Linux Bible (10th Edition)

Description

The industry favorite Linux guide

Linux Bible, 10th Edition is the ultimate hands-on Linux user guide, whether you’re a true beginner or a more advanced user navigating recent changes. this updated tenth edition covers the latest versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 8), Fedora 30, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It includes information on cloud computing, with new guidance on containerization, Ansible automation, and Kubernetes and OpenShift. With a focus on RHEL 8, this new edition teaches techniques for managing storage, users, and security, while emphasizing simplified administrative techniques with Cockpit. Written by a Red Hat expert, this book provides the clear explanations and step-by-step instructions that demystify Linux and bring the new features seamlessly into your workflow.

This useful guide assumes a base of little or no Linux knowledge, and takes you step by step through what you need to know to get the job done.

Key Features

• Get Linux up and running quickly
• Master basic operations and tackle more advanced tasks
• Get up to date on the recent changes to Linux server system management
• Bring Linux to the cloud using Openstack and Cloudforms
• Simplified Linux administration through the Cockpit Web Interface
• Automated Linux Deployment with Ansible
• Learn to navigate Linux with Amazon (AWS), Google (GCE), and Microsofr Azure Cloud services

Linux Bible, 10th Edition is the one resource you need, and provides the hands-on training that gets you on track in a flash.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgments xi
2. Introduction xxxv
3. Part I: Getting Started 1
4. Chapter 1: Starting with Linux 3
   1. Understanding What Linux Is 4
   2. Understanding How Linux Differs from Other Operating Systems 6
   3. Exploring Linux History 7
   4. Free-flowing UNIX culture at Bell Labs 7
   5. Commercial UNIX 9
   6. GNU transitions UNIX to freedom 11
   7. BSD loses some steam 12
   8. Linus builds the missing piece 13
   9. OSI open source definition 14
   10. Understanding How Linux Distributions Emerged 16
   11. Choosing a Red Hat distribution 16
   12. Choosing Ubuntu or another Debian distribution 19
   13. Finding Professional Opportunities with Linux Today 19
   14. Understanding how companies make money with Linux 20
   15. Becoming Red Hat certified 21
   16. Summary 25
5. Chapter 2: Creating the Perfect Linux Desktop 27
   1. Understanding Linux Desktop Technology 28
   2. Starting with the Fedora GNOME Desktop Live image 30
   3. Using the GNOME 3 Desktop 31
   4. After the computer boots up 31
   5. Setting up the GNOME 3 desktop 38
   6. Extending the GNOME 3 desktop 39
   7. Starting with desktop applications 41
   8. Stopping the GNOME 3 desktop 46
   9. Using the GNOME 2 Desktop 46
   10. Using the Metacity window manager 48
   11. Changing GNOME’s appearance 49
   12. Using the GNOME panels 50
   13. Adding 3D effects with AIGLX 54
   14. Summary 57
   15. Exercises 57
6. Part II: Becoming a Linux Power User 59
7. Chapter 3: Using the Shell 61
   1. About Shells and Terminal Windows 62
   2. Using the shell prompt 63
   3. Using a Terminal window 63
   4. Using virtual consoles 65
   5. Choosing Your Shell 65
   6. Running Commands 66
   7. Understanding command syntax 67
   8. Locating commands 70
   9. Recalling Commands Using Command History 72
   10. Command-line editing 73
   11. Command-line completion 75
   12. Command-line recall 76
   13. Connecting and Expanding Commands 78
   14. Piping between commands 78
   15. Sequential commands 79
   16. Background commands 79
   17. Expanding commands 80
   18. Expanding arithmetic expressions 80
   19. Expanding variables 80
   20. Using Shell Variables 81
   21. Creating and using aliases 81
   22. Exiting the shell 83
   23. Creating Your Shell Environment 84
   24. Configuring your shell 84
   25. Setting your prompt 85
   26. Adding environment variables 87
   27. Getting Information about Commands 88
   28. Summary 90
   29. Exercises 90
8. Chapter 4: Moving Around the Filesystem 93
   1. Using Basic Filesystem Commands 96
   2. Using Metacharacters and Operators 98
   3. Using file-matching metacharacters 98
   4. Using file-redirection metacharacters 99
   5. Using brace expansion characters 101
   6. Listing Files and Directories 101
   7. Understanding File Permissions and Ownership 105
   8. Changing permissions with chmod (numbers) 106
   9. Changing permissions with chmod (letters) 107
   10. Setting default file permission with umask 108
   11. Changing file ownership 109
   12. Moving, Copying, and Removing Files 109
   13. Summary 111
   14. Exercises 111
9. Chapter 5: Working with Text Files 113
   1. Editing Files with vim and vi 113
   2. Starting with vi 115
   3. Skipping around in the file 119
   4. Searching for text 119
   5. Using ex mode 120
   6. Learning more about vi and vim 120
   7. Finding Files 120
   8. Using locate to find files by name 121
   9. Searching for files with find 122
   10. Searching in files with grep 128
   11. Summary 129
   12. Exercises 129
10. Chapter 6: Managing Running Processes 131
    1. Understanding Processes 131
    2. Listing Processes 132
    3. Listing processes with ps 132
    4. Listing and changing processes with top 134
    5. Listing processes with System Monitor 136
    6. Managing Background and Foreground Processes 137
    7. Starting background processes 138
    8. Using foreground and background commands 139
    9. Killing and Renicing Processes140
    10. Killing processes with kill and killall 140
    11. Setting processor priority with nice and renice 142
    12. Limiting Processes with cgroups 143
    13. Summary 144
    14. Exercises 145
11. Chapter 7: Writing Simple Shell Scripts 147
    1. Understanding Shell Scripts 147
    2. Executing and debugging shell scripts 148
    3. Understanding shell variables 149
    4. Performing arithmetic in shell scripts 152
    5. Using programming constructs in shell scripts 153
    6. Trying some useful text manipulation programs 159
    7. Using simple shell scripts 161
    8. Summary 163
    9. Exercises 163
12. Part III: Becoming a Linux System Administrator 165
13. Chapter 8: Learning System Administration 167
    1. Understanding System Administration 167
    2. Using Graphical Administration Tools 169
    3. Using the root User Account 174
    4. Exploring Administrative Commands, Configuration Files, and Log Files 178
    5. Administrative commands 178
    6. Administrative configuration files 179
    7. Using Other Administrative Accounts 185
    8. Checking and Configuring Hardware 186
    9. Checking your hardware 187
    10. Managing removable hardware 189
    11. Working with loadable modules 191
    12. Summary 193
    13. Exercises 193
14. Chapter 9: Installing Linux 195
    1. Choosing a Computer 196
    2. Installing Fedora from Live Media 198
    3. Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux from Installation Media 201
    4. Understanding Cloud-Based Installations 204
    5. Installing Linux in the Enterprise 205
    6. Exploring Common Installation Topics 207
    7. Upgrading or installing from scratch 207
    8. Dual booting 208
    9. Installing Linux to run virtually 209
    10. Using installation boot options 210
    11. Using specialized storage 213
    12. Partitioning hard drives 214
    13. Using the GRUB boot loader 217
    14. Summary 219
    15. Exercises 219
15. Chapter 10: Getting and Managing Software 221
    1. Managing Software on the Desktop 221
    2. Going Beyond the Software Window 223
    3. Understanding Linux RPM and DEB Software Packaging 224
    4. Understanding DEB packaging 225
    5. Understanding RPM packaging 226
    6. Managing RPM Packages with YUM 229
    7. Transitioning from yum to dnf 229
    8. Understanding how yum works 229
    9. Using YUM with third-party software repositories 233
    10. Managing software with the yum command 233
    11. Installing, Querying, and Verifying Software with the rpm Command 241
    12. Installing and removing packages with rpm 241
    13. Querying rpm information 242
    14. Verifying RPM packages 244
    15. Managing Software in the Enterprise 245
    16. Summary 246
    17. Exercises 247
16. Chapter 11: Managing User Accounts 249
    1. Creating User Accounts 249
    2. Adding users with useradd 252
    3. Setting user defaults 255
    4. Modifying users with usermod 257
    5. Deleting users with userdel 258
    6. Understanding Group Accounts 259
    7. Using group accounts 259
    8. Creating group accounts 260
    9. Managing Users in the Enterprise 261
    10. Setting permissions with Access Control Lists 262
    11. Centralizing User Accounts 269
    12. Summary 270
    13. Exercises 270
17. Chapter 12: Managing Disks and Filesystems 273
    1. Understanding Disk Storage 273
    2. Partitioning Hard Disks 275
    3. Understanding partition tables 275
    4. Viewing disk partitions 276
    5. Creating a single-partition disk 277
    6. Creating a multiple-partition disk 281
    7. Using Logical Volume Manager Partitions 285
    8. Checking an existing LVM 286
    9. Creating LVM logical volumes 289
    10. Growing LVM logical volumes 290
    11. Mounting Filesystems 291
    12. Supported filesystems 291
    13. Enabling swap areas 293
    14. Disabling swap area 294
    15. Using the fstab file to define mountable file systems 295
    16. Using the mount command to mount file systems 297
    17. Mounting a disk image in loopback 298
    18. Using the umount command 299
    19. Using the mkfs Command to Create a Filesystem 300
    20. Managing Storage with Cockpit 301
    21. Summary 303
    22. Exercises 303
18. Part IV: Becoming a Linux Server Administrator 305
19. Chapter 13: Understanding Server Administration 307
    1. Starting with Server Administration 308
    2. Step 1: Install the server 308
    3. Step 2: Configure the server 310
    4. Step 3: Start the server 311
    5. Step 4: Secure the server 312
    6. Step 5: Monitor the server 314
    7. Checking and Setting Servers 316
    8. Managing Remote Access with the Secure Shell Service 316
    9. Starting the openssh-server service 317
    10. Using SSH client tools 318
    11. Using key-based (passwordless) authentication 324
    12. Configuring System Logging 326
    13. Enabling system logging with rsyslog 326
    14. Watching logs with logwatch 331
    15. Checking System Resources with sar 332
    16. Checking System Space 334
    17. Displaying system space with df 334
    18. Checking disk usage with du 334
    19. Finding disk consumption with find 335
    20. Managing Servers in the Enterprise 336
    21. Summary 336
    22. Exercises 337
20. Chapter 14: Administering Networking 339
    1. Configuring Networking for Desktops 340
    2. Checking your network interfaces 342
    3. Configuring network interfaces 349
    4. Configuring a network proxy connection 352
    5. Configuring Networking from the Command Line 353
    6. Configure networking with nmtui 354
    7. Editing a NetworkManager TUI connection 354
    8. Understanding networking configuration files 355
    9. Setting alias network interfaces 360
    10. Setting up Ethernet channel bonding 361
    11. Setting custom routes 363
    12. Configuring Networking in the Enterprise 364
    13. Configuring Linux as a router 364
    14. Configuring Linux as a DHCP server 365
    15. Configuring Linux as a DNS server 365
    16. Configuring Linux as a proxy server 366
    17. Summary 366
    18. Exercises 367
21. Chapter 15: Starting and Stopping Services 369
    1. Understanding the Initialization Daemon (init or systemd) 370
    2. Understanding the classic init daemons 371
    3. Understanding systemd initialization 377
    4. Checking the Status of Services 384
    5. Checking services for SysVinit systems 385
    6. Stopping and Starting Services 387
    7. Stopping and starting SysVinit services 387
    8. Enabling Persistent Services 391
    9. Configuring persistent services for SysVinit 391
    10. Configuring a Default Runlevel or Target Unit 394
    11. Configuring the SysVinit default runlevel 394
    12. Adding New or Customized Services 396
    13. Adding new services to SysVinit 396
    14. Adding new services to systemd 399
    15. Summary 401
    16. Exercises 401
22. Chapter 16: Configuring a Print Server 403
    1. Common UNIX Printing System 403
    2. Setting Up Printers 405
    3. Adding a printer automatically 405
    4. Using web-based CUPS administration 406
    5. Using the Print Settings window 409
    6. Working with CUPS Printing 415
    7. Configuring the CUPS server (cupsdconf) 415
    8. Starting the CUPS server 417
    9. Configuring CUPS printer options manually 417
    10. Using Printing Commands 418
    11. Printing with lp 419
    12. Listing status with lpstat -t 419
    13. Removing print jobs with lprm 419
    14. Configuring Print Servers 420
    15. Configuring a shared CUPS printer 420
    16. Configuring a shared Samba printer 422
    17. Summary 424
    18. Exercises 424
23. Chapter 17: Configuring a Web Server 427
    1. Understanding the Apache Web Server 427
    2. Getting and Installing Your Web Server 428
    3. Understanding the httpd package 428
    4. Installing Apache 431
    5. Starting Apache 432
    6. Securing Apache 433
    7. Understanding the Apache configuration files 435
    8. Adding a virtual host to Apache 440
    9. Allowing users to publish their own web content 442
    10. Securing your web traffic with SSL/TLS 443
    11. Troubleshooting Your Web Server 449
    12. Checking for configuration errors 449
    13. Accessing forbidden and server internal errors 451
    14. Summary 453
    15. Exercises 453
24. Chapter 18: Configuring an FTP Server 455
    1. Understanding FTP 455
    2. Installing the vsftpd FTP Server 457
    3. Starting the vsftpd Service 458
    4. Securing Your FTP Server 461
    5. Opening up your firewall for FTP 461
    6. Configuring SELinux for your FTP server 463
    7. Relating Linux file permissions to vsftpd 465
    8. Configuring Your FTP Server 465
    9. Setting up user access 465
    10. Allowing uploading 467
    11. Setting up vsftpd for the Internet 468
    12. Using FTP Clients to Connect to Your Server 469
    13. Accessing an FTP server from Firefox 470
    14. Accessing an FTP server with the lftp command 470
    15. Using the gFTP client 472
    16. Summary 473
    17. Exercises 473
25. Chapter 19: Configuring a Windows File Sharing (Samba) Server 475
    1. Understanding Samba 475
    2. Installing Samba 476
    3. Starting and Stopping Samba 478
    4. Starting the Samba (smb) service 478
    5. Starting the NetBIOS (nmbd) name server 480
    6. Stopping the Samba (smb) and NetBIOS (nmb) services 481
    7. Securing Samba 482
    8. Configuring firewalls for Samba 482
    9. Configuring SELinux for Samba 484
    10. Configuring Samba host/user permissions 486
    11. Configuring Samba 486
    12. Configuring the [global] section 486
    13. Configuring the [homes] section487
    14. Configuring the [printers] section 489
    15. Accessing Samba Shares 493
    16. Accessing Samba shares in Linux 493
    17. Accessing Samba shares in Windows 496
    18. Using Samba in the Enterprise 497
    19. Summary 497
    20. Exercises 498
26. Chapter 20: Configuring an NFS File Server 499
    1. Installing an NFS Server 502
    2. Starting the NFS service 502
    3. Sharing NFS Filesystems 503
    4. Configuring the /etc/exports file 504
    5. Exporting the shared filesystems 507
    6. Securing Your NFS Server 508
    7. Opening up your firewall for NFS 508
    8. Allowing NFS access in TCP wrappers 510
    9. Configuring SELinux for your NFS server 511
    10. Using NFS Filesystems 512
    11. Viewing NFS shares 512
    12. Manually mounting an NFS filesystem 512
    13. Mounting an NFS filesystem at boot time 513
    14. Using autofs to mount NFS filesystems on demand 517
    15. Unmounting NFS filesystems 520
    16. Summary 521
    17. Exercises 521
27. Chapter 21: Troubleshooting Linux 523
    1. Boot-Up Troubleshooting 523
    2. Understanding Startup Methods 524
    3. Starting from the firmware (BIOS or UEFI) 526
    4. Troubleshooting the GRUB boot loader 528
    5. GRUB 2 Boot loader 530
    6. Starting the kernel 532
    7. Troubleshooting Software Packages 542
    8. Fixing RPM databases and cache 545
    9. Troubleshooting Networking 547
    10. Troubleshooting outgoing connections 547
    11. Troubleshooting incoming connections 550
    12. Troubleshooting Memory 553
    13. Uncovering memory issues 554
    14. Troubleshooting in Rescue Mode 559
    15. Summary 561
    16. Exercises 561
28. Part V: Learning Linux Security Techniques 563
29. Chapter 22: Understanding Basic Linux Security 565
    1. Implementing Physical Security 565
    2. Implementing disaster recovery 566
    3. Securing user accounts 566
    4. Securing passwords 570
    5. Securing the filesystem 576
    6. Managing software and services 579
    7. Advanced implementation 580
    8. Monitoring Your Systems 580
    9. Monitoring log files 581
    10. Monitoring user accounts 584
    11. Monitoring the filesystem 587
    12. Auditing and Reviewing Linux 595
    13. Conducting compliance reviews 595
    14. Conducting security reviews 596
    15. Summary 596
    16. Exercises 597
30. Chapter 23: Understanding Advanced Linux Security 599
    1. Implementing Linux Security with Cryptography 599
    2. Understanding hashing 600
    3. Understanding encryption/decryption 602
    4. Implementing Linux cryptography 610
    5. Implementing Linux Security with PAM 618
    6. Understanding the PAM authentication process 619
    7. Administering PAM on your Linux system 622
    8. Obtaining more information on PAM 633
    9. Summary 633
    10. Exercises 633
31. Chapter 24: Enhancing Linux Security with SELinux 635
    1. Understanding SELinux Benefits 635
    2. Understanding How SELinux Works 637
    3. Understanding Type Enforcement 637
    4. Understanding Multi-Level Security 638
    5. Implementing SELinux security models 639
    6. Configuring SELinux 645
    7. Setting the SELinux mode 645
    8. Setting the SELinux policy type 647
    9. Managing SELinux security contexts 648
    10. Managing SELinux policy rule packages 651
    11. Managing SELinux via Booleans 653
    12. Monitoring and Troubleshooting SELinux 654
    13. Understanding SELinux logging 654
    14. Troubleshooting SELinux logging 656
    15. Troubleshooting common SELinux problems 657
    16. Putting It All Together 659
    17. Obtaining More Information on SELinux 659
    18. Summary 660
    19. Exercises 660
32. Chapter 25: Securing Linux on a Network 663
    1. Auditing Network Services 663
    2. Evaluating access to network services with nmap 665
    3. Using nmap to audit your network services advertisements 668
    4. Working with Firewalls 672
    5. Understanding firewalls 673
    6. Implementing firewalls 674
    7. Summary 688
    8. Exercises 688
33. Part VI: Engaging with Cloud Computing 691
34. Chapter 26: Shifting to Clouds and Containers 693
    1. Understanding Linux Containers 694
    2. Namespaces 695
    3. Container registries 695
    4. Base images and layers 696
    5. Starting with Linux Containers 697
    6. Pulling and running containers 697
    7. Starting and stopping containers 701
    8. Building a container image 702
    9. Tagging and pushing an image to a registry 705
    10. Using containers in the enterprise 706
    11. Summary 706
    12. Exercises 707
35. Chapter 27: Using Linux for Cloud Computing 709
    1. Overview of Linux and Cloud Computing 710
    2. Trying Basic Cloud Technology 713
    3. Setting Up a Small Cloud 714
    4. Configuring hypervisors 715
    5. Configuring storage 718
    6. Creating virtual machines 720
    7. Managing virtual machines 724
    8. Migrating virtual machines 725
    9. Summary 727
    10. Exercises 727
36. Chapter 28: Deploying Linux to the Cloud 729
    1. Getting Linux to Run in a Cloud 729
    2. Creating Linux Images for Clouds 731
    3. Configuring and running a cloud-init cloud instance 731
    4. Investigating the cloud instance 733
    5. Cloning the cloud instance 734
    6. Using cloud-init in enterprise computing 738
    7. Using OpenStack to Deploy Cloud Images 739
    8. Starting from the OpenStack Dashboard 739
    9. Using Amazon EC2 to Deploy Cloud Images 744
    10. Summary 746
    11. Exercises 746
37. Chapter 29: Automating Apps and Infrastructure with Ansible 749
    1. Understanding Ansible 750
    2. Exploring Ansible Components 751
    3. Inventories 751
    4. Playbooks 752
    5. Stepping Through an Ansible Deployment 753
    6. Installing Ansible 756
    7. Running Ad-Hoc Ansible Commands 760
    8. Automating Tasks with Ansible Tower Automation Framework 762
    9. Summary 763
    10. Exercises 763
38. Chapter 30: Deploying Applications as Containers with Kubernetes 765
    1. Understanding Kubernetes 766
    2. Kubernetes masters 766
    3. Kubernetes workers 767
    4. Kubernetes applications 767
    5. Kubernetes interfaces 768
    6. Trying Kubernetes 768
    7. Getting Kubernetes 769
    8. Running the Kubernetes Basics tutorial 771
    9. Enterprise-Quality Kubernetes with OpenShift 782
    10. Summary 783
    11. Exercises 783
39. Part VII: Appendixes 785
    1. Appendix A: Media 787
    2. Appendix B: Exercise Answers 797
    3. Index 863

Author Biography

Christopher Negus has been teaching and writing about Linux and UNIX for more than 25 years. He is an instructor and principal technical writer for Red Hat, Inc., and the author of dozens of Linux and UNIX books, including Red Hat Linux Bible (all editions), CentOS Bible, Fedora Bible, Ubuntu Linux Toolbox, Linux Troubleshooting Bible, Linux Toys, and Linux Toys II.