Linux

his documentation will attempt to summarize the installation and configuration, as well as the day−to−day
administrative and maintenance procedures that should be followed to keep a Linux−based server or desktop
system up and running. It is geared to an audience of both corporate as well as home users. It is not intended
to be a full overview of Unix operations, as there are several good texts available as well as on−line
documentation which can be referred to in cases where more detailed information is required.
In general, your Linux system can operate with a minimum of user maintenance. Routine tasks, such as
rotating and discarding of system logs, are automated. Therefore, for the most part, even with very little user
intervention, Linux will hum along doing its job. However, in cases of custom needs or system failure this
documentation may prove useful.

This book was written to provide a single reference for network administration in a Linux environment. Beginners and experienced users alike should find the information they need to cover nearly all important administration activities required to manage a Linux network configuration. The possible range of topics to cover is nearly limitless, so of course it has been impossible to include everything there is to say on all subjects. We\'ve tried to cover the most important and common ones. We\'ve found that beginners to Linux networking, even those with no prior exposure to Unix-like operating systems, have found this book good enough to help them successfully get their Linux network configurations up and running and get them ready to learn more.

Welcome to Linux! You hold in your hands everything you need to install and use one of the
most powerful computer operating systems in the world. This book is designed to help guide
you through the process of learning about Linux.

THIS CHAPTER SHOWS YOU HOW TO PERFORM THE BASIC steps required to create a C or C++ Linux program. In particular, this chapter shows you how to create and modify C and C++ source code, compile that code, and debug the result. If you’re already accustomed to programming under Linux, you can skip ahead to Chapter 2, “Writing Good GNU/Linux Software;” pay careful attention to Section 2.3,“Writing and Using Libraries,” for information about static versus dynamic linking that you might not already know.

Why another book on Java? Why a book on Java and Linux? Isn’t Java a platform-independent system? Aren’t there enough books on Java? Can’t I learn everything I need to know from the Web? No doubt, there are a host of Java books on the market. We didn’t wake up one morning and say, “You know what the world really needs? Another book about Java!” No. What we realized was that there are a couple of “holes” in the Java book market. First, Linux as a development platform and deployment platform for Java applications has been largely ignored. This is despite the fact that the *nix platform (meaning all UNIX and UNIX-like systems, Linux included) has long been recognized as one of the most programmer-friendly platforms in existence.

The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is working on developing free, high−quality documentation for the GNU/Linux operating system. The overall goal of the LDP is to collaborate in all of the issues of Linux documentation. This includes the creation of \'HOWTOs\' and \'Guides\'. We hope to establish a system of documentation for Linux that will be easy to use and search. This includes the integration of the manual pages, info docs, HOWTOs, and other documents.

As a programmer, you are able to make your own choices about your driver, and choose an acceptable trade-off between the programming time required and the flexibility of the result. Though it may appear strange to say that a driver is “flexible,” we like this word because it emphasizes that the role of a device driver is providing mechanism, not policy.
The distinction between mechanism and policy is one of the best ideas behind the Unix design. Most programming problems can indeed be split into two parts: “what capabilities are to be provided” (the mechanism) and “how those capabilities can be used” (the policy). If the two issues are addressed by different parts of the program, or even by different programs altogether, the software package is much easier to develop and to adapt to particular needs.

In a nutshell, this book is about effectively and efficiently diagnosing problems that occur in the Linux environment. It covers good investigation practices, how to use the information and resources on the Internet, and then dives right into detail describing how to use the most important problem determination tools that Linux has to offer.

Linux is a relatively new operating system that has begun to enjoy a lot of attention from the business, academic and free software worlds. As the operating system matures, its feature set, capabilities and performance grow, but so, out of necessity does its size and complexity. Table 1.1 shows the size of the kernel source code in bytes and lines of code of the mm/ part of the kernel tree. This size does not include the machine-dependent code or any of the buffer management code and does not even pretend to be an accurate metric for complexity, but it still serves as a small indicator.