Table of Contents

Preface

1.0 Format of Recipes
1.1 Assumptions, Scope, and Exclusions
1.2 Typographical Conventions
1.3 Versions, Latest Edition, and Errata
1.4 Acknowledgments

PART ONE: Working with Linux
2. Introduction

2.1 Background and History

2.1.1 What's Unix?
2.1.2 What's Free Software?
2.1.3 What's Open Source?
2.1.4 What's Linux?
2.1.5 What's Debian?
2.1.6 Unix and the Tools Philosophy

2.2 What to Try First
2.3 If You Need More Help

3. What Every Linux User Knows

3.1 Controlling Power to the System

3.1.1 Powering Up the System
3.1.2 Turning Off the System

3.2 Accounts and Privileges

3.2.1 Logging In to the System
3.2.2 Logging Out of the System

3.3 Console Basics

3.3.1 Switching between Consoles
3.3.2 Scrolling the Console Text
3.3.3 Keys for Console Manipulation

3.4 Running a Command
3.5 Changing Your Password
3.6 Listing User Activity

3.6.1 Listing Your Username
3.6.2 Listing Who Is on the System
3.6.3 Listing Who Is on and What They're Doing
3.6.4 Listing the Last Times a User Logged In

3.7 Listing System Activity

3.7.1 Listing Your Current Processes
3.7.2 Listing All of a User's Processes
3.7.3 Listing All Processes on the System
3.7.4 Listing Processes by Name or Number

3.8 Help Facilities

3.8.1 Finding the Right Tool for the Job
3.8.2 Listing a Description of a Program
3.8.3 Listing the Usage of a Tool
3.8.4 Reading a Page from the System Manual
3.8.5 Using the GNU Info System
3.8.6 Reading System Documentation and Help Files

4. The Shell

4.1 Keys for Command Line Editing

4.1.1 Passing Special Characters to Commands
4.1.2 Letting the Shell Complete What You Type
4.1.3 Repeating the Last Command You Typed
4.1.4 Running a List of Commands

4.2 Redirecting Input and Output

4.2.1 Redirecting Input to a File
4.2.2 Redirecting Output to a File
4.2.3 Redirecting Error Messages to a File
4.2.4 Redirecting Output to Another Command's Input

4.3 Managing Jobs

4.3.1 Suspending a Job
4.3.2 Putting a Job in the Background
4.3.3 Putting a Job in the Foreground
4.3.4 Listing Your Jobs
4.3.5 Stopping a Job

4.4 Command History

4.4.1 Viewing Your Command History
4.4.2 Specifying a Command from Your History

4.5 Recording a Shell Session
4.6 Customizing Your Shell

4.6.1 Changing the Shell Prompt
4.6.2 Making a Command Alias
4.6.3 Adding to Your Path
4.6.4 Customizing Future Shells

5. The X Window System

5.1 Running X

5.1.1 Starting X
5.1.2 Stopping X

5.2 Running a Program in X

5.2.1 Specifying Window Size and Location
5.2.2 Specifying Window Colors
5.2.3 Specifying Window Font
5.2.4 Specifying Additional Window Attributes

5.3 Manipulating X Client Windows

5.3.1 Moving a Window
5.3.2 Resizing a Window
5.3.3 Destroying a Window
5.3.4 Minimizing a Window
5.3.5 Maximizing a Window

5.4 Moving around the Desktop
5.5 Running a Shell in X
5.6 Configuring X

5.6.1 Switching between Video Modes
5.6.2 Running X Clients Automatically
5.6.3 Changing the Root Window Parameters
5.6.4 Choosing a Window Manager

PART TWO: Files
6. Files and Directories

6.1 Naming Files and Directories

6.1.1 Making an Empty File
6.1.2 Making a Directory
6.1.3 Making a Directory Tree

6.2 Changing Directories

6.2.1 Changing to Your Home Directory
6.2.2 Changing to the Last Directory You Visited
6.2.3 Getting the Name of the Current Directory

6.3 Listing Directories

6.3.1 Listing File Attributes
6.3.2 Listing Directories Recursively
6.3.3 Listing Newest Files First
6.3.4 Listing Hidden Files
6.3.5 Listing Directories in Color
6.3.6 Listing Directory Tree Graphs
6.3.7 Additional Directory Listing Options

6.4 Copying Files and Directories
6.5 Moving Files and Directories

6.5.1 Changing File Names to Lowercase
6.5.2 Renaming Multiple Files with the Same Extension

6.6 Removing Files and Directories

6.6.1 Removing a File with a Strange Name
6.6.2 A Safe Way to Remove a File

6.7 Giving a File More than One Name
6.8 Specifying File Names with Patterns
6.9 Browsing Files

7. Sharing Files

7.1 Groups and How to Work in Them

7.1.1 Listing the Groups a User Belongs To
7.1.2 Listing the Members of a Group

7.2 File Ownership

7.2.1 Determining the Ownership of a File
7.2.2 Changing the Ownership of a File

7.3 Controlling Access to Files

7.3.1 Listing the Permissions of a File
7.3.2 Changing the Permissions of a File
7.3.3 Write-Protecting a File
7.3.4 Making a File Private
7.3.5 Making a File Public
7.3.6 Making a File Executable

8. Finding Files

8.1 Finding All Files That Match a Pattern
8.2 Finding Files in a Directory Tree

8.2.1 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Name
8.2.2 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Size
8.2.3 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Modification Time
8.2.4 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Owner
8.2.5 Running Commands on the Files You Find
8.2.6 Finding Files by Multiple Criteria

8.3 Finding Files in Directory Listings

8.3.1 Finding the Largest Files in a Directory
8.3.2 Finding the Smallest Files in a Directory
8.3.3 Finding the Smallest Directories
8.3.4 Finding the Largest Directories
8.3.5 Finding the Number of Files in a Listing

8.4 Finding Where a Command Is Located

9. Managing Files

9.1 Determining File Type and Format
9.2 Changing File Modification Time
9.3 Splitting a File into Smaller Ones
9.4 Comparing Files

9.4.1 Determining Whether Two Files Differ
9.4.2 Finding the Differences between Files
9.4.3 Patching a File with a Difference Report

9.5 Compressed Files

9.5.1 Compressing a File
9.5.2 Decompressing a File

9.6 File Archives

9.6.1 Creating a File Archive
9.6.2 Listing the Contents of an Archive
9.6.3 Extracting Files from an Archive

9.7 Tracking Revisions to a File

9.7.1 Checking In a File Revision
9.7.2 Checking Out a File Revision
9.7.3 Viewing a File's Revision Log

PART THREE: Text
10. Viewing Text

10.1 Perusing Text

10.1.1 Perusing a Text File
10.1.2 Perusing Multiple Text Files
10.1.3 Commands Available While Perusing Text

10.2 Outputting Text

10.2.1 Showing Non-printing Characters
10.2.2 Outputting a Beginning Part of a Text
10.2.3 Outputting an Ending Part of a Text
10.2.4 Outputting a Middle Part of a Text
10.2.5 Outputting the Text between Strings
10.2.6 Outputting Text in a Dialect

10.3 Streaming Text
10.4 Viewing a Character Chart

11. Text Editing

11.1 Choosing the Perfect Text Editor
11.2 Emacs

11.2.1 Getting Acquainted with Emacs
11.2.2 Basic Emacs Editing Keys
11.2.3 Making Abbreviations in Emacs
11.2.4 Recording and Running Macros in Emacs
11.2.5 Inserting Special Characters in Emacs

11.3 Running a Vi Tutorial
11.4 Selecting Text

11.4.1 Cutting Text
11.4.2 Pasting Text

11.5 Editing Streams of Text
11.6 Concatenating Text

11.6.1 Writing Text to Files
11.6.2 Appending Text to a File
11.6.3 Inserting Text at the Beginning of a File

11.7 Including Text Files

12. Grammar and Reference

12.1 Spelling

12.1.1 Finding the Correct Spelling of a Word
12.1.2 Listing the Misspellings in a Text
12.1.3 Keeping a Spelling Word List
12.1.4 Interactive Spell Checking
12.1.5 Spell Checking in Emacs

12.2 Dictionaries

12.2.1 Listing Words that Match a Pattern
12.2.2 Listing the Definitions of a Word
12.2.3 Listing the Synonyms of a Word
12.2.4 Listing the Antonyms of a Word
12.2.5 Listing the Hypernyms of a Word
12.2.6 Online Dictionaries

12.3 Checking Grammar

12.3.1 Checking Text for Misused Phrases
12.3.2 Checking Text for Doubled Words
12.3.3 Checking Text for Readability
12.3.4 Checking Text for Difficult Sentences
12.3.5 Checking Text for Long Sentences

12.4 Word Lists and Reference Files

13. Analyzing Text

13.1 Counting Text

13.1.1 Counting the Characters in a Text
13.1.2 Counting the Words in a Text
13.1.3 Counting the Lines in a Text
13.1.4 Counting the Occurrences of Something
13.1.5 Counting Lines per Page in Emacs

13.2 Making a Concordance of a Text
13.3 Text Relevance

13.3.1 Sorting Text in Order of Relevance
13.3.2 Listing Relevant Files in Emacs

13.4 Finding Anagrams in Text
13.5 Finding Palindromes in Text
13.6 Text Cut-Ups

13.6.1 Making Simple Text Cut-Ups
13.6.2 Making Random Word Cut-Ups
13.6.3 Making Cut-Ups in Emacs

14. Formatting Text

14.1 Spacing Text

14.1.1 Eliminating Extra Spaces in Text
14.1.2 Single-Spacing Text
14.1.3 Double-Spacing Text
14.1.4 Triple-Spacing Text
14.1.5 Adding Line Breaks to Text
14.1.6 Adding Margins to Text
14.1.7 Swapping Tab and Space Characters

14.2 Paginating Text

14.2.1 Placing Headers on Each Page
14.2.2 Placing Text in Columns
14.2.3 Options Available When Paginating Text

14.3 Underlining Text
14.4 Sorting Text
14.5 Numbering Lines of Text
14.6 Reversing Text

15. Searching Text

15.1 Searching for a Word or Phrase
15.2 Regular Expressions--Matching Text Patterns

15.2.1 Matching Lines Beginning with Certain Text
15.2.2 Matching Lines Ending with Certain Text
15.2.3 Matching Lines of a Certain Length
15.2.4 Matching Lines That Contain Any of Some Regexps
15.2.5 Matching Lines That Contain All of Some Regexps
15.2.6 Matching Lines That Don't Contain a Regexp
15.2.7 Matching Lines That Only Contain Certain Characters
15.2.8 Finding Phrases Regardless of Spacing
15.2.9 Finding Patterns in Certain Contexts
15.2.10 Using a List of Regexps to Match From
15.2.11 Regexps for Common Situations

15.3 Searching More than Plain Text Files

15.3.1 Matching Lines in Compressed Files
15.3.2 Matching Lines in Web Pages

15.4 Outputting the Context of a Search
15.5 Searching and Replacing Text
15.6 Searching Text in Emacs

15.6.1 Searching Incrementally in Emacs
15.6.2 Searching for a Phrase in Emacs
15.6.3 Searching for a Regexp in Emacs
15.6.4 Searching and Replacing in Emacs

15.7 Searching Text in Less

16. Typesetting and Word Processing

16.1 Choosing the Right Typesetting System for the Job
16.2 Converting Plain Text for Output

16.2.1 Outputting Text in a Font
16.2.2 Outputting Text as a Poster or Sign
16.2.3 Outputting Text with Language Highlighting
16.2.4 Outputting Text with Fancy Headers
16.2.5 Outputting Text in Landscape Orientation
16.2.6 Outputting Multiple Copies of Text
16.2.7 Selecting the Pages of Text to Output
16.2.8 Additional PostScript Output Options

16.3 LyX Document Processing

16.3.1 Features of LyX
16.3.2 Writing Documents with LyX
16.3.3 Learning More about LyX

16.4 Typesetting with TeX and Friends

16.4.1 Is It a TeX or LaTeX File?
16.4.2 Processing TeX Files
16.4.3 Processing LaTeX Files
16.4.4 Writing Documents with TeX and LaTeX
16.4.5 TeX and LaTeX Document Templates

16.5 Writing Documents with SGMLtools

16.5.1 Elements of an SGML Document
16.5.2 Checking SGML Document Syntax
16.5.3 Generating Output from SGML

16.6 Other Word Processors and Typesetting Systems

17. Fonts

17.1 X Fonts

17.1.1 Selecting an X Font Name
17.1.2 Listing Available X Fonts
17.1.3 Displaying the Characters in an X Font
17.1.4 Resizing the Xterm Font

17.2 Console Fonts

17.2.1 Setting the Console Font
17.2.2 Displaying the Characters in a Console Font

17.3 Text Fonts

17.3.1 Horizontal Text Fonts
17.3.2 Making a Text Banner

17.4 Other Font Tools

PART FOUR: Images
18. Viewing Images

18.1 Previewing Print Files

18.1.1 Previewing a DVI File
18.1.2 Previewing a PostScript File
18.1.3 Previewing a PDF File

18.2 Viewing an Image in X

18.2.1 Browsing Image Collections in X
18.2.2 Putting an Image in the Root Window

18.3 Browsing Images in a Console
18.4 Viewing an Image in a Web Browser
18.5 Browsing PhotoCD Archives
18.6 Additional Image Viewers

19. Editing Images

19.1 Transforming Images

19.1.1 Changing the Size of an Image
19.1.2 Rotating an Image
19.1.3 Adjusting the Colors of an Image
19.1.4 Annotating an Image
19.1.5 Adding Borders to an Image
19.1.6 Making an Image Montage
19.1.7 Combining Images
19.1.8 Morphing Two Images Together

19.2 Converting Images between Formats
19.3 Editing Images with the GIMP
19.4 Interactive Image Editors and Tools

20. Importing Images

20.1 Taking Screen Shots

20.1.1 Taking a Screen Shot in X
20.1.2 Taking a Screen Shot in a Console

20.2 Scanning Images

20.2.1 Listing Available Scanner Devices
20.2.2 Testing a Scanner
20.2.3 Scanning an Image

20.3 Extracting PhotoCD Images

20.3.1 Converting a PhotoCD Image
20.3.2 Removing PhotoCD Haze

21. PostScript

21.1 Manipulating PostScript Pages

21.1.1 Extracting DVI Pages to PostScript
21.1.2 Extracting Pages from a PostScript File
21.1.3 Combining PostScript Pages
21.1.4 Arranging PostScript Pages in Signatures

21.2 Manipulating PostScript Documents

21.2.1 Resizing a PostScript Document
21.2.2 Combining PostScript Documents
21.2.3 Arranging a PostScript Document in a Booklet

21.3 Converting PostScript

21.3.1 Converting PostScript to PDF
21.3.2 Converting PostScript to Plain Text

PART FIVE: Sound
22. Sound Files

22.1 Sound File Formats
22.2 Adjusting the Audio Controls

22.2.1 Listing the Current Audio Settings
22.2.2 Changing the Volume Level
22.2.3 Muting an Audio Device
22.2.4 Selecting an Audio Recording Source

22.3 Playing a Sound File

22.3.1 Playing an MP3 File
22.3.2 Playing a MIDI File

22.4 Recording a Sound File
22.5 Other Sound File Tools

23. Audio Compact Discs

23.1 Controlling CD Audio

23.1.1 Playing an Audio CD
23.1.2 Pausing an Audio CD
23.1.3 Stopping an Audio CD
23.1.4 Shuffling Audio CD Tracks
23.1.5 Displaying Information about an Audio CD
23.1.6 Ejecting an Audio CD

23.2 Sampling Sound from a CD
23.3 Writing an Audio CD-R
23.4 Other Audio CD Applications

24. Editing Sound Files

24.1 Working with Selections from Sound Files

24.1.1 Cutting Out Part of a Sound File
24.1.2 Pasting a Selection of Sound
24.1.3 Mixing Sound Files Together

24.2 Sound Effects

24.2.1 Changing the Amplitude of a Sound File
24.2.2 Changing the Sampling Rate of a Sound File
24.2.3 Adding Reverb to a Sound File
24.2.4 Adding Echo to a Sound File
24.2.5 Adding Flange to a Sound File
24.2.6 Adding Phase to a Sound File
24.2.7 Adding Chorus to a Sound File
24.2.8 Adding Vibro-Champ Effects to a Sound File
24.2.9 Reversing a Sound File

24.3 Converting Sound Files

24.3.1 Making an MP3 File
24.3.2 Converting MP3 to Another Format

24.4 Other Tools for Sound Editing

PART SIX: Productivity
25. Disk Storage

25.1 Listing a Disk's Free Space
25.2 Listing a File's Disk Usage
25.3 Floppy Disks

25.3.1 Formatting a Floppy Disk
25.3.2 Mounting a Floppy Disk
25.3.3 Unmounting a Floppy Disk

25.4 CD-ROMs

25.4.1 Mounting a CD-ROM
25.4.2 Unmounting a CD-ROM

26. Printing

26.1 Making and Managing Print Jobs

26.1.1 Sending a Print Job to the Printer
26.1.2 Printing Multiple Copies of a Job
26.1.3 Listing Your Print Jobs
26.1.4 Cancelling a Print Job

26.2 More Recipes for Printing

26.2.1 Printing in Emacs
26.2.2 Printing with Dvips
26.2.3 Printing the Contents of an Xterm Window

26.3 Preparing Files for Printing

26.3.1 Preparing a PostScript File for Printing
26.3.2 Preparing a DVI File for Printing
26.3.3 Preparing a PDF File for Printing
26.3.4 Preparing a Man Page for Printing

27. Cross-Platform Conversions

27.1 Using DOS and Windows Disks

27.1.1 Listing the Contents of a DOS Disk
27.1.2 Copying Files to and from a DOS Disk
27.1.3 Deleting Files on a DOS Disk
27.1.4 Formatting a DOS Disk

27.2 Using Macintosh Disks

27.2.1 Specifying the Macintosh Disk to Use
27.2.2 Listing the Contents of a Macintosh Disk
27.2.3 Copying Files to and from a Macintosh Disk
27.2.4 Deleting Files on a Macintosh Disk
27.2.5 Formatting a Macintosh Disk

27.3 Converting Text Files between DOS and Linux
27.4 Converting Microsoft Word Files

27.4.1 Converting Word to LaTeX
27.4.2 Converting Word to Plain Text

28. Reminders

28.1 Displaying the Date and Time
28.2 Playing an Audible Time Announcement
28.3 Calendars

28.3.1 Displaying a Calendar
28.3.2 Displaying a Calendar in Emacs

28.4 Managing Appointments

28.4.1 Making an Appointment File
28.4.2 Including Holidays in Your Reminders
28.4.3 Automatic Appointment Delivery

28.5 Contact Managers

28.5.1 Keeping a Free-Form Address List
28.5.2 Keeping a Contact Manager Database

28.6 Reminding Yourself of Things

28.6.1 Sending Yourself Email Reminders
28.6.2 Reminding Yourself When You Have to Leave
28.6.3 Running a Command on a Delay

29. Mathematics

29.1 Calculating Arithmetic

29.1.1 Making a Quick Arithmetic Calculation
29.1.2 Making Many Arithmetic Calculations

29.2 Outputting a Random Number
29.3 Listing a Sequence of Numbers
29.4 Finding Prime Factors
29.5 Converting Numbers

29.5.1 Converting an Amount between Units of Measurement
29.5.2 Converting an Arabic Numeral to English

29.6 Other Math Tools

PART SEVEN: Networking
30. Communications

30.1 Connecting to the Internet

30.1.1 Setting Up PPP
30.1.2 Controlling a PPP Connection

30.2 Faxing

30.2.1 Sending a Fax
30.2.2 Receiving a Fax
30.2.3 Receiving Faxes Automatically
30.2.4 Converting to and from Fax Format

30.3 Calling Out on a Modem

31. Email

31.1 Sending Mail

31.1.1 Mailing a User on the Same System
31.1.2 Mailing a File or the Output of a Command
31.1.3 Mailing the Contents of a URL
31.1.4 Special Mail Composition Keystrokes

31.2 Receiving Mail

31.2.1 Deleting Mail
31.2.2 Options Available while Reading Mail

31.3 Managing Mail

31.3.1 Viewing a Mail Folder
31.3.2 Setting Notification for New Mail
31.3.3 Counting How Many Messages You Have
31.3.4 Seeing Who Your Mail Is From
31.3.5 Verifying an Email Address

31.4 Mail Attachments

31.4.1 Reading a Mail Attachment
31.4.2 Sending a Mail Attachment

31.5 Making an Email Signature
31.6 Picking the Right Mail Application

32. The World Wide Web

32.1 Browsing the Web

32.1.1 Maintaining a List of Visited Web Sites
32.1.2 Opening a URL from a Script
32.1.3 Mozilla Browsing Tips

32.2 Viewing an Image from the Web
32.3 Reading Text from the Web

32.3.1 Perusing Text from the Web
32.3.2 Viewing a Site That Requires Authorization
32.3.3 Options Available while Browsing Text

32.4 Browsing the Web in Emacs
32.5 Getting Files from the Web

32.5.1 Saving a URL to a File
32.5.2 Archiving an Entire Web Site
32.5.3 Archiving Part of a Web Site
32.5.4 Reading the Headers of a Web Page

32.6 Writing HTML

32.6.1 Adding Parameters to Image Tags
32.6.2 Converting HTML to Another Format
32.6.3 Validating an HTML File

32.7 More Web Browsers and Tools

33. Other Internet Services

33.1 Connecting to Another System

33.1.1 Suspending a Connection with Another System
33.1.2 Connecting to Another System with Encryption

33.2 Transferring Files with Another System

33.2.1 Uploading a File
33.2.2 Downloading a File

33.3 Reading Usenet

33.3.1 Choosing a Newsreader
33.3.2 Finding Newsgroups for a Topic

33.4 Listing Online System and User Activity

33.4.1 Checking Whether a System Is Online
33.4.2 Checking Whether a User Is Online
33.4.3 Listing Who Is Logged In to a System
33.4.4 Finding the IP Address of a Host Name
33.4.5 Finding the Host Name of an IP Address
33.4.6 Listing the Owner of a Domain Name

33.5 Sending a Message to Another User's Terminal
33.6 Chatting with Other Users

33.6.1 Chatting Directly with a User
33.6.2 Chatting with Users on IRC
33.6.3 Chatting with Users on ICQ

A. Administrative Issues

A.1 Linux and Hardware Compatibility
A.2 Shutting Down the System

A.2.1 Shutting Down Immediately
A.2.2 Shutting Down at a Certain Time
A.2.3 Cancelling a Shutdown

A.3 Installing Software

A.3.1 Getting and Installing Debian
A.3.2 Installing a Debian Package
A.3.3 Upgrading a Debian Package
A.3.4 Installing a Shell Script

A.4 Administrating Users

A.4.1 Making a User Account
A.4.2 Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals
A.4.3 Letting Users Mount Drives

A.5 Displaying Information about the System

A.5.1 How Long Has the System Been Up?
A.5.2 What Version of Linux Am I Running?
A.5.3 What Version of Debian Am I Running?

B. Linux Resources on the Web
C. License

C.1 Design Science License
C.2 Applying Copyleft to Your Work

Program Index
Concept Index