Mastering Linux System Administration

Christine Bresnahan has over thirty years of experience working in the IT industry. She is an Adjunct Professor at Ivy Tech Community College where she teaches Linux certification and Python programming classes. She is co-author with Richard Blum of CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide, Linux Essentials, and the Linux Command Line and Scripting Bible. Richard Blum has over thirty years of experience working as a system and network administrator. He teaches online courses in Linux and Web programming and is co-author with Christine Bresnahan of several Linux titles, including CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide, Linux Essentials, and the Linux Command Line and Scripting Bible.

Introduction xxv Part 1 Basic Admin Functions 1 Chapter 1 Understanding the Basics 3 What is Linux? 3 Looking into the Linux Kernel 4 The GNU Utilities 12 Linux User Interfaces 12 Linux Distributions 18 Core Linux Distributions 19 Specialized Linux Distributions 19 The Bottom Line 20 Chapter 2 Installing an Ubuntu Server 23 Pre-Installation Requirements 23 Hardware Requirements 24 Virtual Server Requirements 25 Finding the Software 26 Oracle VirtualBox 26 Ubuntu Server 26 Running the Installation 29 Oracle VirtualBox 29 Ubuntu Server 33 Checking the Installation 49 The Bottom Line 50 Chapter 3 Installing and Maintaining Software in Ubuntu 53 Exploring Package Management 53 Inspecting the Debian-Based Systems 54 Managing Packages with apt 54 Installing Software Packages with apt 56 Upgrading Software with apt 59 Uninstalling Software with apt 60 The apt Repositories 61 Using Snap Containers 62 Installing from Source Code 64 The Bottom Line 66 Chapter 4 Installing a Red Hat Server 69 Pre-Installation Requirements 69 Hardware Requirements 70 Virtual Server Requirements 71 Finding the Software 72 Oracle VirtualBox 72 CentOS 73 Running the Installation 76 Oracle VirtualBox 77 CentOS 77 Checking the Installation 96 The Bottom Line 97 Chapter 5 Installing and Maintaining Software in Red Hat 99 Exploring Red Hat Packages 99 Automated Package Management 100 Listing Installed Packages 100 Installing Software with dnf 102 Upgrading Software with dnf 104 Uninstalling Software with dnf 104 Handling Broken Dependencies 105 Working with RPM Repositories 106 Working Directly with Packages 107 Finding Package Files 107 Inspecting Package Files 108 Installing Package Files 109 Removing Package Files 110 Using Flatpak Containers 111 The Bottom Line 113 Chapter 6 Working with the Shell 115 Exploring the Shell 115 The Shell Prompt 116 The Shell Manual 117 Working with Commands 121 Entering Commands 121 Retrieving Past Commands 123 Redirecting Commands 125 Environment Variables 129 Global Environment Variables 129 User-Defined Environment Variables 131 The Bottom Line 133 Chapter 7 Exploring Linux File Management 135 Filesystem Navigation 135 The Linux Filesystem 135 Traversing Directories 138 Linux Files 139 Determining File Types 139 Filenames 140 Hidden Files 140 File Inodes 141 File and Directory Listing 142 Basic Listing 142 Modifying Listing Information 143 The Complete Parameter List 143 Directory Handling 146 Creating Directories 146 Deleting Directories 146 File Handling 147 Creating Files 147 Copying Files 148 Linking Files 150 Renaming Files 152 Deleting Files 152 File Features 154 Using Wildcards 154 Quoting 155 Case Sensitivity 156 Finding Files 156 The which Command 156 The locate Command 156 The whereis Command 157 The find Command 157 Archiving Files 159 Compressing Files 159 Creating Archive Files 160 Archiving Scenarios 161 The Bottom Line 163 Chapter 8 Working with Text Files 165 The vim Editor 165 Checking Your vim Editor Program 166 Using the vim Editor 167 The nano Editor 170 Working with Data Files 172 Sorting 172 Searching 175 Compressing 181 Archiving 182 The Bottom Line 187 Part 2 Intermediate Admin Functions 189 Chapter 9 Managing Hardware 191 Device Driver Modules 191 Listing Installed Modules 192 Installing New Modules 193 Removing Modules 196 Communicating with Devices 196 Device Interfaces 196 The /dev Directory 198 The /proc Directory 199 The /sys Directory 202 Working with Devices 203 Finding Devices 203 Working with PCI Cards 205 Working with USB Devices 206 Using Hot Pluggable Devices 207 Detecting Dynamic Devices 208 Working with Dynamic Devices 208 The Bottom Line 209 Chapter 10 Booting Linux 211 Understanding the Boot Process 211 Ov