The Linux Cookbook - Tips And Techniques For Everyday Use

Over 1,500 step-by-step “recipes” show how to use Linux for everyday tasks. The Linux Cookbook shows how to use Linux for everyday tasks such as: printing; converting and managing files; editing and formatting text; working with digital audio; creating and manipulating graphics; and connecting to the Internet. The quick-reference, cookbook-style format includes step-by-step Linux “recipes” covering many hundreds of day-to-day issues. Table of Contents......Page 2 The Linux Cookbook: Tips and Techniques for Everyday Use......Page 17 Preface......Page 19 1.0 Format of Recipes......Page 20 1.1 Assumptions, Scope, and Exclusions......Page 21 1.2 Typographical Conventions......Page 22 1.3 Versions, Latest Edition, and Errata......Page 23 1.4 Acknowledgments......Page 24 PART ONE: Working with Linux......Page 26 2.1.1 What's Unix?......Page 27 2.1.2 What's Free Software?......Page 28 2.1.3 What's Open Source?......Page 29 2.1.5 What's Debian?......Page 30 2.1.6 Unix and the Tools Philosophy......Page 31 2.2 What to Try First......Page 33 2.3 If You Need More Help......Page 34 3.1 Controlling Power to the System......Page 36 3.2 Accounts and Privileges......Page 37 3.2.1 Logging In to the System......Page 38 3.3 Console Basics......Page 40 3.3.1 Switching between Consoles......Page 41 3.3.3 Keys for Console Manipulation......Page 42 3.4 Running a Command......Page 43 3.5 Changing Your Password......Page 44 3.6.1 Listing Your Username......Page 45 3.6.3 Listing Who Is on and What They're Doing......Page 46 3.6.4 Listing the Last Times a User Logged In......Page 47 3.7.1 Listing Your Current Processes......Page 48 3.7.3 Listing All Processes on the System......Page 49 3.8 Help Facilities......Page 50 3.8.1 Finding the Right Tool for the Job......Page 51 3.8.3 Listing the Usage of a Tool......Page 52 3.8.4 Reading a Page from the System Manual......Page 53 3.8.5 Using the GNU Info System......Page 54 3.8.6 Reading System Documentation and Help Files......Page 56 4.1 Keys for Command Line Editing......Page 58 4.1.1 Passing Special Characters to Commands......Page 60 4.1.2 Letting the Shell Complete What You Type......Page 61 4.1.3 Repeating the Last Command You Typed......Page 62 4.2 Redirecting Input and Output......Page 63 4.2.2 Redirecting Output to a File......Page 64 4.2.4 Redirecting Output to Another Command's Input......Page 65 4.3.1 Suspending a Job......Page 66 4.3.2 Putting a Job in the Background......Page 67 4.3.4 Listing Your Jobs......Page 68 4.4 Command History......Page 69 4.4.1 Viewing Your Command History......Page 70 4.5 Recording a Shell Session......Page 71 4.6 Customizing Your Shell......Page 72 4.6.1 Changing the Shell Prompt......Page 73 4.6.2 Making a Command Alias......Page 74 4.6.4 Customizing Future Shells......Page 75 5.1 Running X......Page 78 5.1.2 Stopping X......Page 81 5.2 Running a Program in X......Page 82 5.2.1 Specifying Window Size and Location......Page 83 5.2.3 Specifying Window Font......Page 85 5.3 Manipulating X Client Windows......Page 86 5.3.3 Destroying a Window......Page 87 5.4 Moving around the Desktop......Page 88 5.5 Running a Shell in X......Page 89 5.6.1 Switching between Video Modes......Page 90 5.6.3 Changing the Root Window Parameters......Page 91 5.6.4 Choosing a Window Manager......Page 92 PART TWO: Files......Page 94 6. Files and Directories......Page 95 6.1 Naming Files and Directories......Page 99 6.1.2 Making a Directory......Page 100 6.2 Changing Directories......Page 101 6.2.3 Getting the Name of the Current Directory......Page 102 6.3 Listing Directories......Page 103 6.3.1 Listing File Attributes......Page 104 6.3.2 Listing Directories Recursively......Page 105 6.3.4 Listing Hidden Files......Page 106 6.3.6 Listing Directory Tree Graphs......Page 107 6.3.7 Additional Directory Listing Options......Page 108 6.4 Copying Files and Directories......Page 109 6.5 Moving Files and Directories......Page 110 6.5.1 Changing File Names to Lowercase......Page 111 6.5.2 Renaming Multiple Files with the Same Extension......Page 112 6.6 Removing Files and Directories......Page 113 6.6.1 Removing a File with a Strange Name......Page 114 6.7 Giving a File More than One Name......Page 115 6.8 Specifying File Names with Patterns......Page 116 6.9 Browsing Files......Page 118 7.1.1 Listing the Groups a User Belongs To......Page 119 7.1.2 Listing the Members of a Group......Page 120 7.2.2 Changing the Ownership of a File......Page 121 7.3 Controlling Access to Files......Page 122 7.3.1 Listing the Permissions of a File......Page 123 7.3.3 Write-Protecting a File......Page 124 7.3.5 Making a File Public......Page 125 7.3.6 Making a File Executable......Page 126 8.1 Finding All Files That Match a Pattern......Page 127 8.2.1 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Name......Page 128 8.2.2 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Size......Page 130 8.2.3 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Modification Time......Page 131 8.2.4 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Owner......Page 132 8.2.6 Finding Files by Multiple Criteria......Page 133 8.3.1 Finding the Largest Files in a Directory......Page 136 8.3.4 Finding the Largest Directories......Page 137 8.3.5 Finding the Number of Files in a Listing......Page 138 8.4 Finding Where a Command Is Located......Page 139 9.1 Determining File Type and Format......Page 140 9.2 Changing File Modification Time......Page 141 9.3 Splitting a File into Smaller Ones......Page 142 9.4.2 Finding the Differences between Files......Page 143 9.4.3 Patching a File with a Difference Report......Page 144 9.5.2 Decompressing a File......Page 145 9.6 File Archives......Page 146 9.6.2 Listing the Contents of an Archive......Page 147 9.6.3 Extracting Files from an Archive......Page 148 9.7.1 Checking In a File Revision......Page 149 9.7.2 Checking Out a File Revision......Page 151 9.7.3 Viewing a File's Revision Log......Page 152 PART THREE: Text......Page 153 10.1 Perusing Text......Page 154 10.1.2 Perusing Multiple Text Files......Page 155 10.1.3 Commands Available While Perusing Text......Page 156 10.2.1 Showing Non-printing Characters......Page 157 10.2.2 Outputting a Beginning Part of a Text......Page 158 10.2.4 Outputting a Middle Part of a Text......Page 159 10.2.5 Outputting the Text between Strings......Page 160 10.2.6 Outputting Text in a Dialect......Page 161 10.3 Streaming Text......Page 162 10.4 Viewing a Character Chart......Page 164 11.1 Choosing the Perfect Text Editor......Page 165 11.2.1 Getting Acquainted with Emacs......Page 167 11.2.2 Basic Emacs Editing Keys......Page 171 11.2.3 Making Abbreviations in Emacs......Page 172 11.2.4 Recording and Running Macros in Emacs......Page 173 11.2.5 Inserting Special Characters in Emacs......Page 174 11.3 Running a Vi Tutorial......Page 176 11.4.1 Cutting Text......Page 177 11.5 Editing Streams of Text......Page 178 11.6 Concatenating Text......Page 179 11.6.1 Writing Text to Files......Page 180 11.6.3 Inserting Text at the Beginning of a File......Page 181 11.7 Including Text Files......Page 182 12.1 Spelling......Page 185 12.1.2 Listing the Misspellings in a Text......Page 186 12.1.3 Keeping a Spelling Word List......Page 187 12.1.4 Interactive Spell Checking......Page 188 12.1.5 Spell Checking in Emacs......Page 189 12.2 Dictionaries......Page 191 12.2.1 Listing Words that Match a Pattern......Page 192 12.2.2 Listing the Definitions of a Word......Page 193 12.2.4 Listing the Antonyms of a Word......Page 194 12.3 Checking Grammar......Page 195 12.3.1 Checking Text for Misused Phrases......Page 196 12.3.2 Checking Text for Doubled Words......Page 197 12.3.3 Checking Text for Readability......Page 198 12.4 Word Lists and Reference Files......Page 199 13.1 Counting Text......Page 202 13.1.2 Counting the Words in a Text......Page 203 13.1.5 Counting Lines per Page in Emacs......Page 204 13.3 Text Relevance......Page 205 13.3.1 Sorting Text in Order of Relevance......Page 206 13.3.2 Listing Relevant Files in Emacs......Page 207 13.4 Finding Anagrams in Text......Page 208 13.6 Text Cut-Ups......Page 209 13.6.2 Making Random Word Cut-Ups......Page 210 13.6.3 Making Cut-Ups in Emacs......Page 211 14.1 Spacing Text......Page 212 14.1.2 Single-Spacing Text......Page 213 14.1.3 Double-Spacing Text......Page 214 14.1.5 Adding Line Breaks to Text......Page 215 14.1.6 Adding Margins to Text......Page 216 14.1.7 Swapping Tab and Space Characters......Page 217 14.2 Paginating Text......Page 218 14.2.3 Options Available When Paginating Text......Page 219 14.3 Underlining Text......Page 220 14.4 Sorting Text......Page 221 14.5 Numbering Lines of Text......Page 223 14.6 Reversing Text......Page 224 15.1 Searching for a Word or Phrase......Page 226 15.2 Regular Expressions--Matching Text Patterns......Page 228 15.2.2 Matching Lines Ending with Certain Text......Page 230 15.2.4 Matching Lines That Contain Any of Some Regexps......Page 231 15.2.7 Matching Lines That Only Contain Certain Characters......Page 232 15.2.9 Finding Patterns in Certain Contexts......Page 233 15.2.11 Regexps for Common Situations......Page 234 15.3.1 Matching Lines in Compressed Files......Page 235 15.4 Outputting the Context of a Search......Page 236 15.5 Searching and Replacing Text......Page 237 15.6.1 Searching Incrementally in Emacs......Page 238 15.6.3 Searching for a Regexp in Emacs......Page 239 15.7 Searching Text in Less......Page 240 16. Typesetting and Word Processing......Page 242 16.1 Choosing the Right Typesetting System for the Job......Page 243 16.2 Converting Plain Text for Output......Page 244 16.2.1 Outputting Text in a Font......Page 245 16.2.2 Outputting Text as a Poster or Sign......Page 246 16.2.3 Outputting Text with Language Highlighting......Page 247 16.2.4 Outputting Text with Fancy Headers......Page 249 16.2.7 Selecting the Pages of Text to Output......Page 250 16.2.8 Additional PostScript Output Options......Page 251 16.3 LyX Document Processing......Page 252 16.3.2 Writing Documents with LyX......Page 253 16.3.3 Learning More about LyX......Page 254 16.4 Typesetting with TeX and Friends......Page 256 16.4.2 Processing TeX Files......Page 257 16.4.3 Processing LaTeX Files......Page 258 16.4.4 Writing Documents with TeX and LaTeX......Page 259 16.4.5 TeX and LaTeX Document Templates......Page 260 16.5 Writing Documents with SGMLtools......Page 261 16.5.1 Elements of an SGML Document......Page 262 16.5.3 Generating Output from SGML......Page 263 16.6 Other Word Processors and Typesetting Systems......Page 264 17.1 X Fonts......Page 266 17.1.1 Selecting an X Font Name......Page 267 17.1.2 Listing Available X Fonts......Page 268 17.2 Console Fonts......Page 269 17.2.2 Displaying the Characters in a Console Font......Page 270 17.3.1 Horizontal Text Fonts......Page 271 17.3.2 Making a Text Banner......Page 272 17.4 Other Font Tools......Page 273 PART FOUR: Images......Page 274 18.1.1 Previewing a DVI File......Page 275 18.1.2 Previewing a PostScript File......Page 276 18.2 Viewing an Image in X......Page 277 18.2.2 Putting an Image in the Root Window......Page 280 18.3 Browsing Images in a Console......Page 281 18.5 Browsing PhotoCD Archives......Page 282 18.6 Additional Image Viewers......Page 283 19.1 Transforming Images......Page 284 19.1.1 Changing the Size of an Image......Page 285 19.1.3 Adjusting the Colors of an Image......Page 288 19.1.4 Annotating an Image......Page 290 19.1.5 Adding Borders to an Image......Page 291 19.1.7 Combining Images......Page 292 19.1.8 Morphing Two Images Together......Page 293 19.2 Converting Images between Formats......Page 294 19.3 Editing Images with the GIMP......Page 296 19.4 Interactive Image Editors and Tools......Page 297 20.1.1 Taking a Screen Shot in X......Page 299 20.1.2 Taking a Screen Shot in a Console......Page 300 20.2.1 Listing Available Scanner Devices......Page 301 20.2.3 Scanning an Image......Page 302 20.3 Extracting PhotoCD Images......Page 303 20.3.2 Removing PhotoCD Haze......Page 304 21. PostScript......Page 306 21.1.2 Extracting Pages from a PostScript File......Page 307 21.1.3 Combining PostScript Pages......Page 309 21.2 Manipulating PostScript Documents......Page 310 21.2.2 Combining PostScript Documents......Page 311 21.2.3 Arranging a PostScript Document in a Booklet......Page 312 21.3.2 Converting PostScript to Plain Text......Page 313 PART FIVE: Sound......Page 315 22.1 Sound File Formats......Page 316 22.2.1 Listing the Current Audio Settings......Page 317 22.2.2 Changing the Volume Level......Page 318 22.2.4 Selecting an Audio Recording Source......Page 319 22.3 Playing a Sound File......Page 320 22.3.2 Playing a MIDI File......Page 321 22.4 Recording a Sound File......Page 322 22.5 Other Sound File Tools......Page 323 23.1 Controlling CD Audio......Page 325 23.1.2 Pausing an Audio CD......Page 326 23.1.4 Shuffling Audio CD Tracks......Page 327 23.1.5 Displaying Information about an Audio CD......Page 328 23.2 Sampling Sound from a CD......Page 329 23.3 Writing an Audio CD-R......Page 330 23.4 Other Audio CD Applications......Page 332 24.1 Working with Selections from Sound Files......Page 333 24.1.2 Pasting a Selection of Sound......Page 334 24.2 Sound Effects......Page 335 24.2.1 Changing the Amplitude of a Sound File......Page 336 24.2.4 Adding Echo to a Sound File......Page 337 24.2.6 Adding Phase to a Sound File......Page 338 24.2.8 Adding Vibro-Champ Effects to a Sound File......Page 339 24.3 Converting Sound Files......Page 340 24.3.1 Making an MP3 File......Page 341 24.4 Other Tools for Sound Editing......Page 342 PART SIX: Productivity......Page 344 25.1 Listing a Disk's Free Space......Page 345 25.2 Listing a File's Disk Usage......Page 346 25.3 Floppy Disks......Page 347 25.3.2 Mounting a Floppy Disk......Page 348 25.4 CD-ROMs......Page 349 25.4.1 Mounting a CD-ROM......Page 350 25.4.2 Unmounting a CD-ROM......Page 351 26. Printing......Page 352 26.1.1 Sending a Print Job to the Printer......Page 353 26.1.3 Listing Your Print Jobs......Page 354 26.1.4 Cancelling a Print Job......Page 355 26.2.1 Printing in Emacs......Page 356 26.2.2 Printing with Dvips......Page 357 26.3 Preparing Files for Printing......Page 358 26.3.1 Preparing a PostScript File for Printing......Page 359 26.3.2 Preparing a DVI File for Printing......Page 360 26.3.3 Preparing a PDF File for Printing......Page 361 26.3.4 Preparing a Man Page for Printing......Page 362 27.1 Using DOS and Windows Disks......Page 363 27.1.2 Copying Files to and from a DOS Disk......Page 364 27.2 Using Macintosh Disks......Page 365 27.2.2 Listing the Contents of a Macintosh Disk......Page 366 27.2.4 Deleting Files on a Macintosh Disk......Page 367 27.2.5 Formatting a Macintosh Disk......Page 368 27.3 Converting Text Files between DOS and Linux......Page 369 27.4.1 Converting Word to LaTeX......Page 370 27.4.2 Converting Word to Plain Text......Page 371 28.1 Displaying the Date and Time......Page 372 28.2 Playing an Audible Time Announcement......Page 373 28.3.1 Displaying a Calendar......Page 374 28.4 Managing Appointments......Page 376 28.4.1 Making an Appointment File......Page 377 28.4.2 Including Holidays in Your Reminders......Page 378 28.4.3 Automatic Appointment Delivery......Page 379 28.5.1 Keeping a Free-Form Address List......Page 380 28.5.2 Keeping a Contact Manager Database......Page 382 28.6.1 Sending Yourself Email Reminders......Page 383 28.6.3 Running a Command on a Delay......Page 384 29.1.1 Making a Quick Arithmetic Calculation......Page 386 29.1.2 Making Many Arithmetic Calculations......Page 387 29.3 Listing a Sequence of Numbers......Page 389 29.4 Finding Prime Factors......Page 390 29.5.1 Converting an Amount between Units of Measurement......Page 391 29.6 Other Math Tools......Page 392 PART SEVEN: Networking......Page 394 30.1 Connecting to the Internet......Page 395 30.1.1 Setting Up PPP......Page 396 30.1.2 Controlling a PPP Connection......Page 397 30.2 Faxing......Page 398 30.2.1 Sending a Fax......Page 399 30.2.3 Receiving Faxes Automatically......Page 400 30.2.4 Converting to and from Fax Format......Page 401 30.3 Calling Out on a Modem......Page 402 31.1 Sending Mail......Page 404 31.1.1 Mailing a User on the Same System......Page 405 31.1.3 Mailing the Contents of a URL......Page 406 31.1.4 Special Mail Composition Keystrokes......Page 407 31.2 Receiving Mail......Page 408 31.2.1 Deleting Mail......Page 409 31.3 Managing Mail......Page 410 31.3.2 Setting Notification for New Mail......Page 411 31.3.4 Seeing Who Your Mail Is From......Page 413 31.4 Mail Attachments......Page 414 31.4.2 Sending a Mail Attachment......Page 415 31.5 Making an Email Signature......Page 416 31.6 Picking the Right Mail Application......Page 417 32.1 Browsing the Web......Page 419 32.1.1 Maintaining a List of Visited Web Sites......Page 421 32.1.3 Mozilla Browsing Tips......Page 422 32.3 Reading Text from the Web......Page 423 32.3.1 Perusing Text from the Web......Page 425 32.3.3 Options Available while Browsing Text......Page 426 32.4 Browsing the Web in Emacs......Page 427 32.5 Getting Files from the Web......Page 429 32.5.2 Archiving an Entire Web Site......Page 430 32.5.3 Archiving Part of a Web Site......Page 431 32.6 Writing HTML......Page 432 32.6.1 Adding Parameters to Image Tags......Page 433 32.6.2 Converting HTML to Another Format......Page 434 32.7 More Web Browsers and Tools......Page 435 33.1 Connecting to Another System......Page 437 33.1.2 Connecting to Another System with Encryption......Page 439 33.2 Transferring Files with Another System......Page 440 33.2.1 Uploading a File......Page 441 33.2.2 Downloading a File......Page 442 33.3 Reading Usenet......Page 443 33.3.1 Choosing a Newsreader......Page 444 33.4 Listing Online System and User Activity......Page 445 33.4.2 Checking Whether a User Is Online......Page 446 33.4.3 Listing Who Is Logged In to a System......Page 447 33.4.5 Finding the Host Name of an IP Address......Page 448 33.5 Sending a Message to Another User's Terminal......Page 449 33.6.1 Chatting Directly with a User......Page 451 33.6.2 Chatting with Users on IRC......Page 453 33.6.3 Chatting with Users on ICQ......Page 454 A.1 Linux and Hardware Compatibility......Page 455 A.2 Shutting Down the System......Page 456 A.2.2 Shutting Down at a Certain Time......Page 457 A.2.3 Cancelling a Shutdown......Page 458 A.3.2 Installing a Debian Package......Page 459 A.3.3 Upgrading a Debian Package......Page 460 A.3.4 Installing a Shell Script......Page 461 A.4 Administrating Users......Page 462 A.4.3 Letting Users Mount Drives......Page 463 A.5.1 How Long Has the System Been Up?......Page 464 A.5.2 What Version of Linux Am I Running?......Page 465 A.5.3 What Version of Debian Am I Running?......Page 466 B. Linux Resources on the Web......Page 467 C.1 Design Science License......Page 469 C.2 Applying Copyleft to Your Work......Page 472 (1)......Page 474 (2)......Page 494 (11)......Page 521 (21)......Page 522 (30)......Page 523 (39)......Page 524 Footnotes......Page 525 Table of Contents......Page 526 Short Table of Contents......Page 543 About this document......Page 544 Introduction -- What Every Linux User Knows -- The Shell -- The X Window System -- Files And Directories -- Sharing Files -- Finding Files -- Managing Files -- Viewing Text -- Text Editing -- Grammar And Reference -- Analyzing Text -- Formatting Text -- Searching Text -- Typesetting And Word Processing -- Fonts -- Viewing Images -- Editing Images -- Importing Images -- Postscript -- Sound Files -- Audio Compact Discs -- Editing Sound Files -- Disk Storage -- Printing -- Cross-platform Conversions -- Reminders -- Mathematics -- Communications -- Email -- The World Wide Web -- Other Internet Services. Michael Stutz. Includes Indexes. The Linux Cookbook shows Linux users at all levels how to perform a variety of everyday computer tasks such as: printing stationery; converting and managing files; editing and formatting text; working with digital audio; and creating and manipulating graphics. The quick-reference, "cookbook"-style format, includes step-by-step Linux "recipes."