Chris Negus - Linux Bible

Linux Bible 8th Edition

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Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-21854-9

ISBN: 978-1-118-28690-6 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-28287-8 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-28397-4 (ebk)

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As always, I dedicate this book to my wife, Sheree.

Chris Negus

I would like to dedicate this book to my family and the Lord God Almighty.

But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded. 2 Chronicles 15:7

Christine Bresnahan

About the Authors

Chris Negus has spent the past three years as an instructor for Red Hat, Inc., teaching IT professionals to become Red Hat Certified Engineers (RHCE). Chris's certifications include RHCE, Red Hat Certified Instructor (RHCI), and Red Hat Certified Examiner (RHCX). He also has certifications in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHCVA) and Red Hat Enterprise Deployment and Systems Management.

Before joining Red Hat, Chris wrote or co-wrote dozens of books on Linux and UNIX, including Red Hat Linux Bible (all editions), CentOS Bible, Fedora Bible, Linux Troubleshooting Bible, Linux Toys, and Linux Toys II. Recently, Chris co-authored several books for the Linux Toolbox series for power users: Fedora Linux Toolbox, SUSE Linux Toolbox, Ubuntu Linux Toolbox, Mac OS X Toolbox, and BSD UNIX Toolbox.

For eight years Chris worked with the organization at AT&T that developed UNIX before moving to Utah to contribute to Novell's UnixWare project in the early 1990s. When not writing about Linux, Chris enjoys playing soccer and just hanging out with his family.

Christine Bresnahan started working with computers over 25 years ago in the IT industry as a system administrator. Christine is currently an adjunct professor at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis, Indiana, teaching Linux system administration, Linux security, and Windows security classes.

About the Technical Editor

Richard Blum has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years as both a systems and network administrator, and has published numerous Linux and open source books. He has administered UNIX, Linux, Novell, and Microsoft servers, as well as helped design and maintain a 3,500-user network utilizing Cisco switches and routers. He has used Linux servers and shell scripts to perform automated network and system monitoring, and has written shell scripts in most of the common Linux shell environments. Rich is also an online instructor for several Linux and web programming courses that are used by colleges and universities around the world. When he's not being a computer nerd, Rich plays electric bass in a couple of different church worship bands, and enjoys spending time with his wife, Barbara, and three daughters, Katie, Jane, and Jessica.

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Mary James

Project Editor

Linda Harrison

Technical Editor

Richard Blum

Production Editor

Daniel Scribner

Copy Editor

Nancy Rapoport

Editorial Manager

Mary Beth Wakefield

Freelancer Editorial Manager

Rosemarie Graham

Associate Director of Marketing

David Mayhew

Marketing Manager

Ashley Zurcher

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Production Manager

Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Neil Edde

Associate Publisher

Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover

Katie Crocker

Proofreaders

Josh Chase, Word One

Paul Sagan, Word One

Indexer

Robert Swanson

Cover Designer

Ryan Sneed

Cover Image

Aleksandar Velasevic / iStockPhoto

Acknowledgments

Since I was hired by Red Hat, Inc. over three years ago, I have been exposed to the best Linux developers, testers, support professionals, and instructors in the world. I can't thank everyone individually, so instead I salute the culture of cooperation and excellence that serves to improve my own Linux skills every day. I don't speak well of Red Hat because I work there; I work there because Red Hat has earned its reputation as the leading force in Linux development.