of a file in the filesystem you’re manipu- lating and external-file is a filename on your main Linux system. This facility can be handy if a filesystem is badly damaged and you want to extract a critical file without mounting the filesystem.
  • 203. 152 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Manipulate files Most of the commands described in Chapter 4 work within debugfs. You can change your directory with cd, create links with ln, remove a file with rm, and so on. Obtain help Typing list_requests, lr, help, or ? produces a summary of available commands. Exit Typing quit exits from the program. This summary just scratches the surface of debugfs’s capabilities. In the hands of an expert, this program can help rescue a badly damaged filesystem or at least extract critical data from it. To learn more, consult the program’s man page. Although debugfs is a useful tool, it’s potentially dangerous . Don’t use it on a mounted filesystem, don’t use it unless you have to, and be very careful when using it . If in doubt, leave the adjustments to the experts . Be aware that the Linux+ exam does cover debugfs, though . The closest XFS equivalent to debugfs is called xfs_db. Like debugfs, xfs_db provides an interactive tool to access and manipulate a filesystem; but xfs_db provides fewer tools that are amenable to novice or intermediate use. Instead, xfs_db is a tool for XFS experts. Maintaining a Journal Ext2fs is a traditional filesystem. Although it’s a good performer, it suffers from a major limitation: After a power failure, a system crash, or another uncontrolled shutdown, the filesystem could be in an inconsistent state. The only way to safely mount the filesystem so that you’re sure its data structures are valid is to perform a full disk check on it, as described in “Checking Filesystems.” This task is usually handled automatically when the system boots, but it takes time—probably several minutes, or perhaps more than an hour on a large filesystem or if the computer has many smaller filesystems. The solution to this problem is to change to a journaling filesystem. Such a filesystem maintains a journal, which is a data structure that describes pending operations. Prior to writing data to the disk’s main data structures, Linux describes what it’s about to do in the journal. When the operations are complete, their entries are removed from the journal. Thus, at any given moment the journal should contain a list of disk structures that might be undergoing modification. The result is that, in the event of a crash or power failure, the system can examine the journal and check only those data structures described in it. If inconsistencies are found, the system can roll back the changes, returning the disk to a con- sistent state without checking every data structure in the filesystem. This greatly speeds the disk-check process after power failures and system crashes. Today, journaling filesystems are the standard for most Linux disk partitions. Very small partitions (such as a separate /boot partition, if you use one) and small removable disks (such as Zip disks) often lack journals, though.
  • 204. Maintaining Filesystem Health 153 Five journaling filesystems are common on Linux: ext3fs, ext4fs, ReiserFS, XFS, and JFS. Of these, the last three require little in the way of journal configuration. Ext3fs is a bit different; it’s basically just ext2fs with a journal added. This fact means you can add a jour- nal to an ext2 filesystem, converting it into an ext3 filesystem. This is what the -j option to tune2fs does, as described earlier in “Adjusting Tunable Filesystem Parameters.” Ext4fs is a further enhancement of this filesystem family. Although using tune2fs on a mounted filesystem is generally inadvis- able, it’s safe to use its -j option on a mounted filesystem . The result is a file called .journal that holds the journal . If you add a journal to an unmounted filesystem, the journal file will be invisible . Adding a journal alone won’t do much good, though. In order to use a journal, you must mount the filesystem with the correct filesystem type code—ext3 rather than ext2 for ext3fs, or ext4 for ext4fs. (The upcoming section “Mounting and Unmounting Filesystems” describes how to do this.) The journal, like other filesystem features, has its own set of parameters. You can set these with the -J option to tune2fs. In particular, the size=journal-size and device=external-journal sub-options enable you to set the journal’s size and the device on which it’s stored. By default, the system creates a journal that’s the right size for the filesystem and stores it on the filesystem itself. Checking Filesystems Tuning a filesystem is a task you’re likely to perform every once in a while—say, when making major changes to an installation. Another task is much more common: checking a filesystem for errors. Bugs, power failures, and mechanical problems can all cause the data structures on a filesystem to become corrupted. The results are sometimes subtle, but if they’re left unchecked, they can cause severe data loss. For this reason, Linux includes tools for verifying a filesystem’s integrity and for correcting any problems that may exist. The main tool you’ll use for this purpose is called fsck. This program is actually a front end to other tools, such as e2fsck (a.k.a. fsck.ext2, fsck.ext3, and fsck.ext4) or XFS’s xfs_check and xfs_repair. The syntax for fsck is as follows: fsck [-sACVRTNP] [-t fstype] [—] [fsck-options] filesystems The Linux+ objectives emphasize e2fsck rather than fsck, but because fsck is the more general tool that’s useful on more filesystems, it’s the form described in more detail in this book . The more common parameters to fsck enable you to perform useful actions: Check all files The -A option causes fsck to check all the filesystems marked to be checked in /etc/fstab. This option is normally used in system startup scripts.
  • 205. 154 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware Indicate progress The -C option displays a text-mode progress indicator of the check pro- cess. Most filesystem check programs don’t support this feature, but e2fsck does. Show verbose output The -V option produces verbose output of the check process. No action The -N option tells fsck to display what it would normally do without actually doing it. Set the filesystem type Normally, fsck determines the filesystem type automatically. You can force the type with the -t fstype flag, though. Used in conjunction with -A, this causes the program to check only the specified filesystem types, even if others are marked to be checked. If fstype is prefixed with no, then all filesystems except the specified type are checked. Filesystem-specific options Filesystem check programs for specific filesystems often have their own options. The fsck command passes options it doesn’t understand, or those that follow a double dash (--), to the underlying check program. Common options include -a or -p (perform an automatic check), -r (perform an interactive check), and -f (force a full filesystem check even if the filesystem initially appears to be clean). Filesystem list The final parameter is usually the name of the filesystem or filesystems being checked, such as /dev/sda6. Normally, you run fsck with only the filesystem device name, as in fsck /dev/sda6. You can add options as needed, however. Check fsck’s man page for less common options. Run fsck only on filesystems that are not currently mounted or that are mounted in read-only mode . Changes written to disk during normal read/ write operations can confuse fsck and result in filesystem corruption . Linux runs fsck automatically at startup on partitions that are marked for this in /etc/ fstab, as described later in “Permanently Mounting Filesystems.” The normal behavior of e2fsck causes it to perform just a quick cursory examination of a partition if it’s been unmounted cleanly. The result is that the Linux boot process isn’t delayed because of a filesystem check unless the system wasn’t shut down properly. This rule has a couple of exceptions, though: e2fsck forces a check if the disk has gone longer than a certain amount of time without checks (normally six months) or if the filesystem has been mounted more than a certain number of times since the last check (normally 20). You can change these options using tune2fs, as described earlier in “Adjusting Tunable Filesystem Parameters.” Therefore, you’ll occasionally see automatic filesystem checks of ext2fs and ext3fs parti- tions even if the system was shut down correctly. Journaling filesystems do away with full filesystem checks at system startup even if the system wasn’t shut down correctly. Nonetheless, these filesystems still require check programs to correct problems introduced by undetected write failures, bugs, hardware problems, and the like. If you encounter odd behavior with a journaling filesystem, you might consider unmounting it and performing a filesystem check—but be sure to read the
  • 206. Maintaining Filesystem Health  155 documentation first. Some Linux distributions do odd things with some journaling file- system check programs. For instance, Mandriva uses a symbolic link from /sbin/fsck. reiserfs to /bin/true. This configuration speeds system boot times should ReiserFS par- titions be marked for automatic checks, but it can be confusing if you need to manually check the filesystem. If this is the case, run /sbin/reiserfsck to do the job. Similarly, /sbin/fsck.xfs is usually nothing but a script that advises the user to run xfs_check or xfs_repair. Monitoring Disk Use One common problem with disks is that they can fill up. To avoid this problem, you need tools to tell you how much space your files are consuming. This is the task of the df and du programs, which summarize disk use on a partition-by-partition and directory-by-directory basis, respectively. Monitoring Disk Use by Partition The df command’s syntax is as follows: df [options] [files] In the simplest case, you can type the command name to see a summary of disk space used on all of a system’s partitions: $ df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sdb10 5859784 4449900 1409884 76% / /dev/sdb12 2086264 991468 1094796 48% /opt /dev/hda13 2541468 320928 2220540 13% /usr/local /dev/hda9 15361340 10174596 5186744 67% /home /dev/hda10 22699288 13663408 7882820 64% /other/emu /dev/hda6 101089 22613 74301 24% /boot /dev/sdb5 1953216 1018752 934464 53% /other/shared none 256528 0 256528 0% /dev/shm speaker:/home 6297248 3845900 2451348 62% /speaker/home //win/music 17156608 8100864 9055744 48% /win/mp3s This output shows the device file associated with the filesystem, the total amount of space on the filesystem, the used space on the filesystem, the free space on the filesystem, the per- centage of space that’s used, and the mount point. Typically, when used space climbs above about 80 percent, you should consider cleaning up the partition. The appropriate ceiling varies from one system and partition to another, though. The risk is greatest on partitions that hold files that change frequently—particularly if large files are likely to be created on a partition, even if only temporarily.
  • 207. 156 Chapter 3 N Configuring Hardware You can fine-tune the effects of df by passing it several options. Each option modifies the df output in a specific way: Include all filesystems The -a or —all option includes pseudo filesystems with a size of 0 in the output. These filesystems may include /proc, /sys, /proc/bus/usb, and others. Use scaled units The -h or --human-readable option causes df to scale and label its units; for instance, instead of reporting a partition as having 5859784 blocks, it reports the size as 5.6G (for 5.6GB). The -H and --si options have a similar effect, but they use power-of-10 (1,000, 1,000,000, and so on) units rather than power-of-2 (1,024, 1,048,576, and so on) units. The -k (--kilobytes) and -m (--megabytes) options force output in their respective units. Summarize inodes By default, df summarizes available and used disk space. You can instead receive a report on available and used inodes by passing the -i or --inodes option. This information can be helpful if a partition has very many small files, which can deplete available inodes sooner than they deplete available disk space. The -i option works well for ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, and some other filesys- tems that create a fixed number of inodes when the filesystem is created . Other filesystems, such as ReiserFS, create inodes dynamically, rendering the -i option meaningless . Local filesystems only The -l or --local option causes df to omit network filesystems. This can speed up operation. Display filesystem type The -T or --print-type option adds the filesystem type to the information df displays. Limit by filesystem type The -t fstype or --type=fstype option displays only informa- tion about filesystems of the specified type. The -x fstype or --exclude-type=fstype option has the opposite effect; it excludes filesystems of the specified type from the report. This list is incomplete; consult df’s man page for details about more options. In addi- tion to these options, you can specify one or more files to df. When you do this, the program restricts its report to the filesystem on which the specified file or directory exists. For instance, to learn about the disk space used on the /home partition, you could type df /home. Alternatively, you can give a device filename, as in df /dev/hda9. Monitoring Disk Use by Directory The df command is helpful for finding out which partitions are in danger of becoming overloaded; but once you’ve obtained this informati