Linux Phrasebook

 

Get more done faster at the Linux command line! This best-selling Linux Phrasebook has been thoroughly updated in the second edition to reflect the newest distributions, incorporate feedback from hundreds of active Linux users, and cover today's newest tools and techniques -- including an entirely new chapter on text file manipulation. 

Linux Phrasebook, Second Edition offers a concise, handy reference to the Linux commands that, like a language phrasebook, can be used on the spot on moment's notice.

 

Don't waste a minute on non-essentials: this straight-to-the-point reference delivers specific information and tested commands designed to work with any modern Linux distribution. Portable enough to take anywhere, it starts with a quick introduction to essential command line concepts, and then delivers all the modern Linux command examples, variations, and parameters you need to: 

• View, manipulate, archive, and compress files
• Control file ownership and permissions
• Find anything on your systems
• Efficiently use the Linux shell
• Monitor system resources
• Install software
• Test, fix, and work with networks

Linux Phrasebook, Second Edition is the perfect quick command line reference for millions of Linux users and administrators at all levels of experience: people who want to get reliable information they can use right now -- with no distractions and no diversions!

Contents at a Glance

 

Part I: Getting Started

Chapter 1 Things to Know About Your Command Line

Everything Is a File

Maximum Filename Lengths

Names Are Case-Sensitive

Special Characters to Avoid in Names

Wildcards and What They Mean

Special Files That Affect Your Command Line

If There’s Too Much Stuff on Screen, Reset

Chapter 2 Navigating Your File System

List Files and Folders

List the Contents of Other Folders

List Folder Contents Using Wildcards

View a List of Files in Subfolders

View a List of Contents in a Single Column

View Contents As a Comma-Separated List

View Hidden Files and Folders

Visually Display a File’s Type

Display Contents in Color

List Permissions, Ownership, and More

Reverse the Order Contents Are Listed

Sort Contents by Date and Time

Sort Contents by Size

Express File Sizes in Terms of K, M, and G

Display the Path of Your Current Directory

Change to a Different Directory

Change to Your Home Directory

Change to Your Previous Directory

Chapter 3 Creation and Destruction

Change a File to the Current Time

Change a File to Any Desired Time

Create a New, Empty File

Create a New Directory

Create a New Directory and Any Necessary Subdirectories

Copy Files

Copy Files Using Wildcards

Copy Files Verbosely

Stop Yourself from Copying over Important Files

Copy Directories

Copy Files As Perfect Backups in Another Directory

Move Files and Folders

Rename Files and Folders

Understand How Linux Stores Files

Create a Link Pointing to Another File or Directory

Delete Files

Remove Several Files at Once with Wildcards

Prevent Yourself from Deleting Key Files

Delete an Empty Directory

Remove Files and Directories That Aren’t Empty

Deleting Troublesome Files

Chapter 4 Learning About Commands

Find Out About Commands with man

Quickly Find Out What a Command Does Based on Its Name

Search for a Command Based on What It Does

Read a Command’s Specific Man Page

Learn About Commands with info

Navigate Within info

Locate the Paths for a Command’s Executable, Source Files, and Man Pages

Find Out Which Version of a Command Will Run

Discover How a Command Will Be Interpreted

Chapter 5 Building Blocks

Run Several Commands Sequentially

Run Commands Only If the Previous Ones Succeed

Run a Command Only If the Previous One Fails

Plug the Output of a Command into Another Command

Understand Input/Output Streams

Use the Output of One Command As Input for Another

Redirect a Command’s Output to a File

Prevent Overwriting Files When Using Redirection

Append a Command’s Output to a File

Use a File As Input for a Command

Combine Input and Output Redirection

Send Output to a File and to stdout at the Same Time

Part II: Working with Files

Chapter 6 Viewing (Mostly Text) Files

Figure Out a File’s Type

View Files on stdout

Concatenate Files to stdout

Concatenate Files to Another File

Concatenate Files and Number the Lines

View Text Files a Screen at a Time

Search Within Your Pager

Edit Files Viewed with a Pager

View the First 10 Lines of a File

View the First 10 Lines of Several Files

View the First Several Lines of a File or Files

View the First Several Bytes, Kilobytes, or Megabytes of a File

View the Last 10 Lines of a File

View the Last 10 Lines of Several Files

View the Last Several Lines of a File or Files

View the Constantly Updated Last Lines of a File or Files

Chapter 7 Manipulating Text Files with Filters

Count the Number of Words, Lines, and Characters in a File

Number Lines in a File

Select an Entire Column of Data in a Delimited File

Sort the Contents of a File

Sort the Contents of a File Numerically

Remove Duplicate Lines in a File

Substitute Selected Characters with Others

Replace Repeated Characters with a Single Instance

Delete Matching Characters

Transform Text in a File

Print Specific Fields in a File

Chapter 8 Ownerships and Permissions

Become Another User

Become Another User, with His Environment Variables

Become root

Become root, with Its Environment Variables

Change the Group Owning Files and Directories

Recursively Change the Group Owning a Directory

Change the Owner of Files and Directories

Change the Owner and Group of Files and Directories

Understand the Basics of Permissions

Change Permissions on Files and Directories Using Alphabetic Notation

Change Permissions on Files and Directories Using Numeric Permissions

Change Permissions Recursively

Set and Then Clear suid

Set and Then Clear sgid

Set and Then Clear the Sticky Bit

Chapter 9 Archiving and Compression

Archive and Compress Files Using zip

Get the Best Compression Possible with zip

Archive and Compress Files of a Specified Type in Directories and Subdirectories

Password-Protect Compressed Zip Archives

Unzip Files

Test Files That Will Be Unzipped

Archive and Compress Files Using gzip

Archive and Compress Files Recursively Using gzip

Uncompress Files Compressed with gzip

Test Files That Will Be Unzipped with gunzip

Archive and Compress Files Using bzip2

Uncompress Files Compressed with bzip2

Test Files That Will Be Unzipped with bunzip2

Archive Files with tar

Archive and Compress Files with tar and gzip

Test Files That Will Be Untarred and Uncompressed

Untar and Uncompress Files

Part III: Finding Files, Words, and More

Chapter 10 Finding Files, Directories, Words, and Phrases

Search a Database of Filenames

Search a Database of Filenames Without Worrying About Case

Update the Database Used by locate

Searching Inside Text Files for Patterns

The Basics of Searching Inside Text Files for Patterns

Search Recursively for Text in Files

Search for Words and Highlight the Results

Search for Text in Files, Ignoring Case

Search for Whole Words in Files

Show Line Numbers Where Words Appear in Files

Search the Output of Other Commands for Specific Words

See Context for Words Appearing in Files

Show Lines Where Words Do Not Appear in Files

List Files Containing Searched-for Words

List the Number of Occurrences of Words in Files

Search for Words Inside Search Results

Chapter 11 The find Command

Find Files by Name

Find Files by Ownership

Find Files by File Size

Find Files by File Type

Find Files by Time

Show Results If the Expressions Are True (AND)

Show Results If Either Expression Is True (OR)

Show Results If the Expression Is Not True (NOT)

Execute a Command on Found Files

Execute a Command on Found Files More Efficiently

Execute a Command on Found Files Containing Spaces

Part IV: Your Environment

Chapter 12 Your Shell

View Your Command-Line History

Run the Last Command Again

Run a Previous Command Using Numbers

Run a Previous Command Using a String

Search for a Previous Command and Run It

Display All Command Aliases

View a Specific Command Alias

Create a New Temporary Alias

Create a New Permanent Alias

Remove an Alias

Create a New Temporary Function

Create a New Permanent Function

Display All Functions

Remove a Function

When to Use an Alias and When to Use a Function

Chapter 13 Monitoring System Resources

Discover How Long Your Computer Has Been Running

View All Currently Running Processes

View a Process Tree

View Processes Owned by a Particular User

End a Running Process

View a Dynamically Updated List of Running Processes

List Open Files

List a User’s Open Files

List Users for a Particular File

List Processes for a Particular Program

Display Information About System RAM

Show File System Disk Usage

Report File Space Used by a Directory

Report Just the Total Space Used for a Directory

Chapter 14 Installing Software

Install Software Packages (RPM)

Remove Software Packages (RPM)

Install Software Packages and Dependencies (RPM)

Remove Software Packages and Dependencies (RPM)

Upgrade Software Packages and Dependencies (RPM)

Find Packages Available for Download (RPM)

Install Software Packages (DEB)

Remove Software Packages (DEB)

Install Software Packages and Dependencies (DEB)

Remove Software Packages and Dependencies (DEB)

Upgrade Software Packages and Dependencies (DEB)

Find Packages Available for Download (DEB)

Clean Up Unneeded Installation Packages (DEB)

Troubleshoot Problems with APT (DEB)

Part V: Networking

Chapter 15 Connectivity

View the Status of Your Network Interfaces

Verify That a Computer Is Running and Accepting Requests

Trace the Route Packets Take Between Two Hosts

Query DNS Records

Configure a Network Interface

View the Status of Your Wireless Network Interfaces

Configure a Wireless Network Interface

Grab a New Address Using DHCP

Make a Network Connection Active

Bring a Network Connection Down

Display Your IP Routing Table

Change Your IP Routing Table

Troubleshooting Network Problems

Chapter 16 Working on the Network

Securely Log In to Another Compute

Securely Log In to Another Machine Without a Password

Securely Transfer Files Between Machines

Securely Copy Files Between Hosts

Securely Transfer and Back Up Files

Download Files Non-interactively

Download Websites Non-interactively

Download Sequential Files and Internet Resources

Scott Granneman is an author, educator, and small business owner. He has written seven books and contributed to two. In addition, he was a columnist for SecurityFocus, one of the largest and most important security-focused sites on the Web, and Linux Magazine while it was in print.

As an educator, he has taught thousands of people of all ages–from preteens to senior citizens–on a wide variety of topics, including both literature and technology. He is currently an adjunct professor at Washington University in St. Louis and at Webster University, where he teaches a variety of courses about technology, social media, the Internet, and Web development. With the shift in focus over the past few decades to Linux and other open-source technologies, he has worked to bring knowledge of these powerful new directions in software to people at all technical skill levels.

As a Principal of WebSanity, a website planning, development, and hosting firm with clients in 12 states, he manages the firm’s Linux-based servers and infrastructure, researches new technologies, and works closely with other partners on the underlying WebSanity Content Management System (CMS).