Ubuntu Linux Toolbox:
1000+ Commands for Ubuntu and Debian Power Users
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Indianapolis, IN 46256
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Copyright 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-08293-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Negus, Chris, 1957
Ubuntu Linux toolbox : 1000+ commands for Ubuntu and Debian power users / Christopher Negus, Franois Caen.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-08293-5 (pbk.)
1. Linux. 2. Operating systems (Computers) I. Caen, Franois. II. Title.
QA76.76.O63N42676 2007
005.432dc22
2007041567
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As always, I dedicate my work on this book to my wife, Sheree.
Christopher Negus
To my wife, Tonya, for supporting me in all my endeavors.
Franois Caen
About the Authors
Christopher Negus is the author of the best-selling Fedora and Red Hat Linux Bible s , Linux Toys, Linux Troubleshooting Bible , and Linux Bible 2007 Edition . He is a member of the Madison Linux Users Group. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Chris served for eight years on development teams for the Unix operating system at AT&T, where Unix was created and developed. He also worked with Novell on Unix development and Caldera Linux.
Franois Caen, through his company Turbosphere LLC, hosts and manages business application infrastructures, with 95 percent running on Linux systems. As an open source advocate, he has lectured on OSS network management and Internet services, and served as president of the Tacoma Linux User Group. Franois is a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE). In his spare time, Franois enjoys managing enterprise Cisco networks.
Credits
Acquisitions Editor
Jenny Watson
Development Editor
Sara Shlaer
Technical Editor
Thomas Blader
Copy Editor
Michael Koch
Editorial Manager
Mary Beth Wakefield
Production Manager
Tim Tate
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Richard Swadley
Vice President and Executive Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert
Project Coordinator, Cover Lynsey Osborn
Compositor
Laurie Stewart, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader
Kathryn Duggan
Indexer
Melanie Belkin
Anniversary Logo Design
Richard Pacifico
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge Canonical Ltd. and the Ubuntu community for their ongoing excellent work producing the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system.
Special thanks to Franois Caen for giving up most of his free time over the past year, while juggling his existing professional obligations, to co-author the book with me. Thomas Blader went far beyond his technical editor title, providing excellent insights and meticulous testing throughout the book. Eric Foster-Johnson came in near the end of the process and provided Ubuntu feature enhancements throughout the book.
At Wiley, Id like to thank Jenny Watson for sticking with us through the development of the book. And, last but not least, thanks to Sara Shlaer for keeping us on track with schedules and supplying the never-ending ToDo lists we needed to accomplish to get this book published.
Christopher Negus
I would like to thank Chris Negus for giving me the opportunity to co-author this book with him. We had wanted to write together for the last couple of years, and this Toolbox series was the perfect fit for our collaboration.
I couldnt have worked on this book without the unrelenting support from my wife, Tonya. Thank you for emptying the dishwasher all these times even though we both know its my job.
Thanks to Thomas Blader for his detailed tech editing. Thanks to Eric Foster-Johnson for adding his Ubuntu expertise to this book. Thanks to Sara Shlaer for her guidance throughout the authoring process, and to Jenny Watson for being the most patient cat-herder out there. Special thanks to Wayne Tucker for sharing his Debian experience with me over the years, especially when it came to cutting-edge features like kernel 2.4.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical Ltd., and the Ubuntu community for making Ubuntu possible and helping spread Linux to the masses.
Franois Caen
Introduction
The huge, enthusiastic Ubuntu community has swept up thousands and thousands of new Ubuntu Linux users. If you are one of them, you will probably soon find yourself wanting to dig beneath the surface of Ubuntus applications and graphical tools. Youll want to become a power user.